Articles by Initial Letters

New series: Hideg Anna’s folk tales. A native of the village of Ördöngösfüzes/Fizeşu Gherlii, Mezőség region, Transylvania, RO – this year Hideg Anna celebrates her 90th birthday. From Magyar Zoltán‘s book of tales and other stories from Ördöngösfüzes – Mentor Kiadó, Marosvásárhely 2007. This is the tale an old King and Queen’s three sons. They finally had to tell their sons it was time to see the world, find wives and get married. The sons set out, and soon found themselves in the city of the Red King who was said to have a very beautiful daughter. The sons asked the Red King for her hand in marriage. The Red King said, ‘there are three of you; but I have only one daughter!’ He told them to go out for a year and find gifts. ‘The one who brings the most valuable gift can marry my daughter and will get half my kingdom.’ The three sons each set out alone to search for gifts. One son found a spyglass. One found a special cloak which would take a person wherever they wanted to go in a blink of the eye. The youngest son found an orange that could bring the dead back to life. After a year they met at the crossroads. They tried out the spyglass and saw that the beautiful princess had died. They used the special cloak to go quickly to the Red King, the youngest prince used the orange to bring the princess back to life. The princess would marry the youngest son because he brought her back to life. They held a wedding so big that wine flowed on the streets from Hencida to Boncida. The two older brothers were sad because they didn’t have brides. They looked in the spyglass and saw two princesses hurrying to the wedding. They used the magic cloak to go pick up the princesses – daughters of the White King. They all went to the wedding. All’s well that ends well, and three weddings were held at the same time. The sons went to introduce their wives to their parents and everyone lived happily ever after.