The Highland Lute (Albanian: Lahuta e Malcís, original and standard language of the time based on Gheg Albanian) is the Albanian national epic poem, completed and published by the Albanian friar and poet Gjergj Fishta in 1937. It consists of 30 songs and over 17,000 verses.The Lahuta e Malcís was heavily inspired by northern Albanian oral verse composed by the traditional cycle of epic songs and by the cycles of historical verse of the 18th century. It contains elements of Albanian mythology and south Slavic literary influences: Fishta was influenced by Croatian Franciscan friars as a student in monasteries in Austria-Hungary. In the poem the struggle against the Ottoman Empire became secondary and as a central theme substituted with fighting Slavs (Serbs and Montenegrins), whom he saw as more harmful after the recent massacres and expulsions of Albanians by them. The work was banned in Yugoslavia and Communist Albania due to anti-Slavic rhetoric. The work was described as "chauvinist" and "anti-Slavic" in the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia (1950), while Fishta was called "a spy who called for a fight against Slavs".The English translation of The Highland Lute was published in 2005 by Canadian Albanologists Robert Elsie and Janice Mathie-Heck (ISBN 978-1845111182). Source: Wikipedia (en)