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    ROUMANIAN FAIRY TALES - 15 Classic Romanian Fairy Tales
    ROUMANIAN FAIRY TALES - 15 Classic Romanian Fairy Tales
    ROUMANIAN FAIRY TALES - 15 Classic Romanian Fairy Tales
    Ebook138 pages1 hour

    ROUMANIAN FAIRY TALES - 15 Classic Romanian Fairy Tales

    By Anon E. Mouse and Translated by E.B. Mawr

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    About this ebook

    Roumanian Fairy Tales & Legends is a collection of fifteen of Romania’s most fascinating tales, painstakingly researched and deftly translated by E.B. Mawer - and NO, we havent mis-spelt the title, for thats the way Romania was spelled in the late 1800's.
     
    Given Romania’s long and diverse cultural history, it is no surprise that the country has such a rich tapestry of folk tales, fairy tales, and legends. It is also fortunate that so many of these stories survived the country’s turbulent history and were passed down throughout the ages to countless Romanian children.
     
    In approximately 82 BC, the rule of the Dacian kings was replaced by the Romans, who were forced out by the Goths, who, in turn, were supplanted in the 4th century AD by the Huns. After this, a sequence of nomadic rulers, including the Gepids, the Avars, the Bulgars, the Pechenegs, and the Cumans, ruled the area.
     
    In the Middle Ages, Romanians lived in three distinct principalities: Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania, which were later ruled by the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. In 1859, Moldavia and Wallachia united under Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, but it was not until the end of WWI, in 1918, that Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania proclaimed unions with the Kingdom of Romania and the modern state of Romania was born.
     
    10% of the publisher’s profits from the sale of this book will be donated to charities by the publisher.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbela Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2018
    ISBN9788827544006
    ROUMANIAN FAIRY TALES - 15 Classic Romanian Fairy Tales

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      Book preview

      ROUMANIAN FAIRY TALES - 15 Classic Romanian Fairy Tales - Anon E. Mouse

      Roumanian Fairy Tales

      And

      Legends

      translated by

      Mrs. E. B. Mawr

      Originally published by

      H. K. LEWIS, London

      [1881]

      Resurrected by

      Abela Publishing, London

      [2017]

      Roumanian Fairy Tales and Legends

      Typographical arrangement of this edition

      © Abela Publishing 2017

      This book may not be reproduced in its current format in any manner in any media, or transmitted by any means whatsoever, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, or mechanical ( including photocopy, file or video recording, internet web sites, blogs, wikis, or any other information storage and retrieval system) except as permitted by law without the prior written permission of the publisher.

      Abela Publishing,

      London

      United Kingdom

      2009

      ISBN-13: 978-X-XXXXXX-XX-X

      email [email protected]

      Frontis: Watercolour of

      Vlad the Impaler’s Castle at Poinarii

      Dedicated by Permission

      TO HER MAJESTY

      QUEEN ELIZABETH

      OF

      ROUMANIA

      Preface

      THE literature of Roumania is so little known in England, that I have ventured to translate, and bring before the public, some of the popular Basme (tales) and legends of the country.

      I have kept to the original text as strictly as possible, but some of the idioms are untranslatable.

      Of the Poets, I have given no specimen, though there are many of recognised talent.

      A volume of Roumanian poems has just been put into the German tongue, by the August Lady who permits me to dedicate this small effort to her, and who is the patron of every good work.

      By its bravery, and its stedfast perseverance in its onward path, ROUMANIA has raised itself into a KINGDOM; and I have thought it well to insert in this little book The Martyrdom of Brancovan, and the Spartan courage of the Mother of Stefan the Great, to shew of what blood the true sons and daughters of Roumania are made.

      E. B. M.

      BUCHAREST

      April, 1881

      Publisher’s Note

      Due to its tumultuous background, Romania is a country rich in cultural history. In approximately 82 BC, the rule of the Dacian kings was replaced by the Romans, who were forced out by the Goths, who, in turn, were supplanted in the 4th century AD by the Huns. After this, a sequence of nomadic rulers, including the Gepids, the Avars, the Bulgars, the Pechenegs, and the Cumans, ruled the area.

      Given Romania’s long and diverse cultural history, it is no surprise that the country has such a rich tapestry of folk tales, fairy tales, and legends. It is fortunate that so many of these stories survived the country’s turbulent history and were passed down throughout the ages to countless Romanian children.

      Roumanian Fairy Tales & Legends is a collection of seventeen of Romania’s most fascinating tales, painstakingly researched and deftly translated by E.B. Mawr. 

      A percentage of the sales from this book will be donated to support the under-privileged people of Romania in their fight against poverty and discrimination.

      John Halsted

      Abela Publishing

      Contents

      FAIRY TALES.

          THE SLIPPERS OF THE TWELVE PRINCESSES.

          THE UNGRATEFUL WOOD-CUTTER.

          THE HERMIT'S FOUNDLING WITH THE GOLDEN HAIR.

          THE DAUGHTER OF THE ROSE.

          THE TWELVE-HEADED GRIFFIN.

          VASILICA THE BRAVE.

          HANDSOME IS AS HANDSOME DOES.

          THE FISHERMAN AND THE BOYARD'S DAUGHTER.

      LEGENDS.

          MANOLI.

          THE FORTRESS OF POINARII.

          THE GENTLE SHEPHERD.

      HISTORIC TALES.

          DEATH OF CONSTANTIN II. BRANCOVAN

          THE MOTHER OF STEPHEN THE GREAT.

      FAIRY TALES.

      THE SLIPPERS OF THE TWELVE PRINCESSES.

      I.

      ONCE on a time, in the good old times, there lived a cow-herd, who had neither father nor mother. He was called Jonica, that is to say Johnnie, but people had given him the name of Gura Casca (open mouth) because when he led his cows to pasture, he bellowed at every thing which he met on the way. Otherwise he was really a very pretty boy, his face was fair, and his eyes as blue as a morsel of the sky, with hair curling, and as yellow as the rays of the Sun. The young girls of the village teased him sadly. Hé! Hé! Jonica, where are you going with your open mouth? What does that matter to you? he would reply tranquilly, and pass on his way. Though only a cow-herd, he was sufficiently proud of his good looks, and he knew quite well the difference between beauty and ugliness, so the young peasant girls with their faces and throats tanned by the sun, their large hands red and cracked, their feet shod in opinci (a rough sort of sandal) or other common leather, were not at all to his mind.

      He had heard tell, that, down there, a long way off, in the towns, the young girls were quite different; that they had throats as white as alabaster, pink cheeks, delicate and soft hands, their small feet covered by satin slippers, that in short they were clad in robes of silk and gold, and were called Princesses. So that, while his comrades only sought to please some rustic villager, he dreamed, neither more nor less, that he should marry a Princess.

      II.

      One noon-day in the middle of August, when the sun was so scorching that even the flies did not know where to put themselves, Jonica sat down under the shadow of an oak to eat his mammaliga (thick Indian meal porridge) and a morsel of sheep's milk cheese; seeing that his flock was lying peaceably about, he stretched himself at fall length, and was soon asleep.

      He had a charming dream! a Zina, a fairy, appeared to him, beautiful as the day, fresh as a rose,

      JONICA'S DREAM

      and clad in a robe sparkling with diamonds. She said to him--

      There is a country where precious stones grow; go to the Court of the Emperor who reigns there, and you will marry a Princess.

      In the evening, when he took his cows back to the stable, Jonica recounted his dream to several of his friends, who freely laughed at him. But the words of the Zina had such an influence on him, that he laughed himself at the ridicule of which he was the object.

      The next day, at the same hour, and the same place, our cow-herd came to take his siesta. He had the same dream; and the same fairy, more radiant than ever, appeared again to him, and repeated: There is a country where precious stones grow; go to the Court of the Emperor who reigns there and you will marry a Princess.

      Jonica again repeated his dream, and it was again turned into ridicule.

      What does it matter to me, said Jonica, if they laugh! I know one thing, that if that fairy appears again to me, I'll follow her advice.

      On the following day he had the same dream, he got up joyfully, and in the evening they heard him in the village singing: I quit the cows and calves, for I am going to marry the daughter of an Emperor.

      His master, who overheard him, became thoughtful, but Jonica said to him, You may do, and think as you like, but it is decided! I am going away! He began to make his preparations, and in the morning he left.

      The people of the village held their sides with laughing, when they saw him with his little bundle on a stick, slung across his shoulder, descend the hill, traverse the plain, and then slowly disappear, in the dim distance.

      III.

      In those days, people did say that there was really a country where precious stones grew, as grass, plants, and flowers grow in other places. It was said that the Emperor of these parts had twelve daughters--twelve Princesses, the one prettier than the other, but all as proud

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