The fairies
They are young and beautiful, lubricious and tempting, immortal, skitish and have fatal powers over the ones who fall in their trap.
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The name of „Fairies” (in Romanian, the name is the equivalent to the 3 rd person feminine pronoun) was given to them in order to avoid calling them names, which they might find insulting. Other nicknames contain adjectives like: „The beautiful”, „The lovely ones” or „The girls of the field”, „Sandru’s girls” etc.
There are two legends, which try to explain the origins of the fairies.The first one tells us that they are the three servants of Alexander Machedon or in other people’s opinion his daughters, who drank his entire bottle of vivid water which was kept by the king to drink in old age. After drinking it, they become evil fairies and flew away.The other legend says that they are three of the five girls, who had been left without light because they hadn’t had enough oil to keep the candle burning,
The fairies live far away, in forests and groves.They fly through the sky from one meadow to another, in caves, on mountains and rocks, on shores and in bushes.The fairies are often seen as young girls with unbraided hair, wearing sheer clothes, who hover or travel in chariots of fire.The daughters of the Moon go out in the power of the night and start crazy dances. No one can see these dances.Where the fairies start their rounds, the field is left burnt and dangerous.They feed with flowers and drink water from the rivers.Their chants are so special that they can’t be associated with any human songs.
The legend says that the men who refuse their call to dance or deride them are badly punished.The fairies fall quikly in love with brave young men, whom they seduce, but their love lasts only a couple of days. Everything is a joke to them.
When the fairies want to punish someone they put curses on them. Even if they are not seen as cruel creatures, the fairies don’t like to be seen by the mortals.The ones who hunt or see them either dissapear or they become mute.
The old tales say that young men were protected from the fairies, by having garlic, basil, walnut, wormwood or linden leaves upon them. In others regions it is said that another good thing in order to be protected is to make the sign of the cross with the tongue so that they won’t see you.The dance of „calusari” represents a way to cure the fairies’s victims and banish them.There are also special incantations for the victims of the fairies. In other villages, the skull of a horse is put on a stake of the fence to protect the house against the fairies .
Whether they are considered to be the souls of
bewitched women or beautiful girls cursed to
become horrible hags, the fairies are fascinating characters, whose story will live forever, from generation to generation.