Elegy for Kosovo

This section centers on Kadare's telling of the Battle of Kosovo, and the Balkan defeat. Serbian Prince Lazar leads the Balkan army, a group of alliances and scattered nationalities brought together by the King's strategical diplomacy.[3] The united Balkan army faces the Ottoman Empire, intent on invading and conquering Kosovo. The night before the battle, the many Balkan princes gather together to hear their respective minstrels sing traditional epic poetry that details the history of each nation. The princes laugh at the minstrels, who sing about past wars against each other. Serbian minstrels, for instance, sing "“Serbs, to arms! The Albanians are taking Kosovo from us!” while the Albanian minstrels sing “A black fog has descended – Albanians, to arms, Kosovo is falling to the damned Serb.”[1]

The next day, the Balkan army is defeated by the Ottoman Turks, although the Ottoman Sultan Murad I is killed in the battle. Prince Lazar is captured by the Ottomans.[1]

This section portrays the aftermath of the Balkan defeat, through the perspective of two minstrels, one Albanian (Gjorg) and one Serbian (Vladan), forced to leave the battlefield together with the rest of the minstrels who had been at the battle. Despite the past conflict between Albania and Serbia, the two must unite and come to terms with the breakdown of the Balkan states. Both seem to be aware that failure to unite in the face of a common enemy was the cause of the Balkans' defeat.[2]

The lost battle weighs heavily on both minstrels, Vladan even throwing away his gusla in despair. In their journey, the minstrels pick up a group of Hungarian fugitives, on the run from the battle. The fugitives ask the minstrels what it was like to sing for the many princes before the battle, and the minstrels respond that their divisive songs garnered laughs. As Hungarians, the fugitives do not understand the immense conflict between Albania and Serbia, and the reasons for this laughter. In a gesture of unity, Gjorg allows Vladan to play his lahuta, the Albanian version of a gusla, having lost his own instrument.[1]

One fugitive with the group turns out to be a Turk, who only wishes to convert to Christianity, without fully renouncing his Islamic faith. For attempting to have two faiths, the man is burned at the stake.[1]

One day, Gjorg, Vladan, and Manolo are invited to a castle whose lord wishes to hear them sing. Upon hearing their songs, still calling for war against each other, the lord denounces them. But one old lady begs that the guests do not insult the minstrels and instead asks that they tell the room a story, which she enjoys very much. The next morning, she is found dead and the minstrels are asked to sing at her funeral.[1]

The final section is told from the point of view of Sultan Murad I, as he lies dead in his grave on the Field of the Blackbirds where the Battle of Kosovo took place. He curses the Balkans for forcing him to rest on their land, rather than the land he calls home. As the centuries pass, the Sultan notes that rather than attempting to unite and "build something together" the Albanians and Serbians continue to wage wars over Kosovo.[1]