Greuceanu -- by Petre Ispirescu

This is the last of the stories by Romanian authors given as summer reading. I hope you enjoy reading my summaries. I don't enjoy writing them, but I know the teachers mean well. Mom says writing is good for me; she witheld my rights to new books until I finish all homework. It feels like I will never finish.

 The sun and the moon have gone missing! The emperor has promised his daughter and half of the kingdom to the person who brings back the Sun and the Moon from the 'zmei' -- from the other land. However, those who try and fail will have their heads cut off.

Author's note: It seems that in the past, young men would risk everything to marry the right kind of lady, which in this story comes with money and power. Ideally, the wife was supposed to also be beautiful, kind and forgiving, and produce children. Today people only discuss the latest gadget. They only care to have the best phone. Since phones cannot have children, natality is decreasing in most countries. David is the phone-loving category when he is home, but he does like traveling. He is now in Germany, and enjoys things like picking wild nuts, which he would never have cared for here just because he is with his father.

Greuceanu is a brave young man who has a way with words. On his way to the emperor he meets two sad young men. They are going to be killed becaused they ran away from murder, a.k.a battle. Greuceanu promises himself he will only undertake the retrieval of the sun and the moon if he manages to gain the forgiveness of the men. He sweet-talks the emperor into understanding that (1) it is unfair to kill the men, (2) they are more valuable as servants if they are alive than dead, and (3) the people will like him better of him if they think him merciful. The emperor forgives the men, but promises Greuceanu he would kill him if he fails even though he really likes him. This is because he has to be fair and keep his word -- since he already murdered some young men for failing to bring back the sun and the moon, he has to treat people equally.

The rest of the story proceeds as usual. Greuceanu murders two zmei who are brothers after they confess they are afraid of him. The youngest and strongest of the zmei even tells Greuceanu where the sun and the moon are, and that the key to their prison is his little finger. So, Greuceanu cuts his head off, and then cuts the little finger. Next, their wives try revenging their husbands by pretending to be a tree with golden pears and a very beautiful garden. They are both easily killed through stabbing. Then the mother of the women comes along and tries to eat Greuceanu. She is instead given his heated iron-likeness created by "Faurul pamantului" (the maker of the Earth) and dies after swallowing it.

On his way back, Greuceanu decides to be lazy, lays down in his cart and sends his brother ahead. A small demon steals his sword, and gives it to a servant who eagerly takes the credit for Greuceanu's work and shows the sword as proof. The emperor believes him, and emprisons Greuceanu's brother, but the preparations for the wedding take a long time. In the meantime, Greuceanu returns and asks for time to prove his case and bring the sword. The demon turns into a mountain of iron and keeps the sword in the mountain. Greuceau shatters the mountain by turning himself into a mace. The mountain shakes and asks for forgiveness, but greuceanu is merciless and turns the mountain into dust. He then retrieves his sword and goes back to the emperor. He marries the daughter in a celebration that lasts three weeks.

Doi Feti cu Stea in Frunte -- de Ioan Slavici -- The two Children with a Star on their Forehead

  Another story to summarize as vacation homework -- read and discussed with mom.

Once upon a time, there were three very beautiful sisters. They were the daughters of an oil merchant (Romania had lots of clean/pure oil; our oil fueled the second world war, but smaller amounts of oil were extracted and sold long before that.) The first one was so beautiful that sheep would stop eating when they saw her in their midst. The second sister was so beautiful that the wolves would come and guard her sheep. The third sister was more beautiful than the first two combined -- she was beautiful as only she could be. One day the emperor and two of his friends rode by.  The sisters were talking among themselves. The first one promised to make bread that would keep her husband forever young. The second one promised to make a shirt that he could wear through fire without getting burned and through water without getting wet. The youngest, called Laptita, said she would give birth to twins with golden hair and a star on their forehead.

 The emperor married Laptita, and his friends married the other sisters. The first two sisters deliver their miracles within a few weeks. We are then told of the presence of the evil step mother who had a daughter whom she wanted the emperor to marry.  The step mother also has a brother with a big army who declares war when his sister tells him to, which is just when Laptita is supposed to give birth. The emperor goes to war and Laptita gives birth to two magical children. The step mother, naturally, buries them alive in front of the window of their father -- one at each corner. When the emperor returns, he is presented with two puppies and told his wife gave birth to them. He believes it to be true AND punishes his wife by burying her alive up to her breasts in between the graves of her children. This must also be in front of his bed-room window.

[This story reinforces how silly grown-ups are. They believe what they are told even if it's clearly impossible. We see this with COVID-19. Forgiveness is also seldomly for women, but children are more important than living forever or going unscathed through fire or water. Still, the wife is buried alive and somehow survives to forgive her husband after he finally figures out he was wrong (incidentally, he marries another person in the meantime, but that's a detail -- the other person can just become a lowly servant; she is lucky to not be tied to the tail of the mad horse with her mother). The magical parts say what the children have to go through to be believed. We see they have to be impossibly resilient to save the day. Today, many children live in places where the natality is high, i.e., they live in war zones -- and survive impossible odds. Most never get to tell their stories, and if they do, it does not make a long-term difference. Grown ups make more wars and bury more children alive (and plenty of adults, too), and yet somehow humanity survives. But for how long?  let's, however, get back to the story...]

Two beautiful trees grow over the graves of the boys, while the step-mother convinces the son to marry her daughter -- i.e., his step-sister. The latter is disturbed by the beautiful trees. They remind her of her guilt. So, she convinces her husband to cut the trees and have beds made out of them. She cannot sleep well in the new bed either. So, she orders the beds to be burned and replaced by beds from ordinary trees. Two sparks jump out of the fire and turn into two golden lambs. The empress takes the lambs proudly to her husband because they were so friendly and beautiful. He becomes very fond of them, and his wife becomes jealous and convinces him to have them killed and cooked. Two pieces of their brains fall when the dishes are washed in a nearby river and turn into fish. The fish are caught by a fisherman who wants to sell them to the emperor. They start talking and tell him they would finally be killed if they were taken there. Instead, they advise the fisherman to gather morning dew and let them bathe in it until it dries. He does so and they turn into to little boys again with golden hair and a star on their forhead.

The boys learn and grow very fast. They also become stronger than oxen. The fisherman makes two hats from lamb skin to hide their golden hair and the shinny star on their foreheads. They then go to see their father. They bypass the guards, but the emperor kicks them out himself. The empress, however, is curious and asks to see them. It's dinner time and she seats on 13 pillows. When she sees them, she orders them out. The emperor does not agree this time and decides to hear their story. They tell the story of their life and each time a piece of truth is revealed a pillow falls from under the empress. At the end of their tale they take their hats off and reveal the stars and the golden hair to prove that everything they say is true.

The story ends with the emperor punishing his step-mother by tying her to the tail of a mad horse and sending the horse go around the country seven times so that everyone sees what happens to people who commit evil deeds. The current empress and wife is turned into the lowliest servant, while they unearth Laptita, who is still alive AND forgives him, and they all live happily ever after.

 This is a story by Ioan Slavici, but versions of it appear by other authors as well as in folklore. The Russian version we have read is called Ivan Preainteleptul. While in our story the girls fulfill their promises, in this story the first two sisters fail. The emperor has no friends. He thus marries all three sisters -- one at a time. He, naturally, discards them and remarries the next once each fails to fulfill her promise and admits it was just silly talk that was overheard. The last one, however, miraculously keeps her promise and gives births several times. Yet each time the children are taken from her, and imprisoned while the emperor is shown various animals. He loves her so much that he forgives her, while continuing to support her aggressor, and hopes that the next time would be different. He, however, never there when she gives births, but comes home just after the children are taken away. After the last birth the emperor finally disposes of his wife. She is thrown into the sea in a barrel with her last child where it is believed she will either drown or die of thirst/starvation.  The emperor marries the woman who imprisoned his children. Ivan Preainteleptul and his mother, however, escape and manage to build a place grater than that of his father by stealing some magical objects. Ivan releases his siblings, invites the emperor over to his palace, and convinces him of his folly by telling him the whole story.

Harap Alb -- by Ion Creanga -- A Summary

There was once upon a time a king who had three sons. One day he receives a letter from his brother, the Green Emperor, who was led a kingdom much bigger and richer than his own. The letter says he worries that his end is close, and that he wants the most worthwhile of his nephews to take his place since he only has three daughters and no son. So, he calls his three sons, and asks which one is ready to be emperor over such a large and rich country. The oldest answers that it would be his honor to be emperor and his birthright. He prepares everything he needs for the journey and leaves. 

 

To test him, the father goes out through a short-cut dressed in a bearskin, and hides under the first bridge. He scares both his son and the horse badly. They quickly return home explaining that he does not want to be eaten by wild beasts and that the far-away kingdom is not worth such a perilous journey  since he does not expect to inherit the Earth. The same happens with the second son. The father is upset that his sons failed the test. He says they need to be defended from chicken "apara-ma de gaini ca de caini nu ma tem" when they pretend not to be afraid of dogs, and that he did not believe his children would waste his food and overshadow the Earth for nothing. 

The third son goes out crying. He is ashamed for his brothers and sorry that his father is so disappointed in his sons. In the garden he meets an old woman asking for alms. He is sulky at first and asks to be left alone. Yet the beggar insists. She then tells the young prince that she sees the mistakes of leaders around the Earth and laughs at their many weaknesses, and that if he had her power, it would be too much for him to handle and he would destroy the Earth. Then she apologizes for speaking nonsense and asks for alms again. Eventually, he gives her a coin telling her to receive a little from him and more from God. As repayment, she tells him what's written in the stars about his fate: he will become an emperor more powerful than there had been on the face of the Earth before; he will also be just, respected and loved by all. She advises that his success relies on asking his father for the clothes and weapons from when he married, and for his horse on which he wondered the Earth. He will know the horse because he will be the only one to eat red-hot embers from a tray. She is then surrounded by a white veil and departs by slowly lifting herself to the skies. This miracle gives the youngest son the confidence he needs to ask for his father's permission.

After insistence, the king agrees to let the youngest prince undertake the quest his brothers have failed at with the condition that he does not return home if he too fails. He ridicules the idea of using his old clothes and horse suggesting he'll only find the bones. The prince insists the finding of the horse is his business, and that he only needs his father's permission. Once that's obtained, he goes straight to the attic. He finds the clothes and weapons and cleans them carefully. Then he goes to the stables with a tray of embers. An ugly, old horse who appears to be more dead than alive comes to eat them. The others run away.  He hits the skinny horse with the halter in the head as hard as he can, and tries without success to tempt the other horses. This happens three times -- until all the embers are gone. 

 

The ugly horse whose bones are showing is the only one who eats the embers. So, the prince sits there wondering if he should bother taking the horse or go by foot instead. The horse then shakes the old skin and ends up looking stronger and handsomer than all the other horses in the stables combined. He tells the prince to saddle and flies very fast: first to the Moon, then towards the Sun and towards the stars. He then asks the prince how it felt. The reply is "dizzy and close to death. I did not know where I was any more and I almost did not make it". The horse explains that this was how he felt when he was hit in the head. The maneuver is repeated three times -- one scare for each hit with the halter. 

 

The horse promises takes him to his father, and they leave. He promises to travel at the speed of the wind and not at the speed of thought, which the prince says would kill him. They soon leave and meet the king dressed as a bear under the bridge, but the horse jumps at him and the prince lifts his sword to cut his head off. The father admits it's him and asks them to stop. He then hugs and kisses both his son and the horse and tells the son he's made a wonderful choice in his companion. Before they leave, he advises the prince to avoid the bald man and the red man and to listen to the horse. The horse turns into the skinny, old version of himself to not attract trouble and they move on.

After traveling for some time they reach a forest and get lost in it. A bald man offers to help three times -- each time he is dressed in different clothes and pretends to be a new person. The prince finally agrees to hire him as a servant against his father's wishes. The bald one spills all his water and takes him to a well with a ladder in it and no bucket or string. He then tricks the prince to go inside by telling him it's cool. So, the prince ends up locked in the well and can only escape if he agrees to change places and become the servant of the bald man. He is asked to swear that he will obey and not break his word on his sword. He does so and is renamed "Harap Alb". The name is a bit of a contradiction. Alb means white and Harap is typically a dark slave. So, it would be "white dark slave" or perhaps "white slave".

Once they reach the green kingdom, there is a big feast in their honor. The bald man slaps Harap Alb once and sends him to the stables to take care of his horse like he cares for his own eyes. At the table some outstanding salad is served. We find out it is stolen from the garden of the bear, which is a very dangerous place and only a certain forest keeper in the kingdom can get a bit of salad from there from time to time without losing his life. The bald man brags that Harap Alb will bring many salads and orders him to do so. The horse takes Harap Alb to the home of the beggar woman, who is actually Saint Sunday (Sfanta Duminica) and lives in a little mossy house on an island full of flowers. They ask her for help. She sends Harap Alb to sleep while she mixes some plants that make the bear sleep and puts it in his water together with honey and milk. She then advises Harap Alb to dress in the bear skin from his father picks as he picks a sack full of salad. When he leaves the bear wakes up, but Harap Alb throws him the bear skin while he runs away with the salad. They take leave from Saint Sunday and return to the green kingdom with the salads.

Next, the bald man is shown some very beautiful precious stones. We find out they come from a deer whose skin is covered in such stones. The deer is magical and can kill with one look. The emperor explains how much he pays for the stone, which are unique to his kingdown. The bald man sends Harap Alb to kill the deer and bring all the stones without touching on. He asks the horse for help. The horse takes him to Sfanta Duminica, again. She goes with him, and tell him to dig a hole, and behead the deer once he falls asleep.  Then he jumps in a hole and does not show his face until sunrise when the deer is dead -- even though the head of the deer begs to see him. He then takes the head and the skin of the deer to the bald man.

At the next party a bird comes over, and tells them they have not thought of the daughter of the red man. The bald man orders Harap Alb to bring her to the Green Kingdom to be his wife. Harap Alb leaves with the horse in full blast no longer hiding his power. On the way, he swims through water to avoid killing a colony of ants who cross a bridge and make a new home for some roaming bees. The queen of the ants and the queen of the bees each give him a wing and promise to come to help when he burns the wing. Further along the way he makes an array of friends with different abilities: Gerila, who is always cold and can freeze a room by blowing on it, Flamanzila, who could eat any amout an still be hungry, Setila, who can drink whole rivers and still be thirsty, Ochila, who sees everything everywhere, and Pasar-lati-lungila, who can extend himself to catch birds. He befriends all of them and takes them along when they suggest he will fail in his quest without them as companions. Once he gets to the red emperor he puts them to sleep in a metal room with fire underneath to burn them to ashes. Gerila freezes the room, and when the servants of the red emperor come, Harap Alb and his friends complain that no fire had been lit. Then they are given tons of food and wine and told they will be killed if they don't eat it. Flamanzila and Setila eat is all and say it's not enough for them. They have next to pick poppy seeds from sand, which is done by the ants when the wing is burned. Then they have to guard the daughter of the emperor, who turns into a bird and flies away. She is caught by the Ochila-Pasar-lati-lungila team. Lastly, Harap Alb has to know which girl is the daughter of the emperor. The queen bee solves this problem by buzzing on the right woman and making her defend herself.

The red emperor acknowledges he is beaten and hands his daughter over to Harap Alb with the condition that she agrees to go. The princess has one more quest: her magical morning dove and his horse have to compete in getting three slices of sweet apple, live water and dead water from where the mountain hit each other. The dove gets there first, but Harap Alb's horse compliments her, tells her that if he wins life will be good for all of them and quickly takes the sweet apple and water from her. The horse returns first and so the daughter of the Red emperor agrees to go with Harap Alb.

On the way back his friends leave him, and he remains with the princess and their horses. She also has a magical horse. When they reach the green kingdom, the bald man tries to take the princess in his arms. She pushes him away, and tells everyone he is the imposter and Harap Alb is the true nephew of the Green Emperor. The bald man immediately beheads Harap Alb because he thinks he betrayed him. The horse revenges his master. He picks up the bald man by the head and drops him to the ground until he is smashed in tiny pieces.

The story ends with the princess reviving Harap Alb with the dead water, the sweet apple slices and the sprinkles of live water. They marry and the emperor hands them his crown, and they invite everyone who helped them at their wedding -- including the story teller. I am unsure how they had any food or wine left with Setila and Flamanzila there or whether they froze to death because of Gerila, but the point of the story is to be kind and grateful.

I note that a summary of this story and of a few others was assigned as homework for the summer vacation. This is my mom's favorite story. Her grandmother used to tell it every night. I see in it more equality than in the other stories. When the prince hits the horse, the horse shows him exactly how dizzy and unpleasant it felt. The princess has a choice and makes her own quest. Harap Alb is not magical. He simply has a lot of friends with very different talents who help him in each of his quests, and whom he values.

Ion Creanga is the most famous Romanian story teller. Harap Alb is one of his best stories.

Struggling with or for Screen Addiction

Since the measures to protect us against COVID-19 started, I've started to be on YouTube more and more. I'd go from one video to another recommended one, and seldomly stop until I fall asleep. There are times when I've checked on the chicken or the dog and given them water or food, and I have even gone to the store to buy food for myself. OK, I buy ice-cream and don't eat much food nowadays beyond bread and butter and some forms of salami (some vegan, some not). I eat only what I like even when it makes me sick or when I get rashes due to allergies from the stuff and the majority of my time is spent online. In the last weeks I spent somewhere around 11 hours on YouTube a day.

So, what do I watch? The answer is nothing unusual yet nothing I can really be proud off. I want a new phone. So, I've been watching videos of the latest and the best phones -- like Google Pixel 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S20. I've watched all sorts of clips from random movies, e.g., Anchorman 2, Overload and many others, and a bunch of clips of people doing weird things like eating the world's largest slice of pizza and making cotton candy with a can. I've also gathered the money I found in the house and threatened grandma I'd buy my own new phone, but so far I have been afraid to do so....I even got my mother to promise she'd get me a new phone, but she said it will only happen if grandma and Ruxandra agree. And they don't want to agree. They want to make me do stuff. They want me to be good. And I want to be in charge of my own life even if at every opportunity I seem to mess things up. I do wash my own clothes, I can cook my own food (or I eat icecream) and I can finally sleep alone without being afraid of the dark even after watching horror movies.  I also want to be online almost all the time. I can't seem to help it. I find nothing else interesting to do. We have too many animals. I don't really care for them anymore. I am too old for them. And there is nothing else around that is even remotely interesting.

I have moments when I admit it's a problem, but most of the times I do not -- even though the extended screen use does give me headaches, and my back hurts. I answer back when Ruxandra or Grandma suggest something that might help. My lines are "Si ce daca nu vreau?" ("what if I don't want to"), "nu-mi pasa" ("I don't care"), "lasa-ma in pace" (leave-me alone) or "nu promit nimic" (I promise nothing; they need to appreciate that at least I am honest with them and myself here). It helps that I am bigger and stronger than they are and so they cannot make me do stuff I do not want to do. They have tried taking my phone and my computer away from me. OK, I offered the phone to grandma, but I did not think Ruxandra would actually take it to a place from where I could not get it back soon. It made me so mad I broke the car door, and a glass window; I did not get hurt, which is the first question dad asked when told of this mishap. Then I measured the window and gradma and Ruxandra made me buy the replacement window myself while nenea Gheorghe put it back in the door frame. All the repairs were around 400 lei, which grandma paid for. They deserved it because they've tried to take technology away from me.

I immediately found Edward's old phone, and I spent even more time online as a form of revenge -- against myself or against them. I no longer know. Then they gave my phone back and I averaged the 11 hours on youtube, again. So, Andy took it away from me. I no longer want to be with family. I just need to be online all the time and I have always found a way to go around them and their rules. Now my phone is in Chizatau, and I am in Lugoj. The computer is hidden in a place I could not find. But yesterday I found one of Ruxandra's old computers, and made it work. I understand electronics better than Ruxandra nowadays. There was a loose wire that I re-attached with my hot-glue gun because Edward had dropped the computer from the top of the closet. So, since yesterday afternoon, I've been spending all my time on the screen again -- only 7 hours yesterday because I only managed to fix the computer around noon, but I made up for it today by starting at 7 a.m.. Now, I feel grumpy and moody again.

When James was one, we had some friends who visited. There are no visitors now because of COVID-19. But then two of the children were teenagers, and the youngest was five. The latter was the only one not addicted to her phone because she did not yet have one. The older children, a boy and a girl (aged 13 and 15) whom I used to be great friends with  when we were younger, were on the screen all day long. Suddenly, we had nothing in common. Of course, growing up was partly at fault. What does an 11 year old have to do with teenagers? There is little in common. The summer was, however, sweltering hot, and their room was not a place one wanted to be in. Yet, they stayed in there all day. They did not find anything to do or to enjoy in a house full of animals and people. It did not help that my former friend was terribly afraid of chicken and would scream her head off when I brought one inside, which I did because it seemed fun at the time. I also remember explaining the dangers of screen addiction and how her back was hurting and bending because of lack of muscle, and because she spent all her day in bed on the screen. Her mom would find apologies for her saying it had to do with growing up and with becoming a woman. I am not a woman. But I am sure that being one and having breasts does nothing to help.

Today I look in the mirror and see my lousy position and my back bending. Yet I have too much pride and too little will to do anything about it. The addiction is just so strong and there is nothing else I find worthwhile. I am 13 and my room is a mess. There is food I left to rot in the kitchen with worms in it, balls from my toy guns are everywhere (inside and outside), and clothes and other crap.  I do wash my clothes and myself every day. My bed-sheet also goes in the wash often, but I never clean my room or the floors.  The neighbor brings me food to eat -- meat with potatoes and other stuff -- and I almost never eat it. Food lies in various stages of putrefaction throughout the house, and outside because the dog does not eat all of her food either and the whole place stinks. Because I am so moody and because it's cooler there, grandma is away with grandpa in Chizatau. Nenea Gheorghe is here -- working all day; he checks on the animals when he arrives and before he leaves -- and grandma comes often, but she is old and can no longer clean all the mess I make. When she is here, all she does is clean after me, and I sometimes help because I cannot be on the screen while she is watching me. Yet the moment she leaves, I am back on the screen. I want to be on the screen -- all the time. I don't want to be in Chizatau with her and Ruxandra. They do nothing that's interesting. There is nothing to do here or there.

I am not the only one who is addicted. The whole world spends too much time on their screens nowadays. And there are other things to be addicted to. Edward sits in the back garden at Chizatau reading. He is almost always hunched over a book. It's usually some novel he's read ten times before because Ruxandra refused to buy him more books. She said it's not healthy to do nothing else and that if he's read it before it should be easier to disentangle him from it because he knows the ending. Yet each day -- every day -- he reads before doing his chores or his homework or caring for the animals who often lack food and water until grandma and Ruxandra come by to care for them. Of course, I am no better, but I don't care and I don't want to care.

We used to go to judo every day, but it's inside. I did not have any back problems then and because we'd run a lot, I was the fastest among my classmates. Today judo seems like a life-time ago. Sports cannot be done with a mask on. So, there is little chance they'd be open this fall. Perhaps when school starts, there will be more to do. But will it start this fall? or will it be on Zoom? Otherwise, I just want to be left alone to be online.