E Bukura e Dheut

Also Known As: Albanian, the Beauty of the Earth, often Englished as the Earthly Beauty; la Belle de la Terre in French collections, die Schöne der Erde in German, la Bella della Terra among the Arbëreshë of Sicily
Region/Culture: Central and Eastern Europe
Mythos: Albanian Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Fairy Folk and Spirit Beings
Mythical Attributes: E Bukura e Dheut is the most beautiful woman on or under the earth, a golden-haired fairy whose magic sits in something she wears, a dress in some tales and a ring in others.
Role in Mythos: She is the prize at the end of the hero’s road in Albanian wonder tales, and in some traditions she is more than that, a power of the earth and the underworld set beside the Beauty of the Sea and the Beauty of the Sky.
Relation to Humans: A prince or a poor youth must travel to her palace, pass its guards and get the better of her before she will go with him. Once won she is a strong ally who can undo enchantments and expose a liar, though the tales say she is more often dangerous than kind.

She is asleep when he finds her. The room is quiet and the light in it seems to come from her hair. The youth has crossed half the world to reach this bed, has got past a lion and through the house of a dragon, and now he does the one thing he was told to do. He lifts her hand from the cover and draws the ring off her finger. She wakes at once. She looks at her bare hand, then at him, and she understands that she has lost.

That is how the Beauty of the Earth is won in one of the oldest Albanian tales in print, and it is a fair picture of her. She is a woman of great power, and all of it can be carried off in a pocket.

Her name says plainly what she is. E Bukura e Dheut means the Beauty of the Earth, and Albanian storytellers from the northern mountains to the villages of Sicily have used it for the loveliest woman a hero can go looking for. The tales give her golden hair and say that she is beauty itself, and then they stop. No teller describes her eyes, her height or her voice. What they do describe, with care, is where she lives and how hard it is to get in.

Her palace lies under the ground. A three-headed dog keeps the door, which will sound familiar to anyone who knows the Greek hound Cerberus. A kulshedra waits there too, the many-headed storm dragon of Albanian belief, and there are other creatures the tales do not trouble to name. In some versions she has a garden, with a lion and a lamb standing at the gate. On an ordinary day, if she has such a thing, she is at home among them, unseen by anyone living, with her flowers growing in a place the sun does not reach.

Nobody says how she came to be. She has no mother in the tales and no childhood. She has relatives, though. Albanian sets beside her the Beauty of the Sea and the Beauty of the Sky, and the last of these names is still used in the language as a word for God. Some Albanian writers have built on that. They argue that the three Beauties are what is left of an old division of the world into sky, sea and underworld, the same three shares that the Greeks gave to Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. On that reading she was once the ruler of the lower realm. A German reviewer in 1953 went so far as to call her the goddess of the underworld, of spring and of growth. In central Albania she is said to be the sister of the Beauty of the Sea and the companion of Baba Tomor, the bearded old father who is the mountain of Tomorr. The tales that people actually told do not go so far. In them she is a fairy.

The best-known story about her was taken down by the French consul Auguste Dozon and printed in Albanian in 1878, with a French version three years later. A king’s youngest wife bears him twins, a boy and a girl with stars on their foreheads and crescent moons on their breasts. Her two jealous sisters put the babies in a box, drop it in the river and tell the king she gave birth to a kitten and a mouse. A miller pulls the box from the water and brings the children up. When they are grown the sisters try again. They send an old woman to the girl to fill her with wants, and each want sends her brother off on a deadly errand: first the flower of the Beauty of the Earth, then her scarf, and at last the Beauty herself.

He goes. Three kulshedras live along the way, and the third knows the road. He feeds the lion and the lamb at her gate what each of them likes, and they let him by. He takes the flower, and later the scarf. For the last errand the dragon gives him the secret, which is that her strength is in her ring. So he takes it while she sleeps. Beaten, she follows him home. But she does not sulk there. At the king’s feast, when the wicked sisters have poisoned the food, she is the one who knows it, and she is the one who tells the king whose children are sitting at his table.

Other tellers change the details. In many tales her power lies in her dress, and a suitor who gets hold of the dress has got hold of her. In one version from the Albanians of North Macedonia she turns her visitors to stone, and brings them back to life once the hero has won her over. Sometimes she is no ruler at all but a prisoner, held under the earth by some dark creature until a prince comes down for her. She can be generous. She can also be a trap. The tales lean towards the trap.

She travelled with her people. Johann Georg von Hahn printed tales of her in 1864, and Maximilian Lambertz and Robert Elsie collected and translated more in the century that followed. Albanian speakers in Greece tell of her. So do the Arbëreshë of Sicily, whose forebears left the Balkans five hundred years ago and took her along.

What she can do is considerable. She knows hidden things, such as who a foundling’s father is and which dish has been poisoned. She can make stone of a living man and a living man of stone. In some tales she is always ready to help, and she does the kind of work that other storytellers would give to God or to an angel. Her house is guarded by monsters that answer to her.

And yet she can be robbed. That is her whole weakness, and every hero is told about it in advance. Her magic is not in her but on her, in a ring or a dress, and whoever takes that from her has taken everything. Her guards can be bought with a handful of grass and a dish of brains. She sleeps, and sleeps deeply. Once she is beaten she keeps the bargain without complaint and turns her gifts to her captor’s side, which is either a flaw in her or the most likeable thing about her.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is E Bukura e Dheut?

E Bukura e Dheut is a figure of Albanian folklore whose name means the Beauty of the Earth, or the Earthly Beauty. She is a golden-haired fairy of perfect beauty who lives in a guarded palace under the earth. In many Albanian folktales the hero must travel to find her and win her.

Where does E Bukura e Dheut live?

E Bukura e Dheut lives in a palace in the underworld. It is guarded by a three-headed dog, a kulshedra dragon and other creatures. In one well-known tale she also has a garden whose gate is kept by a lion and a lamb.

What are the powers of E Bukura e Dheut?

E Bukura e Dheut knows hidden truths, and in one version she can turn people to stone and bring them back to life. Her power is held in something she wears, a dress in many tales and a ring in the tale printed by Auguste Dozon in 1878. Anyone who takes that object from her defeats her.

Is E Bukura e Dheut good or evil?

E Bukura e Dheut can be either, and the tales make her dangerous more often than kind. Once a hero has won her, she usually helps him. In the tale of the twins with stars on their foreheads she warns of poisoned food and tells the king who his real children are.

Is E Bukura e Dheut a goddess?

In the folktales E Bukura e Dheut is a fairy, not a goddess. Some Albanian writers argue that she, the Beauty of the Sea and the Beauty of the Sky are the remains of an old division of the world into underworld, sea and sky. In central Albania she is called the sister of the Beauty of the Sea and the companion of Baba Tomor.