Romanian fairy tales - the guide book to being a hero

Fairy tales fascinate me. After a certain age, we tend to throw them off as simplistic, childish non-sense, and as adults, we often ignore them, choosing to focus on more “adult” books to read.
But those books and those movies that we enjoy, and pretty much most stories that we have today, even the ones that are being written right now, are spin or a twist away from your basic fairy tale.
The Godfather is basically a fairy tale. Not something you expect to hear, is it?
But maybe I misspoke. Perhaps it's not an actual fairy tale, not in the lucky girl meets prince and falls in love kind. But it is a 'basm'.

Basm is the Romanian word for fairy tale, basically, and yet it's not. Because, when we hear it, we think of something else than what comes to mind when we say fairy tale.
The words 'fairy tale' have been used so much to describe something ideal, often referring to romantic tales. It's like something out of a fairy tale!
You expect to hear this about a wedding, no? Think Cinderella or Snow White.

But with a basm, it's not so. You might say about a wedding that it resembles a basm wedding, but it doesn't have the same clear meaning. A Romanian basm is more focused on the hero, the prince, it's basically a story of conquest and of the many struggles the hero must go through.
And I'm sure that there are such stories in other countries as well...it'd be impossible not to be. But the ones that are popular, the ones that come to mind at a moment's notice, are not like that.
When you think about a fairy tale, you think Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty etc.

All these stories are more about the princess, about some curse, or about her struggle anyway, rarely focusing on the guy.
Which makes you wonder why.

Prince Charming – dirty hero or perfect pretty boy?

Well, to be able to answer that question, we must first establish the difference between the many Prince Charmings that are there.

First, we have the traditional Prince Charming, who rarely appears in Romanian basm. In fact, I can't think of a single instance where the male hero of the story is this dainty, elegant prince who just lounges around a castle all day. But that's the Prince Charming foreigners are used to, after all, and many Romanian children carry this idealized picture in their heads, mainly due to Disney propaganda.
But that's not the Romanian basm hero.

Făt-Frumos

Făt Frumos (in translation, beautiful child) is the closest things we have to a Prince Charming, at least as far as the name is concerned. But, the story of Făt Frumos is so, so different. Well, the first difference is that he has a story, whereas Prince Charming just seems complementary to the story of the princess.
The most famous Făt Frumos story is Făt Frumos din lacrimă, written by Mihai Eminescu, in 1870 and it goes something like this –

A really old Empress with no heirs prays to the Virgin Mary to give her a child. And she eventually gets a son, named Făt Frumos din lacrimă (Făt Frumos of the tear, because she is supposed to have wept as she prayed). He grows up very quickly and goes off to fight the enemy army all by himself. When he gets to the enemy territory, he befriends the enemy Emperor, a young man who becomes like a brother to Făt Frumos and later confides in him, explaining that the actual villain is Muma-Pădurilor (the mother of the woods, ad literam) who is killing off his subjects. So, Făt Frumos goes off to fight this feared beast. On the way, he meets a lovely young girl, Ileana Cosânzeana, and falls in love with her, only to find out that she is the daughter of Muma-Pădurilor, his enemy. Făt Frumos fights Muma-Pădurilor and manages to kill her, in the end and the two lovers flee to the court of the young Emperor, where they marry.

The story is a bit more complicated than that, but you get the idea. Now, think of Cinderella. Quite a diffferent plot, is it not?

See, this story is one of the better known ones, but Mihai Eminescu did not invent Făt Frumos, he merely wrote down a story, based off of other similar stories that have been told around these parts for centuries.
But Făt Frumos is, generally, a young man who is somehow better than other people, he is smarter, more brave, more cunning. And his bravery is a huge part of the plot, as most of the stories concern his fighting some monster. He is a hero, in the traditional sense of that word.

There are other variants of Făt Frumos, though.

Prâslea cel Voinic (= Prâslea the Brave)

His story is similar. He was the youngest of three sons and his father was an Emperor. And anyway, in his garden he (the Emperor) had a tree that gave him golden apples once a year, but someone kept stealing them in the night, so he asks his first son to guard the tree, but he fails, falling asleep. So does the second son. And finally, it is Prăslea's turn. He stays up through the night and when he sees the thief, he shoots at him and pins, with an arrow, the bag of apples. But the thief gets away, so Praslea then goes on a quest to find the thief, along with his older brothers.
When he does find the thief (and falls in love with his wife, I might add), he again fights him and there is a long and gruesome fight in which they go through all sorts of challenges, but in the end, Prâslea wins.
He gets the better of his brothers, who try to kill him out of envy and in the end, marries the girl.

Harap-Alb

Again, a similar tale, where the hero – Harap-Alb – is the youngest of three sons and has to go through various challenges, face many perils and fight his way through the story, aided by magical creatures, such as talking animals, and all sorts of other strange characters. He does, in the end, get the girl, but that is more like an after-thought.
As it is in all these stories.

A basm focuses on the battle between good and evil, with Făt-Frumos, Harap Alb or Prâslea being the epitome of good, of righteousness. A basm focuses on courage, intelligence, perseverance, religious belief and goodness. Those are the main points of a Romanian basm and these are the qualities that are praised in these stories.
So, you see, the male hero is so much more than just a pretty boy.

And to me, this is very interesting. Why this huge difference? Personally, I blame Disney, because they glamorize these somewhat dumber, mindless stories these fairy tales that don't focus on such qualities, and on the traits of the hero. There hardly is a hero, so that we're encouraged, as girls, to look for a pretty man (who's also very rich). But not a word spoken of bravery, of integrity, or honesty.

This is a very strange thing to write for me, since I spent my entire childhood rejecting such tales, hating them because they were so...Romanian, so out-dated, in my childish eyes. It's only now that I see they were much healthier than the ones Disney's pushing down our throats.

The idea for this post came to me, while I was listening to a Romanian song, called Scrisoare către Făt-Frumos (Letter to Făt Frumos), whose lyrics translate to this:

I wanted to see your white horse again, you promised me I'd ride it someday. And now, when I finally could have, you let us wonder among headlights. We were supposed to grow up and fight all the zmei (bad guys) of the world. Nobody wants to fight no more, Făt-Frumos. People have no time to be brave.[..]

They say life's a battle, but I rarely hear someone who knows if they've won or lost. You promised to teach me about honor, Făt-Frumos. But no one uses this word, not even in commercials. Sometimes, in movies, but there's always some guy who tells you you're stupid if you're honorable.[..]

You promised we'd fly above the mountains with our horses, and that we'll travel at the same time as the stars, and we'll see a tiny white light and come down. I had a feeling we wouldn't be able to fly, but I had hoped we would travel..And there are white lights everywhere, that's the sad part. [...]

It's much easier than in your day and you're not here! [...]

You annoy me, Făt-Frumos, because you're irresponsible. I want to do everything you did, Făt Frumos, I want to live like you. And I want to teach others. My friends should have helped me, no? I should have known how to pick them, no? Well, let me tell you I am alone. [..]

I am surrounded by idiots in grey suits, singing about beer. And who don t even remember you...[..]

You should have been here, you coward, you should have taught us about honor and friendship, told us about sacrifice[..]

Thank you for reading,

*Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7