#baltagul

Days 11-17 tales and legends

Day 11 - Miorița [legend according to which a shepherd is murdered by the other two, although warned by one of his sheep]

Day 12 - Baltagul [written by Mihail Sadoveanu, published in 1930 portrays how he pictured the events after the legend of Miorița, where the shepherd's wife goes look for her husband, later seeking justice after he's found dead]

Dya 13 - Ciuleandra [scenes from the 1985 movie, made after the 1927 book with the same name, depicting the evolution of a man's madness, also being presented the life and death of a girl taken away from a village be the owner of the land as he found her suitable for his son, destroying the peasant, Mădălina, having her turned into a lady of society, now Madeleine, that ends up murdered by the son]

Day 14 - Moromeții [depicted in the illustration is the scene when the tree is cut down, resulting in the loss of equilibrium in the characters' lives, as actions takes place through the establishment of the communist regime, which contributes to the family's financial struggles, as presented by Marin Preda in the book from 1955, turned into a movie in 1987]

Day 15 - Ana lui Manole [the man hired to build the most beautiful monastery faces difficulties as the building kept collapsing every night despite working with the best constructors, but after a dream that told him to put his wife within a wall so that the place ceases to go down, so he then proceeds to build his pregnant wife Ana inside the wall, succeeding to keep the place standing <they're later forced to fly off the rooftop, each falling to their death>]

Day 16 - Harap-Alb [after the main character gets beheaded by the villain, it is the Emperor's daughter that sews his head back on, bringing him back to life]

Hello my dear followers, I know I haven't posted in a long looong time but I'm back with a book review for a famous Romanian book, "The Hatchet" by Mihail Sadoveanu!

If you're Romanian you probably read this when you were a teenager (and the odds are you dreaded it), but shout-out to my non-Romanian friends!

• Vitoria nu-l mai caută pe Nechifor Lipan, ci se duce la Iaşi să se roage la moaşte să fie găsit;

• Înainte să plece să-l caute, Vitoria face o petiţie online pentru prinderea criminalilor;

• Câinele dispare din operă, fiind înlocuit de o pisică vegană;

• Ca să-și facă drumul mai interesant, Vitoria are smartphone și prinde pokemoni cu el;

• În loc de baltag, Vitoria folosește un selfie-stick, că e mai practic;

• Ca să știe fanii ei de pe Facebook tot ce face, Vitoria dă check-in în toate localităţile prin care trece;

• Vitoria e atentă la provocările eco şi merge o bună parte din drum cu o trotinetă electrică;

• Se împrieteneşte cu polițistul Marian Godină pe Facebook, ca să aibă pile în Poliţie;

• Criminalii din carte ridică o excepţie de neconstituţionalitate, care este admisă de Valer Dorneanu. Cei doi stau acasă sub control judiciar şi fac mişto de procurori pe Facebook;

• În meniul hanului la care se cazează Vitoria şi Ghiţă apar şi smoothie-uri, precum şi ceaiuri cu ghimbir şi turmeric;

• După ce i se descarcă trotineta, parcurge restul drumului cu o aplicaţie de carpooling, BlaBlaCar;

• Cât e plecată în căutarea lui Nechifor, Vitoria  îşi închiriază casa prin AirBnb;

• Vitoria nu mai mănâncă pită şi brânză, că are la ea tofu, kale şi chipsuri de sfeclă roşie;

• E însoţită permanent de o echipă ProTV, care face un reportaj pentru ”Ştirile de la ora 5”;

• Vitoria e și patrioată, așa că poartă un tricou cu “Bravo, Simona!”

• După ce-i plăteşte preotului înmormântarea, Vitoria emigrează în Spania, la cules de căpșuni;

• Apare un personaj nou, Petre Daea, cu care Vitoria discută îndelung despre oi;

• Plot twist! Nechifor plecase să acceseze fonduri europene, să-şi mărească stâna şi să-şi facă păstrăvărie;

• Vitoria face poze la peturile lăsate de turiști în munți și primește share pe Facebook de la Lucian Mindruta, care se arată indignat de nesimțirea românilor;

Baltagul is such ancient history for me that I can’t even figure out what exactly is wrong with it. Sadoveanu used the countryside (as many other Ro authors did) because the target readers were Romanians and it was easier to relate with them (also, he really loved the rural side of RO). Vitoria is not necessarily a fem!Sherlock, but simply Sadoveanu’s way of trying to promote the traditional values and customs as being as important in a man’s life as modern education and customs are. It puts an emphasis on the departure from the traditional - people assuming that superstitions and religion are overrated and have no real value in the modern world, being just a coping mechanism for uneducated fools. As you can see, Vitoria has no education and she only relies on her gut and knowledge from folklore and religion, but she succeeds. She does her own justice in her own rural world. And the fact that she is a woman and not a man is also important, because back then girls were less likely to get any education at all, especially peasant daughters (I can’t remember when it is supposed to be set), so she would not even have the possibility to read random books - because she is a poor (allegedly) uneducated woman. This is why she clings onto folklore! Because it is all the information about the world that she can get. Also, her strength comes from her role as a mother too. She lost 5 out of 7 children (if I am not mistaken), so she is more sensitive when it comes to death. Had been Vitoria who died, her husband would have mourned her for a while and then got over it. She has a thicker bond with the ones she loves and is more motivated to fight for justice, because she understand better the pain caused by losing someone you love and knows that life is already a fragile thing and that society is not exactly the best (equality exists only in the eyes of God), so while others would not give a damn on Nechifor, it doesn’t mean that an innocent man has to die just because others have decided, especially ‘cause he was healthy, already tricked death once and had a family to care for.