Romanian Legends

The Olt And Mures Legend

Once upon the time,when the stories were reality,on the top of the Eastern Carpathians,there was a fortress with two towers.The prince and the princess had twins.The boys were alike;only their faces were,not their nature.They were fighting to blood from nothing.The boys grew.One day the prince went to a battle and didn't return.The princess sent messengers to find her husband.The truth was that the prince was dead ,but the princess didn't know this thing."What am i going to do with my boys?"she said."They are fighting and fighting allover again.I built for them two different towers.In the northern one leaves
Mures,and in the southest leaves Olt.Soon they will have to marry,but still don't understand each other.

"Olt,my brother ,Mures said.Mother is still crying after our dad.What are we going to do?"

"Mures,my brother,let's forget our argues and let's go to find the prince.Maybe he's somewhere into some prison and he needs our help to rescue him."

The twins went totheir mother,the princess,and spoke to her about their decision.When she heard ,she burst into tears.She was weeping because her sons became wiser,but she was afraid not to lose them.

"OK,my boys,the princess said.Go and find your dad.I advise you to stay together as horses on carriage. And the
boys left. But as soon as they came out the fortress they were already argueing which way to go.

"Let's go to the north,Mures said."

"No,let's go to the south,Olt said.And ,like in their childhood,they started to fight"

"Because i grew into the northern tower,i will go in this direction",Mures said. "And i will go to the south, Olt said ,cause i grew into the southest one."

Like this,they separated each other.After a whileMures was thinking: "With all our argues,we are still loving each other.Also our mother asked us not to separate.Can i find again my brother?" On a valley he turned to the south,but Olt wasn't anywhere.Mures was lost and went to the west through plains which were so beautiful that he forgot his brother.The princess found out what was happened ,and angry ran to return his sons,but never caught up them cause they were running as fast as their legs carried them.She was praying then: "Dear Lord, please take care of my sons. Make them immortals."

God heard and transformed then the sons to immortals rivers.And rivers they are even today mentaining their names: MURES and OLT.Nowadays,in our places wanderred by the Mures river,every children must know the tale of Mures and Olt rivers ,beeing proud to leave such a wonderful place.

The Legend of the bee and of the spider

   Once upon a time there was a woman and she had two children: a boy and a girl. They set out for the world to earn their living. The boy became an apprentice at a cloth weaver and the girl carried stons for a waller. When she felt her end was near the mother called her children by her side. The girl came immediately but the boy didn't want to. His mother forgave him but, after her death, the girl turned into a bee and the boy into a spider. The spider has lived alone ever since, without any brothers or sisters, without parents. He hides from light and forever weaves his web in dark corners. He is sad and people always tear his web and kill him. Where as the bee is happy all day long, flying from flower to flower and lives with her huge family, brothers and sisters together in a hive. Everybody loves her because she is industrions and her honey is sweet and healing and we all benefit from her work.

The legend of the enchanted horse

   On a stormy night an old lady came to the prince's palace to ask for shelter. The prince saw her and told her to leave. If she wanted to work she could get a shelter. The old lady changed into a princess and told him ' You have no mercy and you have no soul. You'll turn into a horse. The spell will be broken only if a maiden will give you a gift.' Many years passed and the prince was unhappy and he was sorry for what he'd done. Al these years many princesses came to bring him gifts in vain. One day a young shepherdess called Giralda, who was in love with the prince, picked a snowdrop and she wrapped it in a white paper. On the back she wrote with white and red letter 'martisor'. When she came to the prince he was wandering when he had seen those clear honest eyes? The girl said her gift was a symbol of her love for the prince. She gave him the 'Martisor'. When the prince touched her gift he changed back into a human being, the prince. They got married and they lived happily ever after. The prince decided that from that year on everybody had to remember the 1st of March and boys were to give the girls a Martisor as a sign of gratitude and love.