Old Romanian Fairytales

By Mirela Roznoveanu

The present book of English translations captures and conveys great narratives of the Romanian folklore. This is a book for all libraries that carries childrens books with collections of cultural studies, folklore, and cultural anthropology. Old Romanian Fairy Tales captures the imagination, conveys important lessons about morality and responsibility, and strikes a chord of deep patterns on which our civilization was built. Readers will encounter fabulous fairies, Prince Charming, witness battles with dragons, betrayal, competition, and love. The book has beautiful imaginative color illustrations; this is a book from which children and mature people would immensely benefit. To add more to the uniqueness of this book: these fairy tales were never translated before into the English language.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469190303

Mirela Roznoveanu

Mirela Roznoveanu is a native of Romania who immigrated to the United States. Her literary works in Romanian include novels, critical essays (among them the vast Civilization of the Novel: A History of Fiction Writing from Ramayana to Don Quixote), and poetry. She has published in English two books of poems, Born Again – in Exile, and Elegies from New York City; a collection of novellas, The Life Manager and Other Stories; and literary criticism. Mirela Roznoveanu has been always a writer pursuing her way to perfection and artistic development. These trends could be seen from her earlier works, such as her manifesto of her Romanian debut volume in Romania, “Lecturi Moderne” (Modern Readings, 1978). Mirela is among those writers and critics who have sought over recent years to turn the energy of their native cultures into a complex work with signifi cant moral and aesthetic connotations. Alexandra Conte is a musician, teacher and illustrator. She graduated the Academy of Music from Bucharest, Romania, and worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1976 being associated with Julliard School of Music. She wrote several illustrated musical books for children. This book is a proof of the deep friendship and cooperation between Mirela and Alexandra, which we hope will continue! Enjoy!

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Mirela Roznoveanu. 111908-ROZN

Copyright © 2012 by Mirela Roznoveanu (translation)

Copyright © 2012 by Alexandra Conte (illustrations)

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4691-9029-7

Ebook 978-1-4691-9029-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

To my granddaughter Blake Athena Roznowski

CONTENTS

Pinky the Brave and the Golden Apples (Prâslea)

Fairy Princess Ileana(Ileana Simziana)

Shinylocks the Brave(Greuceanu)

The Tale of the White Moor(Harap Alb)

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Ana R. Chelariu and Marina Florez for their advice and support.

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PINKY THE BRAVE

AND THE GOLDEN APPLES (PRÂSLEA)

Reported at the very beginning of the twentieth century by Petre Ispirescu

Once upon a time, there was a powerful king. His palace was known for its beautiful garden, so much so that it had no rival for miles and miles around. But the most amazing thing in that garden was an apple tree that made beautiful golden apples. Unfortunately, the king never ate a single golden apple from his garden. Every night, right at the moment the apples were about to ripen, someone would steal them all. The imperial guard could not catch the thieves.

Then, one summer, when the golden apples were about to ripen, the eldest prince said, Father, let me guard the apple tree tonight and catch the thieves.

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The king, very much doubting his son’s skills to catch the thieves, agreed. And the king was right. As the night came, the prince fell sound asleep, and by morning, all the apples were gone, to the king’s sorrow.

One more year passed, and the middle son asked his father for permission to guard the apple tree. Alas, the same thing happened. The king was so saddened that he decided to cut the tree. But the youngest prince, nicknamed Pinky, who was known for being good-for-nothing and much too playful, asked his father for his turn to be allowed to guard the golden apples.

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Let it be one more year, Father. Don’t cut the tree, please, said the youngest prince. I will try my luck, just let me try.

That spring, the tree bloomed more than ever, its branches cracking under the weight of little green apples waiting to ripen.

When the summer came, Pinky, the youngest prince, settled in the garden near the apple tree. He brought with him books, two stakes, and his bow and arrow. He set the stakes in the ground, one in front of him and the other such that if he would fall asleep, his head would hit a stake, and he would wake up.

One night, close to dawn, while he was forcing himself to stay awake, he heard the noise of flapping wings. Then someone loomed into the tree branches. Pinky got his bow and shot an arrow to hit the thief, then another, and then another until he heard a groan, followed by dead silence and a trail of blood. The youngest prince picked up a few golden apples and took them to his father. The king couldn’t contain his joy.

Despite his father’s wish, the youngest prince decided to follow the trail of blood and get the thief.

The next day, he asked his brothers if they would like to join him into this journey. They were terribly envious of him because he had been more successful than them. His brothers saw this as an opportunity to kill him and accepted his offer. After brief preparations, they went into the quest. Following the trail of blood, they walked and walked until they got to a pit where the trail of blood stopped. There was blood all over around that pit, so they thought that the thief of the golden apples must be hiding in there.

The two older brothers pretended they went down into it, one after another, and they said there was nothing there, so they opted out. Then it was Pinky’s turn to go down. He told his brothers to let him down deeper into the pit and, when the rope stays still, to put guards around the pit, and when they see the rope moving on the edges of the pit, to pull it out. After they let him down, the two older brothers came up with a decision:

Let us wait and see what he does, and then we will make him disappear somehow so we can clean our reputation.

Down the pit, the youngest prince, Pinky, reached the underworld, where there was the estate of three flying dragons.

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There he met a beautiful girl, who told him that those dragons kidnapped her and two of her sisters and that they were the three daughters of the king who lived nearby his father’s kingdom. She also told him that each of the ugly dragons wanted to marry her and her sisters by force, but the princesses were deceiving them with all sorts of requests, asking for impossible things to do, everything imaginable under the sun, trying to stall them. The three dragons,