The Building of Skadar

[4] Jovan Tomić concluded that this song was created in the region near Skadar (now Shkodër), such as upper Albania, Montenegro, or the southwest part of Herzegovina where the tradition of the Mrnjavčević family was strong.

[8] This song was published for the first time in 1815 in a version recorded by Vuk Karadžić from the singing of a Herzegovinian storyteller named Old Rashko.

[9] In 1824, Vuk Karadžić sent a copy of his folksong collection to Jacob Grimm, who was particularly enthralled by The Building of Skadar.

[9] [10] Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published the German translation, but did not share Grimm's opinion because he found the poem's spirit "superstitiously barbaric".

Vuk claims that people even avoided the building sites because they were afraid their shadow could be walled-up and they could die without it.