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The Maiden who was Promised to the
Sun
Once upon a time there was a queen
who had no children. She prayed to the sun and begged it to give
her at least a daughter. She promised that when the child turned
twelve, she would give it to the sun. Soon after this, the queen
gave birth to a girl. One morning, as the maiden was on her way
to school, the sun said to her, "Tell your mother to give
me the thing she promised me." The maiden went  home and told her mother what the sun
had said. The mother replied, "Tell the sun that the thing
I promised him is still too small." This the maiden told
to the sun the next time she was on her way to school.
But one day, after the maiden's twelfth
birthday, the sun abducted her and took her home with him. The
mother waited and waited, and when the maiden did not return,
she knew that the sun had taken her away in fulfilment of her
promise. She had the whole house painted black, locked the door,
and would not open it anymore. She sat inside all by herself
weeping and lamenting.
In the house of the sun lived a Kulshedra.
When the Kulshedra saw the maiden, it exclaimed, "She smells
like a child of royalty!" But the sun replied, "She
is my child, so don't you touch her." One day the sun sent
the maiden into the garden to fetch a head of cabbage. Breaking
off the head of cabbage, the girl thought to herself, "My
mother's heart has been broken, just like this cabbage,"
and she began to cry. At the sight of her tears, the sun asked,
"Why in heaven's name are you weeping? Is it because you
miss your mother?" The maiden replied that she missed her
terribly and the sun declared, "Well, if you really want
to go home, you must summon an animal to take you." When
the maiden began calling for an animal, the sun summoned the
Kulshedra for her and asked, "If you were hungry, what would
you eat?" "I'd eat her," said the Kulshedra. "And
if you were thirsty, what would you drink?" "I'd drink
her blood." The sun realized that the Kulshedra was not
the right animal to take the maiden home and told her to summon
a stag. "Will you take this maiden back home to her house?"
asked the sun. "Yes, I will." "If you were hungry,
what would you eat?" "I'd eat some fresh grass."
"And if you were thirsty, what would you drink?" "I'd
drink some cold water," replied the stag. "But if I
take the maiden home, her mother must bring me three okas of
fresh hay."
The stag then carried the maiden home
on its antlers. On the way, the stag became hungry and said to
the maiden, "Climb up into the tree over there. If anyone
tells you to climb down, don't do it until I get back."
The maiden did as she was told and climbed into the tree.
A Kulshedra happened by and, looking
around, it spotted the maiden in the tree. "Come on down,"
it said, "so that we can talk." The maiden replied,
"No, I won't come down, because I'm afraid you will to eat
me." "I won't eat you," the Kulshedra assured
her, but the maiden retorted, "You run home first and I'll
climb down when you return." So the Kulshedra departed.
The stag returned and the maiden, who
saw the Kulshedra coming back, cried out, "Come quickly!
There's a Kulshedra on its way to devour me." The stag took
the maiden on its antlers, galloped off and told everyone it
met on the way, "If you see a Kulshedra, don't tell it which
road we've taken. Tell it that the maiden and the stag have taken
another road."
And so they arrived safe and sound at
the mother's palace and knocked at her door. When no one opened
the door, the maiden knocked again and cried out, "Mother,
open the door. It's me, your daughter!" Upon this the mother
opened the door and was overjoyed to see her daughter again.
When the friends of the queen's daughter
heard that the maiden was back, they went to her mother and asked
her to let the girl come out to play. They all went off to a
garden with a big gate that would not open. The girls pressed
with all their might against the door, but they could not open
it. The queen's daughter tried too. She took a run and the moment
she touched the door it opened and let her pass, but then it
immediately closed again behind her. When the other girls saw
that the door would not open again and that the queen's daughter
was shut inside, they went back to the maiden's mother and told
her sorrowfully what had happened. On hearing this, the queen
began to weep and was not to be consoled.
Behind the door, the maiden discovered
a garden full of people and animals that had been turned to marble.
Among them was a marble king holding a scroll in his hand that
said: "I will marry any girl who can spend three days, three
nights and three weeks without sleep, for she will bring me back
to life." So the maiden sat down with a book and began to
read. Three days, three nights and three weeks passed.
One day a merchant happened by with maidservants
for sale. The maiden went to the window and asked how much a
servant cost. "As much as you wish to give me," replied
the merchant. She scooped up a handful of gold coins and tossed
them down to him. Then she lowered a rope for the servant to
cling to, and heaved her up. She told the servant, "You
musn't sleep for two or three nights so that I can have some
rest. As you can see from the scroll the king is holding, I haven't
slept for a long time. When the king comes back to life, you
must wake me up." She explained to the servant what was
written on the king's scroll, and then she lay down and went
to sleep.
The servant, however, dressed in the
maiden's clothes so that the king would marry her instead. When
three weeks were up, the king came to life and asked the servant,
"Who are you?" "I am the one who has spent three
days, three nights and three weeks without sleep," she replied.
And so he made her his wife. "Who is that maiden sleeping
over there?" he asked her. "Oh, that is my servant.
I brought her along because I was frightened." When the
maiden woke up, the king asked his wife, "What shall we
do with the servant?" On hearing this, the maiden replied,
"Let me tend the geese." So the king made the maiden
his goose girl and she built herself a hut in which to live in.
The maiden sat in her hut weeping and recounting her tale of
woe.
But the king happened to hear her and
came to ask why she was weeping. She told him everything that
had happened, and the king made her his wife and had the servant
executed and chopped into a thousand pieces.
[Source: Manuel de la
langue chkipe ou albanaise par Auguste Dozon, consul de France.
Grammaire, vocabulaire, chrestomathie (Paris: Ernest Leroux,
1879), reprinted in Folklor shqiptar 1, Proza popullore
(Tirana 1963). Translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie.]
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Albanian Literature in Translation
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