|
Context
Country: Moldavia, Language: Moldavian
Original collector: Grigore Botezatu
Title of collection: ”Moldavian Folk-tales”, 1986, Moldavia
Number of tales in the collection: 34
Translated from the Moldavian by Dionisie Badarau, Publisher Literatura Artistika, Kishiniev
Second revised and enlarged edition, Illustrated by Leonid Domnin
About the collector
Botezatu Grigore was born on 14.01.1929, in Baraboi, Bălţi county. He is a folklorist and doctor in philology. In 1954 he graduated at State University from Republic of Moldova. He works at The Institute of Philology and Language and Literature at The Academy of Science from Moldavia. He collected folkloric pieces in Republic of Moldova, also from the moldavian villages from the regions Kirovograd, Nikolaev, Caucazul de Nord, Odessa.
Summary – „Carminea”
There was a great landlord. His big house shone at night as bright as a day. It has ninety nine cellars full of silver and gold. He has a daughter, his treasure Carminea, who was more beautiful than the spring. Many young men were in love with her, but the landlord did not want to marry her hastily. He made a ladder of precious stone, two inches wide and with one hundred steps. He placed his daughter in the tower and said that the one who can mount the ladder on horseback, take the ring from her hand and call her by name, will be the one who will marry Carminea. Many of them stumbled from the first step. There came a dragon who rode a lion, he mounted the ladder, took the ring and called her by name and claimed her as his bride. The landlord invited the dragon inside his house and gave him his blessing and there was a wedding. Everybody had a good time, only Carminea was sad, and went to her magic horse Gaitan, and there she began to weep blood tears. The horse asked her why was she upset, she explained the situation and the horse told her that she and the dragon will go on a journey, at that time she had to give the horse a bushel of red-hot coals, put a gold bridle on his head and a silver bit in his mouth. She will have to remain three paces behind the dragon on the road, and told him that it is proper for a wife to go behind her husband. Then she will have to prepare her sword and keep it at the level of the dragon`s neck, at that moment the horse will fly forward and the dragon will be left without his head down the road. And all happened like this, the lion ran straight to the dragon`s palace, with the headless body. From the moment the dragon`s mother saw the body, she hated Carminea and want to catch and burn her. Carminea rode her magic horse until she arrived at a large village, on a Wednesday. She stopped on the outskirts of the village near the market square.
John, a lad who had a misfortune went to a witch, who told him to go on the outskirts of the village near the market square, on a Wednesday, and to take home with him the first person who met there.
The horse knew that John will arrive and propose Carminea to go with him, so she put quickly man clothes on her and she looked like a lad. When they met each other, John told him: ”Come and live with me.” He hesitated, they argued, but in the end he accepted and they both went to the John`s village. John had doubts that the lad was a girl, and he decided to go to the witch again. She told him to put the lad at a test. So, he went home and propose the lad to have a race to the grazing ground. They went and there they had a race around a mount to see which of them was faster. John was left behind by the other lad. So John went to the old woman again. She told him another test for the lad. John went home and asked the lad, ”What could we use these sticks for?”. But the lad gave the answer from the perspective of a lad, but John could not believe and went again to the witch. This time he had to put in the house some embroidered towels, some balls of wool, and one or two hanks of wool, one or two hanks of yarn near his sword, bow, spear and mace. John did it and invited the lad into the house to show him the things. The lad stared at the weapons and paid no attention to the other things. John left the house and went sad again to the witch. This time he came back home and put a besom across the threshold. The lad picked it up by the handle swept the floor, then stood it in the corner, this means that the lad was a girl, and John was right all this time. John turned around and embraced her. They gave a real Moldavian wedding party after that they lived peacefully and happily in harmony together. After a time, John was enrolled in the army. Between two battles, John wrote a short letter in which he told to their parents to take care of Carminea and that he will come back soon. The man whom John gave the letter to bring to his parents was on the road from long time and one night he was near the dragon`s palace and knocked at the door to ask for lodging. The dragon`s mother let him in and during his sleep she read the letter in which she saw the name of Carminea. She replaced the letter with one in which was write that the parents will have to bring a lot of wood and make a fire in which they should throw Carminea. John`s parents told her about the letter and Carminea went to the horse and wept. The horse told her to go to the parents and told them to do as the letter said and that she wanted to burn with her horse. The two rode into the fire, Carminea took out a folded kerchief from the horse`s right ear and threw it into the fire and galloped boldly into the flames. She flew on Gaitan through the smoke. At the beginning of the valley she stopped the horse because came the time for her to gave birth to a child and for horse came the time of death. Carminea fell asleep and when she awoke has been in a bed with her two sons. The three lived happily together until a day, when a old woman came to their gate and gave them three hairs to each boy and told them to throw the hairs on the neck of the two dogs, there each hair became a chain and the dogs were kept bound. The old hag entered into the yard, the dogs barked and escaped from the chains and tore the old woman to pieces. Carminea and her children took her remains far away.
John came back from the war, stopped at the gate and cried Carminea`s name, outside came his parents and told him what happened with Carminea. He searched for Carminea everywhere, until he was very tired and let his horse go where it wished. The horse brought him to a valley where the castle of Carminea was. Carminea recognized him and presented him to her children as their father.
Position in the Aarne-Thomson-Uther Index
Tales of Magic – Supernatural Helpers – 532 The Speaking Horsehead
Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp
XII 2 The donor greets and interrogates the hero
XV 2 The hero travels on the ground: 168 on the back of a horse
Similarities
Carminea`s ridding on a magical horse – Harap Alb (Romanian)
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
