“It is clear that the fictional worlds are plural, liquid and intermingling. We find narration, central characters, imagination and also local or tribal beliefs and superstition. We find historical facts gasping for air from under the mounds of imagination. Yet, above them is a magical world where things do not follow rules of cause-and-effect and therefore lie outside the logic of our daily lives.”
— Muhammad Haji Salleh,
from “Hang Tuah in the Sea of Oral Malay Narratives”