The Twins (Albanian tale)

"The Twins" (Albanian: Binoshët; Italian: I Gemelli) is an Albanian folk tale firstly recorded by Arbëreshë folklorist Giuseppe Schirò in Piana degli Albanesi and published in his 1923 book, Canti tradizionali ed altri saggi delle colonie albanesi di Sicilia, in Albanian and Italian. American journalist George Post Wheeler published an English translation of a similar tale from Albania in his 1936 book, Albanian Wonder Tales, entitling his version "The Boy who was Brother to the Drague", with the same twin protagonists but also including a drangue as a blood brother of one of the twins.

The tale is Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index type 303, "The Twins or Blood Brothers," and includes ATU type 300 ("The Dragon Slayer"). In The Folktale (1946), Stith Thompson indicated four Albanian reported versions of "The Twins or Blood Brothers".

Gerlando Bennici recorded and published a shorter variant in Albanian and Italian, I due gemelli fatati, by Giuseppe Pitrè in his 1875 Fiabe, novelle e racconti popolari siciliani. This version does not include the ATU 300 "dragon slayer" type.

"The Twins" includes common Albanian mythological figures such as the ora, zana, kulshedra, shtriga, and e Bukura e Dheut ("the Earthly Beauty"). The story also features the traditional Albanian motif of the "pair of heroic brothers", one of the main themes in the Albanian epic cycle of the Kângë Kreshnikësh (Songs of Heroes). The protagonists are twins Zjerma (Zjermi in Wheeler's version) and Handa; one is born with the Sun (Dielli) on his forehead, and the other has the Moon (Hëna). After their father dies, they decide to travel the world with their two horses and two dogs in search of glory and riches.