Old Romanian Fairy Tales: 2Nd Edition

By Mirela Roznoveanu and Alexandra Conte

OLD ROMANIAN FAIRY TALES by Mirela Roznoveanu
Illustrated by: Alexandra Conte

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479789979

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 © 2013 by Mirela Roznoveanu. 111911-ROZN

Copyright © 2013 by Mirela Roznoveanu (translation)

Copyright © 2013 by Alexandra Conte (illustrations)

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4797-8996-2

Ebook 978-1-4797-8997-9

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.

Rev. date: 02/26/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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To my granddaughters Blake and Peyton Roznowski

Acknowledgments

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

CONTENTS

Pinky the Brave and the Golden Apples (Prâslea)

Fairy Princess Ileana (Ileana Simziana/Cosânzeana)

Shinylocks the Brave (Greučeanu)

The Tale of the White Moor (Harap Alb)

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Pinky the Brave and the Golden Apples (Prâslea)

Reported at the very beginning of the twentieth century by Petre Ispirescu¹

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

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Then one summer day, when the golden apples were almost ripe, the eldest prince said, Father, let me guard the apple tree tonight and catch the thieves. The king very much doubted his son’s ability to catch the thieves, but he 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 down the tree. But the youngest prince, nicknamed Pinky, who was known for being a 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 for one more year, Father. Don’t cut the tree down, please, said the youngest prince. I will try my luck, just let me try.

That spring, the tree bore more blooms and fruit 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 so that if he fell 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 a dark shape loomed in the tree branches. Pinky took his bow and shot an arrow to hit the thief, then another, and then another, until he heard a groan, followed by dead silence. Pinky came close to the tree and found only a trail of blood. The youngest prince picked a few golden apples and took them to his father. The king couldn’t contain his joy.

Against his father’s wishes, 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 on this journey. They were terribly envious of him because he had been more successful than they. His brothers accepted his offer, secretly seeing it as an opportunity to kill him. After brief preparations, they set forth on the quest. Following the trail of blood, they walked and walked until they came to a pit where the trail of blood stopped. There was blood all around the pit, so they thought that the thief of the golden apples must be hiding in it.

The two older brothers pretended to go down into the pit, one after the other, and they both said there was nothing there. 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 stopped moving, to stand guard around the pit, and when they saw the rope moving again on the rim of the pit, to pull it up.

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 clear our reputation.

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At the bottom of the pit, the youngest prince, Pinky, reached the underworld, and found himself on the estate of three flying dragons.

There he met a beautiful girl, who told him that the dragons had kidnapped her and two of her sisters, and that they were the three daughters of the king who ruled the kingdom neighboring his father’s. 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