LEGENDS OF THE PAST_A EUROPEAN HERITAGE

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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The story of Detano


Once upon the time, in a village with poor people, there lived a family struck by fate, without children. It was difficult for them as they had nobody to help them with the work around the house.
One evening, when they sat at the table, they began to discuss:
‘My dear, who is going to inherit our house and land when we die?’ asked the woman with a sad and gloomy face.
‘We haven’t died yet! There is time. We will see…’, the man replied shortly. He always got upset when they talked about children. ‘What do you want me to do if God left me like that?’
The woman looked at him then, with her face down to the ground, she stood up from the table and went to tell her evening prayer. He asked God to make a miracle and give them a child so that they have someone to help them when they are old.
Time went by, a month, two months, one year passed and, one evening, God blessed them with a wonderful child. It was a boy. He was small and always smiling. When the boy was one year old, the whole village was talking about him. The witch of the village heard about this and she came to see him. Seeing how handsome he was, she cursed him: when he turns 10 years old, the boy will change completely. And no one could break the spell.
The boy was growing as days passed by. He was obedient and helped his parents with housework. When he turned 10, the boy began to grow more and more. He became a giant, and his parents couldn’t do anything about this. So they drove him away from home. And he left...
He went a long way and one day, all sweaty and tired, fell down to the ground near some cliffs and fell asleep. When he woke up, a lot of people were looking at him. When he got to his feet, all of them ran. Then the giant began to cry and told them:
‘Don’t go! I don’t like to be alone...’
A man had enough courage to get near him and asked him how he got there and where he came from. The giant started to tell his story. Then, the people sat down near and listened to him. Seeing that he was so wretched, villagers allowed him to live with them, calling him Detano. He was so happy!
Many years passed by and the village where Detano had settled became poorer and poorer. He ate more and more, and he was more and more hungry. So, the villagers were forced to send him away from the village. But Detano didn’t want to leave. He began to be harsh with them, and made them work for him. He became the master of the village and everyone was afraid of him.
And so, many days and months passed by. The villagers were exhausted because of too much work. They were hungry, because they gave the giant all the food. He used to sit in a huge chair and people brought him food.
But, one day, one of the villagers said:
‘We don’t want you here anymore! We are so exhausted! We allowed you to settle here hoping that you would help us, but you haven’t done anything but make us work for you!’
Detano stood up from his chair and said:
‘First my parents, and now you?’ And he left without looking back.
He walked a long way until he arrived near the ocean. He sat down. There was no one. It was deserted. Occasionally he could hear gulls. They comforted his loneliness. In the evening, he used to lie back, looking at the moon, and he thought about his parents. He didn’t like to be alone. So he plunged into the ocean and the waves sealed over him forever and no one ever heard anything about him. But his giant chair on which he stood, still exists even today.

Written by Ştefania Bonta, Cătălin Jurj, Denisa Păun and Andra Szasz

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