Baloz is a term in Albania

Albania

Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

n folklore especially within the Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors

Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors

Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors are part of the traditional cycle of the Albanian epic songs. They took their definite form in 17th and 18th century and were orally transmitted by the Albanian bards. The songs were first time recorded in written form in the first decades of the 20th...

, that refers to a barbarian

Barbarian

Barbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...

 knight coming from the north. Mostly of Slavic

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

 origin, in the medieval times they used to continuously slaughter the villagers, burn the villages and devastate land.

Literally, the word seems to have originated from the Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

 word "balyoz" meaning "hammer", probably due to the hammers of war the baloz carried.

Baloz (as a character) has been found in many Albanian myths and legends about fighting against the Albanian nobles such as: Muji, Halili, Gjergj Elez Alia

Gjergj Elez Alia

Gjergj Elez Alia is popular legendary hero of poetry and literature in Bosnia and Albania. Muslims from Bosnian Krajina modeled the poetic image of Djerzelez Alija after the image of Christian Prince Marko, based on the historic person Ali Bey Mihaloğlu...

 and Constantin

Constantin and Doruntinë

Constantin and Doruntine , or Constantin's Besa , is an Albanian ballad and legend. It is also narrated in a prose versionThe legend has been narrated also:...

.

Detailed descriptions have been found in a collection of Albanian myths named Ancient Albanian Tales collected and rewritten by Dhimitër Pasko.

See also

• Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors
  Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors
  Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors are part of the traditional cycle of the Albanian epic songs. They took their definite form in 17th and 18th century and were orally transmitted by the Albanian bards. The songs were first time recorded in written form in the first decades of the 20th...
  
  
• Gjergj Elez Alia
  Gjergj Elez Alia
  Gjergj Elez Alia is popular legendary hero of poetry and literature in Bosnia and Albania. Muslims from Bosnian Krajina modeled the poetic image of Djerzelez Alija after the image of Christian Prince Marko, based on the historic person Ali Bey Mihaloğlu...
  
  
• Albanian mythology