One of my favorites is a Romanian fairy tale -- Minte Creata, Busuioc si Sucna Murga -- by Ion Pop-Reteganul. It is the story of three brothers famous in their neighborhood for their brave deeds. The names of the heroes are: "Minte Creata" (Curly Brain), "Busuioc" (Basil) and "Sucna Murga" (Morning dress -- sucna is a thick, straight woolen dress or skirt worn by women when doing work around the house). Their mother is a widow and they have no father to look after her/them. The naming scheme suggests the author has a hidden sense of humor -- like in "Princess Bride".
Each day the brothers have the same routine. The first brother returns home in the evening, eats and sleeps all night before leaving home again. The second returns at midnight, eats and sleeps until morning, while the youngest returns at sunrise, eats and sleeps a bit. Then they all leave home for more brave deeds. Sucna Murga is aware of everything that goes on because he is magical -- that's likely why he functions on so little sleep. Their bedtime habits are consistent with when they were born. Minte Creata was born in the evening, Busuioc at midnight and Sucna Murga just as the sun was rising. Neither seem to help their mother or do farm work or if they do, it is not mentioned. However, it says they are famous world-wide for their bravery -- perhaps like me and David in more than one regard.
Each day the brothers have the same routine. The first brother returns home in the evening, eats and sleeps all night before leaving home again. The second returns at midnight, eats and sleeps until morning, while the youngest returns at sunrise, eats and sleeps a bit. Then they all leave home for more brave deeds. Sucna Murga is aware of everything that goes on because he is magical -- that's likely why he functions on so little sleep. Their bedtime habits are consistent with when they were born. Minte Creata was born in the evening, Busuioc at midnight and Sucna Murga just as the sun was rising. Neither seem to help their mother or do farm work or if they do, it is not mentioned. However, it says they are famous world-wide for their bravery -- perhaps like me and David in more than one regard.
When the emperor, who appears to be more like a village chief, wants to find a suitable husband for his only daughter, he sends word and material to their mother to sew a new white shirt and some underpants -- izmene. The underpants and shirt have to be ready by morning or they will all be beheaded. Then one of her sons has to dress in those clothes and retrieve the light of the sun and the key from heaven from the zmei -- a zmeu is a kind of powerful, rich, but ugly human with some superpowers. If they succeed, they will win the hand of the princess. Otherwise, the whole family will be beheaded. The first two brothers acknowledge they would be unable to do this. They say that if they are to die, they would rather die at home. They take a fatalist approach or one could say they are being lazy. They don't even want to try. Instead, they acknowledge that every person dies at some point, and it may as well be now as later. Their mother, however, keeps sewing the underpants and the shirt after quickly cooking for them. She believes in them and wants them to survive and succeed. She, however, no longer waits on them at the table and makes them wait on themselves as she is busy sewing for their lives and hers.
The youngest agrees to go on the emperor's quest, but, first, he calls his brothers to help. The oldest brother does not show up. He is not interested in discussing the matter -- even though all their lives are in danger, while the middle brother agrees to come with the condition that he will not be asked to do anything that is hard. This is the condition that David often places when he goes somewhere with us -- to not be asked to do anything, and if he really has to do something, it should be easy. So, it's good to see that even heroes in fairy tales have this sort of attitude. It makes me think more highly of David.
Sucna Murga promises he is only taking his brother, Busuioc, for company, and will not ask him to do anything that is difficult. As they travel, they first get to a magical valley that makes them sleep and never wake up. Sucna Murga drags Busuioc along and they manage not to fall asleep. Next, they reach a second magical valley where they are suddenly overburdened by love for the ones they left home and feel the urgent need to return. Sucna Murga barely gets Busuioc out of these valleys. Lastly, they get to a third valley with very beautiful flowers who tempt them to steal one. Sucna Murga knows not to take the flowers, but Busuioc picks a flower and hides it in his clothes. The whole valley then rings loudly -- like an alarm in the store. Sucna Murga first asks his brother to return the flower and when he refuses, he searches his brother until he finds the flower and returns it. The noise then stops and they travel further.
Eventually, they get to the domain of the zmei. Sucna Murga tells Busuioc he is keeping his word of not making him do anything hard. So, instead of taking him along now, he has him wait by the bridge between the domains for his return. The zmei are three brothers just like them, and Sucna Murga kills them one by one, and takes their horses and carts and leaves them with Busuioc. The last one is the strongest -- as strong as him -- and has the key of heaven and the light of the sun in his cart. There he manages to kill the zmeu with the help of ravens, which one imagines are the lawyers of modern time. The zmeu tries bribing them with the body of Sucna Murga, but Sucna Murga offers three bodies -- of the three zmei -- and the ravens are greedy. They do not appreciate quality meat -- Sucna Murga is younger and would be sweeter to eat. They want to win a lot. So, they help Sucna Murga and he keeps his word and shows them where all three bodies are.
Later he takes the horses and cart of the last zmeu to his brother and goes back to see how their wives plan revenge, which he manages to defeat because he hears their exact plans. The first one turns herself into a poisoned, hot well, which he cuts with his sword and it turns into blood. The second one into a beautiful rug, which he cuts in two and she bleeds to death. Each time Busuioc is upset and asks Sucna Murga how he could ruin the well and then such a beautiful rung, which he wanted to take home. The last one tries to swallow them, but he throws a heated mace into her mouth. It sticks to her mouth as her flesh melts and she lights on fire parts of the nearby forest as she dies. Then Sucna Murga and Busuioc return home. Sucna Murga is acclaimed for his bravery and marries the daughter of the emperor, and reigns justly for many years. Of course, the princess had no say in who she married as long as he managed to retrieve the key from heaven for her while wearing the underpants and white shirt. It just had to be somebody brave enough to rule the country for her. They now had servants to cook, make more white underpants and wait on the table. So, Sucna Murga would not need to take his mother along to worry over such chores.
In most Romanian stories, Fat Frumos (prince charming) kills the zmeu, a kind of rich human from 'the other world', and takes some of his possessions ... and lives happily ever after. He sometimes has brothers who try to take credit for his work, but, eventually, outwits them, too. In some stories he forgives them, and in some they die for having the presumption to take the credit, and for being silly. Sometimes they throw arrows straight up, and not understanding gravity, somehow the arrow falls back down and splits their head in two -- this is because they were guilty or so the story says -- while the arrow of Fat Frumos/Prince Charming/Praslea falls neatly near him. Oh, and it's always the youngest child who is the bravest and best. I am the oldest, and David is the oldest, too -- because we each have different parents -- David being my cousin. And then my younger brother, James, is only three. He can't outsmart any of us yet. Although, he tries to lead and thinks he is in charge more often than not.
This story ends in a slightly different way from others. One could say the ending is the best part in some ways. The author himself says he went to Sucna Murga's wedding. There he feasted on amazing food and took home a fried duck leg. On the way home he started eating the leg as it was very sweet and he was hungry, but then he met a learned man/scientist who was so very hungry/fript de foame (fried of hunger) that he begged for the duck leg so fervently that it was thrown at him. However, as he had his hands in his pockets, it hit him in the leg. Since then the man walks with a limp, which if we doubt the story, we can still observe today when we look at the particular scientist. Not much has changed in the way funding is awarded today -- we can still look for the limping learned men. We note that Ion Pop-Reteganul was born in the 1850s and died in the beginning of the 20th century.
The youngest agrees to go on the emperor's quest, but, first, he calls his brothers to help. The oldest brother does not show up. He is not interested in discussing the matter -- even though all their lives are in danger, while the middle brother agrees to come with the condition that he will not be asked to do anything that is hard. This is the condition that David often places when he goes somewhere with us -- to not be asked to do anything, and if he really has to do something, it should be easy. So, it's good to see that even heroes in fairy tales have this sort of attitude. It makes me think more highly of David.
Sucna Murga promises he is only taking his brother, Busuioc, for company, and will not ask him to do anything that is difficult. As they travel, they first get to a magical valley that makes them sleep and never wake up. Sucna Murga drags Busuioc along and they manage not to fall asleep. Next, they reach a second magical valley where they are suddenly overburdened by love for the ones they left home and feel the urgent need to return. Sucna Murga barely gets Busuioc out of these valleys. Lastly, they get to a third valley with very beautiful flowers who tempt them to steal one. Sucna Murga knows not to take the flowers, but Busuioc picks a flower and hides it in his clothes. The whole valley then rings loudly -- like an alarm in the store. Sucna Murga first asks his brother to return the flower and when he refuses, he searches his brother until he finds the flower and returns it. The noise then stops and they travel further.
Eventually, they get to the domain of the zmei. Sucna Murga tells Busuioc he is keeping his word of not making him do anything hard. So, instead of taking him along now, he has him wait by the bridge between the domains for his return. The zmei are three brothers just like them, and Sucna Murga kills them one by one, and takes their horses and carts and leaves them with Busuioc. The last one is the strongest -- as strong as him -- and has the key of heaven and the light of the sun in his cart. There he manages to kill the zmeu with the help of ravens, which one imagines are the lawyers of modern time. The zmeu tries bribing them with the body of Sucna Murga, but Sucna Murga offers three bodies -- of the three zmei -- and the ravens are greedy. They do not appreciate quality meat -- Sucna Murga is younger and would be sweeter to eat. They want to win a lot. So, they help Sucna Murga and he keeps his word and shows them where all three bodies are.
Later he takes the horses and cart of the last zmeu to his brother and goes back to see how their wives plan revenge, which he manages to defeat because he hears their exact plans. The first one turns herself into a poisoned, hot well, which he cuts with his sword and it turns into blood. The second one into a beautiful rug, which he cuts in two and she bleeds to death. Each time Busuioc is upset and asks Sucna Murga how he could ruin the well and then such a beautiful rung, which he wanted to take home. The last one tries to swallow them, but he throws a heated mace into her mouth. It sticks to her mouth as her flesh melts and she lights on fire parts of the nearby forest as she dies. Then Sucna Murga and Busuioc return home. Sucna Murga is acclaimed for his bravery and marries the daughter of the emperor, and reigns justly for many years. Of course, the princess had no say in who she married as long as he managed to retrieve the key from heaven for her while wearing the underpants and white shirt. It just had to be somebody brave enough to rule the country for her. They now had servants to cook, make more white underpants and wait on the table. So, Sucna Murga would not need to take his mother along to worry over such chores.
In most Romanian stories, Fat Frumos (prince charming) kills the zmeu, a kind of rich human from 'the other world', and takes some of his possessions ... and lives happily ever after. He sometimes has brothers who try to take credit for his work, but, eventually, outwits them, too. In some stories he forgives them, and in some they die for having the presumption to take the credit, and for being silly. Sometimes they throw arrows straight up, and not understanding gravity, somehow the arrow falls back down and splits their head in two -- this is because they were guilty or so the story says -- while the arrow of Fat Frumos/Prince Charming/Praslea falls neatly near him. Oh, and it's always the youngest child who is the bravest and best. I am the oldest, and David is the oldest, too -- because we each have different parents -- David being my cousin. And then my younger brother, James, is only three. He can't outsmart any of us yet. Although, he tries to lead and thinks he is in charge more often than not.
This story ends in a slightly different way from others. One could say the ending is the best part in some ways. The author himself says he went to Sucna Murga's wedding. There he feasted on amazing food and took home a fried duck leg. On the way home he started eating the leg as it was very sweet and he was hungry, but then he met a learned man/scientist who was so very hungry/fript de foame (fried of hunger) that he begged for the duck leg so fervently that it was thrown at him. However, as he had his hands in his pockets, it hit him in the leg. Since then the man walks with a limp, which if we doubt the story, we can still observe today when we look at the particular scientist. Not much has changed in the way funding is awarded today -- we can still look for the limping learned men. We note that Ion Pop-Reteganul was born in the 1850s and died in the beginning of the 20th century.
Do children stories across the globe glorify murder? and subservient women? are they tales of prejudice, discrimination and cruelty that transcend centuries and cultures? Gretel cooks and keeps house for Hansel and the witch. Later Hansel and Gretel kill the witch and steal her possessions and ... live happily ever after. All of these are justified as a form of self-defense. The deeds are needed for survival. But was the witch really trying to eat them? or was she simply an old woman in social isolation who did not have family or friends to help her? She is not alive to tell her side of the story. We only have the version of her murders.
Disobedience is often punished by life-loss. Max and Moritz are baked by the baker, but survive because they are coated in dough and they chew their way through and run away. However, they are next caught and put through the mill by a farmer for making holes in his sacks of grain. The mill grinds them to pieces, and the miller feeds them to his geese. Nobody is sorry for the loss of life because they were disobedient, and did not learn to be kind or useful in a society that punishes cruelly and irrevocably.
The duck-leg through which Ion Pop-Reteganul describes funding for learned men certainly transcends centuries and cultures.
Disobedience is often punished by life-loss. Max and Moritz are baked by the baker, but survive because they are coated in dough and they chew their way through and run away. However, they are next caught and put through the mill by a farmer for making holes in his sacks of grain. The mill grinds them to pieces, and the miller feeds them to his geese. Nobody is sorry for the loss of life because they were disobedient, and did not learn to be kind or useful in a society that punishes cruelly and irrevocably.
The duck-leg through which Ion Pop-Reteganul describes funding for learned men certainly transcends centuries and cultures.
So is death life's ultimate lesson? COVID-19 is a disease that threatens to kill a small fraction of us -- mostly those with preexisting conditions -- and people are terribly afraid. Our leaders are greedy. They want to be in charge and have dictatorial powers. In order to gain absolute power they pretended to dismiss COVID-19 -- at first -- but manage to stay in power independent of lives lost and of mistakes made. They are those in charge of the ravens from the stories. They want to gain as much as possible and do not care of the consequences. Will we end up murdering each other for their entertainment? so far the reaction to the "Black Lives Matter" movement has claimed a relatively small number of lives, but will it be more? will we hate each other more and more until war erupts? will some of us be turned into zmei and others into prince charmings by the press? After all the Prince of England married an actress to help the Royal Family manage the press. Is the press leading us from one dramatic abyss to another just so that there is more to write about? doesn't the cost matter? in the civilized world that survives by taking from all the others, will it get to the point where there is not enough food for survival?
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