An interesting story hidden under the name of Prokletije Mountains

Prokletije Mountains are one of the most impressive mountain range in the Balkans. Their name translated means ‘’Accursed Mountains’’ (proklet = cursed) and here is an interesting story hidden under their name. Find out why and how they got called like this in the legend that follows:

Once upon a time, in a small house at the foot of this mountain massif husband and his wife lived happily. In this modest, wooden house, they got three sons. As they lived in a wild area, they were poor and the father went hunting almost every day in order to provide at least some food for his family. He often took children with him and taught them hunting skills useful for surviving in the wilderness they lived in. During this time, the mother was worried for her sons and always looking forward to see them coming back.

After the death of the father, things did not change so much. Mother lived her life as before, only waiting for her sons to come back from hunting. Her days were all the same. Once, while hunting, her sons saw a fairy so fascinating that they felt like hypnotized with her beauty. Suddenly, brothers started arguing who saw her first, who is the most handsome among them and to whom should fairy belong. This fight unfortunately, ended tragically as all three brothers died.

The fairy watched everything from a nearby hill. She knew that they were fighting because of her, but neither she could help them deciding which brother would she take as they all were very good-looking. She was hoping that the brothers will agree, whose wife she should be. When the fairy saw that the brothers had been killed, she ran away behind one of the peaks of this mountain massif.

For a few days they did not return home. The mother was worried about the sons who had never been hunting for so long. She was looking for them around the mountains and after a while, finally saw them, lying dead over each other. Her wailing and crying, as she buried her sons, echoed among the peaks of the surrounding mountains. Suddenly, the fairy appeared and told her that her sons were killed each other because of her beauty. After that she was lost in the fog that surrounded the peaks of this mountain. Mother, devastated in pain, angrily cursed the fairy yelling at her: "I curse you! I curse you! I curse you"! (MNE: Prokletijo!). Mother’s voice echoed from one mountain peak to the other and so, according to the legend, this mountain massif, was named Prokletije or in English ‘’Accursed Mountains’’.