https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/29317 Sat, 11 Apr 2026 06:12:10 GMT 2026-04-11T06:12:10Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/27888 Title: The three stolen princesses (AT 301) : a Maltese Marchen within the Mediterranean tradition area Abstract: Maltese folktales have been neglected over the years, only a very few people were interested to read or listen to them. The apparent vacuum is constantly attempted to be filled by a sudden wave of translation of (literary) texts from other countries. In this respect, the present situation is similar to that of the last century and the first half of the twentieth when Gan Anton Vassallo, Annibale Preca and, to a lesser extent, Temi Zammit, literated in metrical form well-known international fables in Maltese, largely Aesopian, with the ethical and moral teaching mostly at the very end of the poems. With the notable exception of Johannes Bolte and Felix Karlinger, the Maltese folktale has hardly ever been scientifically studied as the folktales of other countries. Regarding foreign scholars, the language barrier is obviously the greatest obstacle of all. Regarding the system adopted in analysing 'The Three Stolen Princesses', or better 'Is-Serp tas-Seba' Rjus' (the Seven-Headed Serpent) in Maltese, the author has made use of Eberhard/Borarav's motif classification in their Typen Turkischer Volksmiirchen (Wiesbaden, 1953) though abiding by the Aarne/Thompson Type number. A similar scientific merger has already proven successful in Sebastiano Lo Nigro's Racconti popolari siciliani (Firenze, 1957). In this way, variants are given their full weight in the tale history. Mon, 01 Jan 1979 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/27888 1979-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/27887 Title: Momenti fondamentali dell'itinerario Leopardiano di Karmenu Vassallo Abstract: In this article, Oliver Friggieri gives an overview of Karmenu Vassallo's works. In fact, Oliver Friggieri focuses on the fundamental moments of Karmenu Vassallo's Leopardian itenary. The poet himself outlines the fundamental causes that led him towards his black pessimism in poetry. Mon, 01 Jan 1979 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/27887 1979-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/27886 Title: The Mediterranean Islands as places of synthesis between Arab culture and European cultures Abstract: Since the earliest times the Mediterranean h as been the meeting place of different, often diverse and rival cultures. S. Moscati has shown that recent archaeological research in the central Mediterranean area bounded by Tunisia to the South and Italy to the North revealed that certain islands, such as Malta, Sicily (Motya) and Sardinia, played an important role in a process of cultural interaction in ancient Mediterranean history. These islands served as crossroads where ancient cultures met or followed one another in time. Sometimes, as in the case of Malta, a succession of civilizations imposed themselves on previous ones over a period of some three thousand years, the component elements being prehistoric, Phoenician-Punic, Hellenistic-Roman and Christian. It is evident, therefore, that these islands have been the scene of cultural synthesis well before the emergence of the Arabs as a power in the Mediterranean. Therefore, the theme of the article concerns the interplay and fusion, in the Mediterranean islands, of the Arab culture and the European cultures. Description: Working Paper, with particular reference to Malta, discussed at the Conference on the same theme held at the Grand Hotel Verdala (11-14 September, 1978) on the joint initiative of the Tunisian and Maltese National Commissions for UNESCO. Mon, 01 Jan 1979 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/27886 1979-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/27884 Title: Late Medieval Judaeo-Arabic poetry in Vatican MS. 411 : links with Maltese and Sicilian Arabic Abstract: Several late Medieval poems written in a pointed Judeo-Arabic text were found in the Vatican by Godfrey Wettinger. Though these poems had already been published as far back as 1949, in Malta these poems had remained unnoticed. The author is now trying to decipher the language that the poems have been written in and figuring out its morphology and vocabulary. In other words, whether the poems are of Maltese or Sicilian origin. Mon, 01 Jan 1979 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/27884 1979-01-01T00:00:00Z