Emperor Aleodor, Romanian Folktale, part 2

Emperor Aleodor, Aleodor Imparat, is a Romanian folktale gathered by Romanian folklorist and writer Petre Ispirescu in 1875 and translated into English in 19th by historian and linguist Robert Nisbet Bain. I did very little to change Nisbet Bain’s skillful translation. I liked his choice of early modern English, I thought it gives Emperor Aleodor a charming old-fashioned patina. Read part one here.

13/02/202029/04/2022

Valentine’s Day in Romanian Folklore: Dragobete, Ziua Indragostitilor #Im4Ro

Romanian folklore is a rich source of fairy-tales and traditions filled with wisdom and symbolism and bearing witness to a millennial culture, such as Dragobete, the Romanian version of Valentine’s Day, Ziua Indragostitilor and celebrated not on 14 February, but on 24 February.

11/02/202008/09/2026

Medieval Sighisoara and the House where Vlad the Impaler was Born #Im4Ro

medieval Sighisoara, House where Vlas the Impaler was born

What turns a house into a home? Is it the light that peeks inside through its windows? The scents rising from the kitchen? Or is it the people, the mingle of generations, of shared laughter and tears?
While we visited the house where Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Tepes, was born, I asked myself: what was the light like inside? What street noises reached every morning to little Vlad’s room and woke him up? What childhood memories he kept locked in his heart that reminded him of his mother and home – while imprisoned by the Turks? Or when he was fighting them, surrounded by the sights and the stench of war?

09/02/202029/04/2022

Emperor Aleodor, Romanian Folktale #Im4Ro

Emperor Aleodor, Aleodor Imparat, is a Romanian folktale gathered by Romanian folklorist and writer Petre Ispirescu in 1875 and translated into English in 19th by historian and linguist Robert Nisbet Bain.

06/02/202029/04/2022

The Magic of Romanian Folktales Starts with the First Words #Im4Ro

While a grew up I thought that the magic and musicality of Romanian folktales was so much better than that of the Grimm’s fairy tales. Because I was sure of their truthfulness.

Although both sources shared the same well-known prologue, “Once upon a time,” the Romanian ones went on with “for if it didn’t happen it couldn’t be told,” thus proving that some truth was at the bottom of the folktale about to unravel, since nothing can be told that didn’t happen…