Forty legends from Gozo : stories of bygone times

Abstract

FORTY LEGENDS FROM Gozo was first published in 1991 and a German translation - VIERZIG LEGENDEN VON Gozo - the following year. Both were very well received and have long been out of print. Hence the decision of this second edition. The legends are grouped in three sections: General Stories including several aetiological narratives that purport to explain a cause such as the origin of place names, certain folk beliefs, and other local customs [ 1 to 14]; Slavery stories-related especially to the period from the early thirteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century when Barbary corsairs and other Mediterranean warriors landed on the island and abducted Gozitans to trade them on the prosperous slave market [15 to 27]; and Religious stories - those that cropped up from the religious belief of the folk and are mostly related to the shrines that dot the island [28 to 40]. The legends are here retold in English freely translated from the original Maltese narrative and each is preceded by a short introduction to help the foreign reader understand the story better. Several legends were published for the first time in the first .edition. The contents of the second collection of legends FORTY · MORE LEGENDS FROM Gozo is reproduced on the opposite page, a map of Gozo pointing out the places where the stories are supposed to have taken place follows overleaf, and a list of sources is on page seven. A legend is defined as an unauthenticated story preserved by tradition and popularly thought to be historical. It must be stated in conclusion that some of these legends do portray many a historical fact.