Sardinia is a land of legends and mysteries. Every country church, every castle or monastery ruin, every village, every cussorgia (region or area), every cave, every cliff, every mountain... every valley has its own legend. Some legends cross and merge with fairy tales, mixing the fantastic with distant reminiscences of European legends, sagas, fairy tales, but the best part has a local explanation that clearly shows its character.
Some are long and frightening, others are short, vague, without a strong outline, but all have a kind of Southern and Mediterranean atmosphere. The protagonists are historical figures who mingle with devils, fairies, witches and janas; they are the giants who live in the nuraghes; they are the Saracens, the Pisans, the Genoese, the Spaniards, the judges (kings and queens) and the bishops who, at all times after the Roman domination, of which only the Sardinians, who remain so deeply Latin in their customs and language, hardly remember, have done good and evil to the island.
Grazia Deledda (Nuoro, 1871 - Rome, 1936) was the first Italian woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general".
She wrote a large collection of novels, short stories and essays on the legends and popular traditions of Sardinia.
Grazia Deledda is still considered the Voice of Sardinia.
