Vasilica The Brave

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. It is fortunate that so many of these stories survived the country's turbulent history and were passed down throughout the ages to countless Romanian children. A small collection of Romanian folk tales and historical legends., painstakingly researched and deftly translated by E.B. Mawr. 

At the begining of the fairy tale VASILICA THE BRAVE we see a gipsy blacksmith, who was the best iron worker in the whole empire.

This gipsy had a son. He played with the sledge hammer as if it were a toy and twisted the great anvil between his fingers.

The life of a working blacksmith was not to his taste, playing at soldiers with his young comrades pleased him better. He was very strong and he did not know the meaning of fear, and was calm and cool in the greatest peril; he laughed at ill the frightful tales of dragons and evil spirits recounted by the old women of the neighbourhood...