Avdo Međedović

Avdo Međedović (Albanian: Avdullah Ferizi[1])(c. 1875 – 1955) was a guslar (gusle player and oral poet) from Sandžak, modern-day Montenegro.[2] He was the most versatile and skillful performer of all those encountered by Milman Parry and Albert Lord during their research on the oral epic tradition of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro in the 1930s.[3] At Parry's request, Avdo sang songs he already knew and some songs he heard in front of Parry, convincing him that someone Homer-like could produce a poem so long. Avdo dictated, over five days, a version of the well-known theme The Wedding of Meho Smailagić that was 12,323 lines long, saying on the fifth day to Nikola (Parry's assistant on the journey) that he knew even longer songs. On another occasion, he sang over several days an epic of 13,331 lines. He said he had several others of similar length in his repertoire. In Parry's first tour, over 80,000 lines were transcribed.[4]

Avdo Međedović
Bornc. 1875
Bijelo Polje, Sanjak of Novi Pazar, Ottoman Empire
Died1953 (aged 78)
Bijelo Polje, SR Montenegro, Yugoslavia
Occupationguslar (gusle player and oral poet)
GenreEpic poetry

Many years afterward The Wedding was published in 1974 by Lord with a parallel English translation.[5] Avdo Međedović died in 1955 in post-war Yugoslavia. Albert Lord wrote after his death that "it may well be that he was the last of the truly great epic singers of the Balkan Slavic tradition".[6]

Early life

Međedović was a Slavic speaking Muslim of Albanian origin,[7][8] born in the town of Bijelo Polje (now in Montenegro)[9][10] in 1875, while it was a part of the Ottoman Empire. He worked as a butcher.

Works
  • Ženidba Smailagić Meha (The Wedding of Meho Smailagić, 1935)
  • Ženidba Vlahinjić Alije (The wedding of Vlahinjić Alija,1935)
  • Junaštvo Đerzelez Alije (The herosim of Đerzelez Alija,1935)
  • Bećiragić Meho ('Bećiragić Meho)

References
  1. Neziri, Zymer Ujkan (2020). Lahutarët e Sanxhakut të Pazarit të R. Instituti Albanologjik, Prishtinë. p. 69.
  2. "Crnogorci ljube lance". SlobodnaEvropa. 18 February 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  3. "4. Avdo Međedović, Guslar".
  4. Video on YouTube
  5. "Povratak "Homera sa Obrova"". danas. 25 March 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  6. Lord 1956, p. 320
  7. Plewa, Resic, Barbara T, Sanimir (2002). The Balkans in Focus Cultural Boundaries in Europe. University of Michigan: Nordic Academic Press. p. 72.
  8. Dushi, Arbnora (2003). "The Albanian Oral Tradition in Kosova". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. "Trebješki je Višnjić naših dana". dan. 10 February 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  10. "Zaslužujemo bogat kulturni život". danas. 4 August 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2013.

Sources
  • Lord, Albert (1956). "Avdo Međedović, Guslar". The Journal of American Folklore. 69 (273): 320–330. doi:10.2307/537148. JSTOR 537148.
  • Lord, Albert Bates (1960), The singer of tales, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
  • Avdo Međedović, The wedding of Smailagić Meho tr. Albert Bates Lord; with a translation of conversations [with Nikola Vujnović] concerning the singer's life and times, by David E. Bynum. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1974.
  • Parry, Milman (1971), Parry, Adam (ed.), The making of Homeric verse. The collected papers of Milman Parry, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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