[2] Teodosije the Hilandarian (1246–1328) wrote that Stefan Nemanjić (r. 1196–1228) often entertained the Serbian nobility with musicians with drums and "gusle".

[1] In the 19th- and 20th century the instrument is mentioned in Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Albania where it is called Lahuta.

A guslar is an individual capable of reproducing and composing poems about heroes and historical events to the accompaniment of this instrument, usually in the decasyllable meter.

In a poem published in 1612, Kasper Miaskowski wrote that "the Serbian gusle and gaidas will overwhelm Shrove Tuesday" (Serbskie skrzypki i dudy ostatek zagluszą).

[5] In the idyll named Śpiewacy, published in 1663, Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic used the phrase "to sing to the Serbian gusle" (przy Serbskich gęślach śpiewać).

[7] The gusle has played a significant role in the history of Serbian epic poetry because of its association with the centuries-old patriotic oral legacy.

This poetry, which appeared in Karadžić's anthological collections, met the "expectations" of the sophisticated European audience, becoming a living confirmation of Herder's and Grimm's ideas about the oral tradition.

[8] Singing to the accompaniment of the gusle as a part of Serbia's tradition was inscribed in 2018 on the Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists of UNESCO.

Avdo Međedović, who was an ethnic Bosniak of Albanian origin,[11] was the most versatile and skillful guslar encountered by Milman Parry and Albert Lord during their research in the oral epic tradition of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro in the 1930s.

[citation needed] In carving the instrument, special attention is given to the head, so on Montenegrin gusle, one can find a large number of carved shapes; most often it is a double-headed eagle, like the one from the state heraldry, the shape of the mountain Lovcen, or the characters from the Montenegrin history, such as Petar II Petrović Njegoš.

Perhaps the most famous Croatian guslar poets was Andrija Kačić Miošić, an 18th-century monk who created and collected many gusle lyrics and songs throughout the regions, which are still sung today.

[citation needed] Although gusle are not a part of mainstream popular music, the instrument has been included into songs by some musicians such as Marko Perković Thompson, Mate Bulić and Dario Plevnik.

Gusle recordings can be heard on a number of CD compilations published by Croatian ethnologists, which are in most cases distributed locally by the artists themselves.

The Old Slavic root morpheme gǫdsli (Russian gúsli, slovak husle, Czech housle, Slovenian gósli) is associated with guditi/gósti, or gudalo/godalo, related to onomatopoeia for a low resonating sound; cf.

In the parlance of the South Slavs, in addition to the feminine plurale tantum "gusle" that has prevailed as a lexeme, even the older "gusli", which is found in the area of the middle Drina River region to Arilje and throughout Montenegro.

The singular form "gusla" is found only in Eastern Serbia, west of the Timok, around Niš, Ivanjica, as well as in the area of the Zlatibor.