"The Fairy Aurora" (in ,
tr. 'Fairy of Dawn') is a
fairy tale written by
Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici (; 18 January 1848 – 17 August 1925) was a Romanians, Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania.
He made his debut in ''Convorbiri literare'' ("Literary Conversations") (1871), with the comedy ''Fata de biră ...
and published in June 1872.
Constantin Mohanu
Constantin is an Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Romanian male given name. It can also be a surname.
For a list of notable people called Constantin, see Constantine (name).
See also
* Constantine (name)
* Konstantin
The first name Konstant ...
, „Preface” in Ioan Slavici, ''Limir-împărat'', Editura Ion Creangă, Biblioteca școlarului, Bucharest, 1986, pp. 6 Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active memb ...
urged him to write his first story, which was read at
Junimea
''Junimea'' was a Romanian literary society founded in Iași in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi. The foremost pers ...
in two sessions and was published in the magazine ''
Convorbiri Literare
''Convorbiri Literare'' ( Romanian: ''Literary Talks'') is a Romanian literary magazine published in Romania. It is among the most important journals of the nineteenth-century Romania.
History and profile
''Convorbiri Literare'' was founded by ...
''.
[ Șerban Cioculescu, ''Istoria literaturii române III - Epoca marilor clasici'', Editura Academiei R. S. România, Bucharest, 1973, pp. 376]
It appeared in English as "The Fairy Aurora" in the ''Roumanian Fairy Tales'' with 18 Romanian stories published in 1885 by
Henry Holt and Company in New York City.
Summary
The ruler of a vast empire has one eye that laughs and one eye that cries, and the reason is only known to him. His three sons, Florea, Costan, and Petru each ask him about it on different occasions. Only the youngest, Petru, obtains the answer: the emperor cries because he thinks that after he dies his son will not be able to protect their realm from enemies and that only the water from the fountain of the Fairy of the Dawn will be able to make both his eyes laugh again.
Florea and Costan depart on the quest first, but after escaping a vicious dragon on the bridge, never return home. Petru tries his luck but is less successful than his brothers. His old nurse, back at the palace, advises him to take the emperor's trusty old horse to cross the bridge. The horse is magical and can reach different speeds. With this fabulous steed, Prince Petru kills the dragon, crosses the bridge, and arrives in a desert.
His father's horse asks what speeds they should traverse: like the wind, the drought the desire, or a curse? Petru agrees they should apply different speeds so as to not tire out and to cross the desert as fast as possible. And so they do.
After crossing the desert, Petru and the horse reach a copper forest and traverse it. The flowers cry out to him to pick one of them, but the horse dissuades him because they are cursed and will summon the Welwa, a chimeric monster of the wood. Petru decides to face the Welwa and picks up a flower. The monster appears to face the prince, and they engage in combat for days. Being locked in fierce combat, both pant, and gasp for breath, but Petru's horse encourages him to keep fighting. On the third day of battle, Petru throws the horse's bridle on the Welwa and the creature turns into a horse. The animal thanks Petru for releasing him from a curse, and rubs his nose against Petru's mount (the horse's brother).
Petru and the horses cross through a wood made entirely of silver, the flowers begging to be gathered, but Petru is warned by the first Welwa that gathering the flowers will draw the attention of a second Welwa, even stronger than the first. Despite the danger, Petru plucks the flowers and prepares to face the second Welwa. After three days, and a tiring battle, Petru casts a horse's bridle over the second Welwa, returning to normal.
Lastly, the group passes by a third wood made entirely of gold, and the same warning applies: if any of the flowers are gathered, it will draw yet another Welwa to them.
Translations
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University o ...
also translated this Romanian tale with the title ''The Fairy of the Dawn'', published in ''
The Violet Fairy Book
''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections ...
''. The king has one weeping eye and one laughing eye, and asks for the water from the fountain of the Fairy of the Dawn for both eyes to laugh again.
The tale was translated into
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
by
Mite Kremnitz
Mite Kremnitz (4 January 1852, Greifswald – 18 July 1916 in Berlin), born Marie von Bardeleben (pen names ''George Allan'', ''Ditto and Idem''), was a German writer.
Biography
Kremnitz was the daughter of the famous surgeon Heinrich Adolf ...
and
Petre Ispirescu
Petre Ispirescu (; January 1830 – 21 November 1887) was a Romanian editor, folklorist, printer, and publicist. He is best known for his work as a gatherer of Romanian folk tales, recounting them with a remarkable talent.
Career
Petre Ispiresc ...
as , in 1882.
A later translation titled the tale ''The Dawn Fairy''.
Analysis
Tale type
The tale is classified in the international
Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 551, "The Water of Life" ("Sons on a Quest for a Wonderful Remedy for Their Father").
Despite its origins as a literary tale, author Ioan Slavici claimed that he heard some oral versions across Romania: ; in
Zărand, ; in Comloșu (
Crișana
Crișana ( hu, Körösvidék, german: Kreischgebiet) is a geographical and historical region in north-western Romania, named after the Criș (Körös) River and its three tributaries: the Crișul Alb, Crișul Negru, and Crișul Repede. In Rom ...
), ; and in
Timișoara
), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor)
, image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg
, map_caption = Location in Timiș County
, pushpin_map = Romania#Europe
, pushpin_ ...
, . He stated that, barring a few differences between versions, they all contained the same plot points: the Emperor's eyes, Petru's journey, the help from the holy sisters, the miraculous fountain, and the brothers' deception.
Motifs
According to scholar Adela Ileana Drăucean, the dragons guard the bridge between the kingdom, representing the obstacle the hero, Făt-Frumos, must cross to advance on his quest. The tale also presents, as perilous adversaries to the hero, three , "dark spirit
of the forest" with magical powers: "the beldam from the copper forest (), the beldam from the silver forest () and the beldam from the golden forest ()."
Scholar Simona Galațchi interprets the "Fairy of Dawn" as a character associated with the dawn, sunlight, youth and rejuvenation, specially due to three magical items she owns: a fountain of life-giving water, a ring of power and "the wine of youth".
[Galațchi, Simona. "The other world in the Romanian folk tales". In: ''Language and Literature – European Landmarks of Identity'', 8 (2011), p. 219. .]
See also
*
Laughing Eye and Weeping Eye
Laughing Eye and Weeping Eye or The Lame Fox is a Serbian fairy tale collected by Albert H. Wratislaw in his ''Sixty Folk-Tales from Exclusively Slavonic Sources'', number 40. Andrew Lang included it in ''The Grey Fairy Book''. Parker Fillmore inc ...
*
The Water of Life (German fairy tale)
"The Water of Life" (german: Das Wasser des Lebens) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 97.
It is Aarne-Thompson type 551. D.L. Ashliman,The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales (Grimms' Fairy Tales)"/re ...
Notes
External links
The Fairy of Dawnin ''The Violet Fairy Book''
at
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairy Aurora, The
Romanian fairy tales
1872 in literature
ATU 500-559