ZanaEMalit image - Polytheism

The zana appear in many folktales and in the Albanian oral tradition . A zana appears , for example in the Albanian folktale The Lover's Grave . She appears to a young army captain , Bedri , who prostrates himself at her feet and must be reassured that she means him no harm . On the contrary she warns Bedri to beware a wooden beam and a doe and that he is not safe when he is "at the root" . Bedri goes on to meet a beautiful woman , with whom he elopes , pursued by soldiers who know from his pronunciation of the word for "wooden beam" that he comes from an area with which they are at war . Bedri learns that his beloved's name is Dre , meaning doe and the soldiers capture and kill the couple outside the town of Nderendje - the name of which means "at the root" . They are comparable with the Valkyries of the Nordic mythology and other branches of Balkan and European folkore like that of the Romanian zina and southern Slav vila