A Kleftic song of 1694

Abstract

A SO-FAR UNKNOWN folk song, noted down apparently at 1694, has recently come to light thanks to the research carried out by a doctor in Corfu, Mr. S. Tzilios, in the local notary archives and to his subsequent publication.
The song refers to a bandit named Nannos, known also from other (much later) versions of kleft ic songs, whose life however is relatively unknown in its details.
The discovery carries considerable signifi cance in many respects. First of all, it shows that this kind of folk song (i.e. kleftic songs) must have come to existence already by the end of the 17th century (or even before that); this fact militates against the view that I myself propounded in 1973, namely that the creation of kleftic songs must be linked to the new conditions established for bandits around the middle of the 18th century aft er the clashes betweeen Muslim and Christian “armatoli”; this view must now be revised. At the same time, it should be noted that no other kleftic songs seem to have been registered in Corfu, so this isolated example should be perhaps attributed to a wandering singer.