Once upon a time II


Last week we went to the library and we shared some storytelling from Portugal, Spain and Turkey as much as the children listened to us. Then they told stories from Romania for us to know.

It was a funny and interesting time which the legends and stories from differents parts of the world came alive with magic.

Here you have the first story, a clasic legend about Romanian sea:

The legend of the Black sea

Once upon a time it was a wonderful princess. She was an only child and she lived with her father.

When she was 11 years old, his father died and she was crying in her father’s grave. The surrounding sounds were shocking because, I forgot to say, she was living in a boundless desert.

She was crying and she was sighing, but each tear when touching the cold rock on the grave, is tenfold in size.

And like that, the girl was crying three months. Around her was forming a big sea. Then she became a mermaid in order not to drown.

The sea was bigger and bigger…After a few years, a lot of tourists were coming.

The man was coming and they were bathing in those tears and they were enjoying in the waves, because every time when the princess sighed, a new wave was forming.

This is the legend of the Black Sea, called like this because the princess was very sad.

After this story I will tell you another legend from Portugal which also is known in Romania, a salted storytelling:

The salt

Once upon a time there was a king who had three daughters.
One day, he wanted to know if they love him, so he asked each of them:
How much do you love me?

The elder replied: “I love my father more than the sunlight.”
The middle replied: “I love my father more than myself.”
The younger replied: “I love my father as the food loves the salt.”

The King thought that the younger daughter didn´t love him, therefore he expelled her from the castel and the princess wandered alone in the world. Then she found a Castle and offered to be a cook there.

One day came to the table a delicious cake. When the king cut the cake, he found inside a beautiful and valuable ring and he asked all the court ladies to whom belonged that ring.
All the ladies tried the ring but it doesn't fit in their fingers,so the king called the cook.
Only the cook's finger fits.

When the prince saw her enter the dining room, immediately fell in love with her and the prince asked the princess' hand in marriage.
Happy, the princess accepted, but asked the prince to let her prepare the food on their wedding day.
For the wedding were invited all the nearby kingdoms´s Kings.
Even the princess´ father was invited, without knowing that it was her daughter´s marriage.

The Princess prepared delicious dishes, but in his father's food purposely didn´t put salt.
Everyone was delighted with the food, but the princess´ father wasn´t eat nothing.
The price´s father asked him why he didn't eat. He explained that his food wasn't tasty. It had no salt.
The king (Prince's father) pretending be angry, called the cook to explain why she hadn´t put salt in the King´s food.

When the princess arrived, his father immediately recognized her.
The princess said: “Do you see my father how much I love you? Salt is very important. Without it, the food has no taste.”

The King apologize her for not having realized how much he was loved by her and the princess forgave his father.
In the end they all lived happily ever after.

To continue with these stories, let's tell a story which combine the sea and the salt:

The legend of the salted sea

In the beginning, the water of the sea was sweet like the water of the rivers. The humans were traveling a lot of kilometers to find food, since the food didn’t have good taste. For this reason the humans searched for new delicious or new condiments that made their foods more appetizing.

One of these men arrived with his boat, this man was the captain,in one island surrounded for tones and tones of strange and stranger white sand. He discovered this sand had incredible properties, as this was good to preserve meats and to get better taste. So this man decided to call that sand “salt” and who traveled around the world to sellsalt in each place that he crossed.

In one of this travels, he arrived in Galicia and in this place he met Olaia, a beautiful woman who was the daughter of old fisherman. He felt in love with her and got married, but when he traveled to sell salt, one of the most powerful lords from Galicia, who lived in a castle near to the sea, tried to seduce her with a lot of presents and nice words. But Olaia stayed devoted with her love, the lord kidnapped Olaia and kept her in hir castle.

When the marine returned cannot do nothing to free Olaia, and with a lot of sadness continued his travel around the world in order to get more money to make an army and recover his love. But when he returned to Galicia, he found Olaia with freedom. Olaia told him that the sea helped her, destroying the castle, killing the lord and putting free Olaia. The Ship’s captain, grateful, gave to the sea the salt’s island to improve the flavor of their waters. And for that reason now the water of the sea is salted.

To finish let's tell a story supernatural, with magic beauty:

The Grey Wolf

The legend is focused on the character of the greatest Turkish emperor who had two daughters that were renowned for their beauty. Because of their beautiful appearance it was believed that only humans with supernatural powers could take the emperor’s daughters in wedlock. They started to assume that these women were not created for the purpose of getting married to human beings. As their father, the emperor was very concerned with their safety and made all possible preparations to ensure his daughters were kept away from the masses. He ordered the construction of a massive tower in a faraway place that had not been inhabited by any human beings till then and ordered his two daughters to be locked up in this tower until the appropriate time.

Following this, the emperor occupied himself with intense prayers to God for providing the solution to this problem. According to the legend the deity whom the emperor prayed to, descended down to earth and took the form of a grey wolf. He then took one of the daughters of the emperor in marriage and nine children were born out of this wedlock. The nine children were given the title of “Oguz” which meant a goodhearted descent. Their voices were like that of a wolf.

The legend continues to narrate that all of the nine children carried with them the spirit of the grey wolf. With the passage of time their population grew because of which the Turkish people acquired some characteristics of the grey wolf. This includes virtues like courage, strength and agility.