subject: Roumanian Fairy Tales and Legends - Tales from Transylvania, Bessarabia, Bukovina, Wallachia and Moldavia [print this page] Roumanian Fairy Tales and Legends - Tales from Transylvania, Bessarabia, Bukovina, Wallachia and Moldavia
Before I start - there is no spelling mistake in the title, for that is how the Romanians spelt Romania, or should I say Roumania, in the 1800's.
Roumanian Fairy Tales & Legends is a collection of fifteen of Romania's most fascinating tales, painstakingly researched and deftly translated by E.B. Mawer in 1881. It must be noted that in 1881 this was done longhand and without any digital assistance which makes EB Mawer's feat even more admirable.
In approximately 82 BC, the rule of the Dacian kings was replaced by the Romans, who were forced out by the Goths, who, in turn, were supplanted in the 4th century AD by the Huns. After this, a sequence of nomadic rulers, including the Gepids, the Avars, the Bulgars, the Pechenegs, and the Cumans, ruled the area.
In the Middle Ages, Romanians lived in three distinct principalities: Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania, which were ruled in turn by the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. In 1859, Moldavia and Wallachia united under Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, but it was not until the end of WWI, in 1918, that Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania proclaimed unions with the Kingdom of Romania and the modern state of Romania was born.
Given Romania's long and diverse cultural history, it is no surprise that the country has such a rich tapestry of folk tales, fairy tales and legends, for each successive culture has brought its own folklore and legends and added these into the Romanian fairytale soup. It is even more fortunate that so many of these stories survived the country's turbulent history and have been passed down throughout the ages to countless Romanian children enabling Elizabeth Mawer to make her translations in 1881.
33% of the Publisher's profit from the sale of this book will be donated to The Relief Fund for Romania.
For more information, a table of contents or to order, go to http://www.abelapublishing.com/roumanian.html
To view the "Eastern European Tales" collection follow this link http://www.abelapublishing.com/EasternEurope.html
