“Mihai Eminescu” National Highschool, Buzau, Romania.

Romanian folk art is stated at the intersection of magic and aesthetic and is a disturbing component of the Romanian soul. It is not an isolated activity, it is part of a whole life, is one of the nation’s natural expressions formed on these places. Romanian folk art expresses in its own way the original life of this nation, the life vision of these people. A variety of traditional crafts such as weaving, egg painting, sewing, decorative woodworking, icon painting and more has made the Romanian folk art particularly significant. When you think of Romanian folk art, you can not forget the folk costumes, right?

Folk art is pictured especially in literature, drama, painting or architecture.The romanian literature has been influenced through the time by the romanian folk art and it has been sended from generation to generation by the word of mouth. One convincing example in this assumption is The Little Ewe (Mioria), which was the source of inspiration for Mihail Sadoveanu, who wrote the immortal novel, The Hatchet (Baltagul); book which reveals great literary themes- family, love, crime, revenge. In the same way was written The Golden Bough (Creanga de aur) by Mihail Sadoveanu. Novel in which the author described the very begining of Christianity on the Romanian lands. Just like Henryk Sienkiewicz who spoke in Quo Vadis about the persecution of the Christians in Nero's times, Mihail Sadoveanu had observed and written about the conflicts between religious flows.

The Little Ewe (Mioria) Alecu Russo

The myth of Master Manole (Meterul Manole) has inspired Lucian Blaga in the process of writing the play with the same name. The myth of sacrifice for creation transposed in a drama which is thought to be one of the greatest achievements in Romanian theater. It's probably the only work that has to show so much realism, how much pain and how enormous can a sacrifice be for an artist to accomplish his masterpiece. We find here some similarities with The Myth of Ikaros (Mitul lui Icar), who, as Manole, after finishing the labyrinth, died.

Therefore, in the Romanian literature, on the creations of a lot of artists from the last decades, is found the fantastic. The fantastic was created on the need of mistery, on the necessity of deep poetic knowledge, but it has always kept in touch with the reality. When we think of folk art in our literature, we certainly think of one of the most beautiful creations of our nation: the fairy tale. It has been transmitted orally from person to person and has an anonymous author. They came from the need of expression of the Romanian soul. On Romanian lands people began to tell stories which spread by word and passed through many areas of the country, borrowing something new from each of them. And this is how legends and fairy tales appeared, and some authors collected and inserted them in volumes so as not to be lost.

Therefore, in the Romanian folk literature we can find stories about these fantastic creatures, but also about the habits and the culture of the Romanian people. Here comes again the religion. Because of the strong faith in God of the people, obviously the artists of these times were writing about the lifestyle of the faith people. Some of the themes of these writings are: -the battle between the good and the evil, where the good always wins. -the relation between the human and the nature. -the passing of the time.

There is a large diversity of fantastic characters in the traditional Romanian literature. Also, the romanian literature has been influenced by the folk art because of the faith in God. Therefore, if there were some holy people, there was also the fear of the existence of some evil creatures. One of them is Baba Cloana, a monstrous old woman. In the fairy tales collected by the folklorist Ioan Pop Reteganul, this character is described as an ugly hunchbacked woman with long teeth. In the fairy tales of Petre Ispirescu this character is the mother of dragons, which when hit by death, runs and feeds herself with souls that are kept locked in a cage.

Prâslea cel voinic i merele de aur (Prâslea the Brave and the Golden Apples) is a well-known folk fairy tale that is part of a volume in which Petre Ispirescu collected and included many folk fairy tales. Thus we can distinguish syncretic divinities (Fatal Sisters, Holy Friday, Holy Sunday, The Holy Virgin, etc.); demigods (The Flying Goblin, The Christmas, The Morning Star); archetypal forefathers (The Old Men, The Giants); good fairies, evil fairies, good fabulous characters, demons (The Dog of the Earth, The Forest's Mother, The Ghosts, etc.). Also belonging to the mythical elements are the living water, the dead water, different objects, plants and magic tools. The objects vary more or less from one version to another. Nevertheless they are all possessed of the same magic virtues which enable the hero to fulfill his task and come face to face with his beloved fairy.

In Descrierea Moldovei (Description of Moldova) by Dimitrie Cantemir we can find habits, beliefs, superstitions. The Forty-Eighters see in folk poetry a true mirror of the folk soul. Another important characteristic of our folk culture is the human-nature fellowship. Since always, the nature has been a place of refuge for sad times and a way of protection from enemies, as the saying sais: The forest is the brother of the Romanian. One of the most important characteristic of the Romanian folk literature is its deep national and unitary character, as Alecu Russo said: "Folk poetry is... the most alive expression of a the national character.“

We also owe Heliade Rădulescu the processing of a myth: Zburătorul (The Flyer) and the entry of folk literature as source of inspiration in the sphere of interest of creators (Anton Pann, Asachi, Bălcescu). The Flyer was in the Romanian folk mythology a fantastic imagined being, like an evil spirit who used to disturb at night, in sleep, the unmarried girls and recently married women. This myth became very popular among Romanian literature and it can be found in many compositions.

"...if the genius knows no death- Eminescu wrote- and his name is spared the night of oblivion, in exchange of enjoying happiness himself. He is immortal, but unlucky as well." Mihai Eminescu, in his wide literary production, had inspired from mythical traditions. For instance: Calin (sparse fairy tale pages). Even in the masterpiece, The Vesper (The Evening Star/The Lucifer/The Daystar) we find The Myth of the Flyer, the same in Heliade Radulescu's poem with the same name. Hyperion appears as a broken fairy-tale which has been converted into an idyll. It is the "story" of a girl who goes along the path of the long traditional initiating ritual, completed by the wedding; as in the frame of any fairy-tale, she is presented as "an emperor's daughter". The maiden's initiation, preserved in the epic pattern of the archaic Romanian fairy- tale, primarily calls for the complete isolation of the girl at her awkward age; then the story evolves so that a relationship is established between the latter and a supernatural being, a night guest coming from "the world beyond": in the Romanian fairy- tales this character commonly is a Dragon, and in the vein of the Romanian romanticism a "Flier", a being that in most cases, abducts the girl and keeps her as captive in his own world; the liberation is made possible by the prospective bridegroom, who is part of the young man's initiation: the latter wins her either fighting with the captor, or by reverting the sense of the abduction. All these ingredient are present in the versified fairy-tale The Girl in the Golden Garden, whose epic structure was used by Eminescu as an initial source.

The Lucifer Mihai Eminescu “A prince ideed of royal stock, With heavy hanging golden hair; A purple winding-sheet his smock, Hung round his shoulders bare. A starry glow shines from his eyes, His cheecks are deathly white; A lifeless thing in living guise, A youth born of the night.”

A true lasting literature, that we like and that will be original for the others can be founded only on the nation’s mouth words, on its traditions, custom, history and on its Genius.

Students: Berindei Andreea Doni Alina Manolache Adina Coordinating teachers:  Dobre Florentina ( French )  Vlad Mihaela ( English )