Oedipus: A Folklore Casebook

Oedipus Rex in Albania

Oedipus Rex in Albania Margaret Hasluck Although the Oedipus folktale appears to be fairly common in the Balkan region, this is the onlyAlbanian version ofwhich we are aware. The most unusualfeature ofthe tale is the setting oftheparricide in a carriage. While it strikingly resembles the corresponding episode in the Sophoclean account, the carriage element is extremely rare in oral tradition. In contrast, the occurrence ofa riddle based upon incestuous kinship relations is widespread(and appears,for example, in one of the Indic texts cited in "The Indian Oedipus" printed in this volume). For additional discussion of incest riddles, see Paul G. Brewster, The Incest Theme in Folksong, Folklore Fellows Communications 212 (Helsinki, 1972). Margaret Hasluck (1885-1948), a specialist in Balkan folklore, refers to F.J. Norton, "The Prisoner Who Saved His Neck with a Riddle," Folk-Lore, 53 (1942),27-57, as having stimulated her to report the Albanian Oedipus text. For further consideration of what folklorists term "neck riddles," see Roger D. Abrahams, Between the Living and the Dead, Folklore Fellows Communications 225 (Helsinki, 1980) and B.H. Fussell, "The 'Neck Riddle'and Dramatic Form, "New York Literary Forum, 5 (1980), 161-170. Reprinted from Folk-Lore, 60 (1949), 340-344, by permission of the Folklore Society. (The original article contained a fourth section, pp. 344--348, describing fairies in Albania, which has not been reprinted here.) 3 4 Margaret Hasluck I. Introduction Mr. F.J. Norton's interesting collection of incest-riddles in FolkLore , March 1942, pp. 27-57, recalls to my mind the following Albanian quatrain: Nina nina hir! I hiri i t' em hir! I hiri i s'em ref S' ati vjehe'rr i ke Ie! Hush thee, hush thee, son! Son of my son! Son of my daughter-in-law! Born to thy father-in-law! In Albanian folktale this quatrain is sung to her child by a woman as they both die by the hand of her elder son, whom she has unwittingly married. It is in fact the conclusion of the Oedipus story as told in Albania. The meaning ofthe first two lines requires no gloss, and that ofthe third little; as her elder son's wife the woman is daughter-in-law to his mother, that is to say, to herself. Consequently, the baby is her daughter-in-Iaw's child. The fourth line is extremely involved. As the mother of her married son, the woman is mother-in-law to his wife, again herself. As her husband, her elder son is father-in-law where she is mother-in-law, and since she is her own mother-in-law, he is her father-in-law. Consequently, the baby is the child of a man who is son, husband, and father-in-law to one and the same woman, and she again is her own daughter-in-law and her own mother-in-law. The quatrain, as we shall see presently, is a well-known riddle in Albania, but it is even commoner as a lullaby. The first two words, which vary from nina nina in North Albania to nani nani in the south, are of the international type represented, for example, by the nini, baba, nini ("sleep, child, sleep") of Hindustani and the nani nan; of Arabic. Mothers croon them over and over again until the repetition of the soft vowels and consonants-neena neena or nahnee nahnee as they are pronounced-sends the child to sleep. Most surprisingly, Albanian mothers often add a line or more from the Oedipus quatrain. For example in Mrs. Tajar Zavalani's native town, Fier in Central Albania, they commonly sing: Oedipus Rex in Albania Nani nani biri im! Vellaj i burrit t' em! Hush thee, hush thee, my son! Brother of my husband! Needless to say, they do not think what they are saying. 5 They know the story behind the words quite well, however. A sinister connotation deriving from the Oedipus legend attaches to the first two words, as Mrs. Zavalani further informs me. If a visitor inquires about a boy or young man who has gone wrong,his female relatives-possibly even one who has just sung her baby to sleep with the extraordinary couplet just quoted-answer with the first two words of the lullaby, without finishing the verse. So they give the inquirer to understand that he is a lost soul but that nevertheless they cannot pluck him from their hearts. The quatrain is also a favourite riddle...