LEGENDS OF THE PAST_A EUROPEAN HERITAGE

Comenius Bilateral Project financed by the European Commission 2008 - 2010
Partners:
College Cesar Franck- Amiens, France
Grup Scolar Industrial Cavnic-Cavnic, Romania

Description of the project

The aim of this project is to carry out a cross examination of one another’s identities through the study of legends_ cultural structures often at the heart of identity constructions. Despite their apparent diversity, it is especially interesting to recognise that these cultural treasures act now as an element of unity, that they are part of a common cultural heritage which we all benefit from.

The purpose of the project is to examine how legends, each with their own particular local features have been thanks to the universality of their messages, shared throughout every European nation by a process of creative transfer. In other words it is a matter of establishing a dialogue between cultures, a dialectic between the peculiar and the universal.

The Man in the Iron Mask

The Man in the Iron Mask

In 1698 a mysterious man was imprisoned in the Bastille. Almost no one seemed to know who he was, although residents of the French prison were usually important people who had fallen out of favor with King Louis XIV. This man had been a captive of the government since at least 1687, and for all that time his face had been hidden by a mask.
The philosopher and writer Voltaire was confined to the Bastille in 1717. He spent almost a year there, and later told a friend that he had spoken to people who had served the Man in the Iron Mask. In his book, The Age of Louis XIV, published in 1751, Voltaire said that the prisoner was forced to wear an iron mask as early as 1661, when he was held captive on the island of Sainte-Marguerite. The prisoner was young (in 1661), tall and very handsome. He dressed in the finest lace and linen, and enjoyed playing the guitar.
In his later writings, Voltaire dropped broad hints about the prisoner’s possible identity. According to Voltaire, the man was about 60 when he died, and bore a striking resemblance to someone very famous. Of course, the most famous face in France at that time belonged to King Louis XIV, who was also in his 60s.
In 1789, journalist Frederic-Melchior Grimm said a royal valet had revealed to him that Louis XIV had an identical twin. The twins’ father, Louis XIII, feared the brothers would grow up to fight over the throne, so he sent the second-born baby away to be raised in secret. The boy was taken into a nobleman’s household and treated with great respect, but he was never told who he really was. As a young man he saw a portrait of his brother and guessed the truth. He was immediately arrested, and spent the rest of his life as the Man in the Iron Mask.
Many people believed this (probably fictional) account, which was embroidered by other writers as the years passed. It has been said that when the Bastille was stormed by a revolutionary mob, the prince’s skeleton was discovered, still wearing its iron mask, but there is no record that this actually happened. Napoleon supposedly believed that he descended from the unfortunate prince, who, according to legend, had married the daughter of the governor of Sainte-Marguerite.

The Legend of Tuskor

This legend has its origins in the story of the mermaid Mélusine who turned into a bird. It is said that whenever people can't see her in the air, they will find her near the fountain, in front of the castle. When she appears, he castle will be flourishing, especially on the Friday before the death of the lord of the castle. Every time she appears she calls monster Tuskor to come out from the lake of the castle.
‘Come out, Tuskor!’
‘I have come, my lady!’
‘The time has come for you to show your true power to the new king!’
Any king who looked into the monster’s eyes turned into stone.
After a few days, Wilhelm became the king. He had a beautiful daughter, with fair hair like the rays of the sun, sea-blue eyes and her face was one of unparalleled brilliance.
One day, being jealous on the beautiful girl, Mélusine decides to call the monster to kill the girl’s father. When the monster came out of the lake and saw the girl walking in the garden, Tuskor immediately fell in love with her. But he was aware that once the king would look into his eyes, he would die.
The king’s daughter was scared of Tuskor, but he told her:
‘Wait, don’t be afraid! Look...I am giving you a potion for your father. If he drinks it, the spell will be broken.’
‘Why are you doing that? This is not your purpose!’
‘I’m doing it for you. You spelled me with your beauty!’
The girl took the potion and gave it to her father, helping him to escape the curse. But the potion had a benefic effect on the monster too as he turned into a prince. Tuskor used a very powerful spell on Mélusine, closing her in a secret chamber under the castle, so she could no longer hurt anyone
Prince Tuskor married the king's daughter and they had ten children who inherited both their parents’ beauty and Mélusine’s meanness!
Written by Gerogiana and Teodora Pînzariu, Simona Sitar and Catrinel Uleniuc

The Mouse-Man

Once upon a time, there lived a mouse which was in fact a man who had been transformed by a sorceress from Romania a long time ago. One day, the mouse started to fly and went to find the sorceress in order to take revenge on her. But the sorceress wasn’t there, she had gone to France to make a surprise visit to her brother whom she missed terribly.
As she was afraid to lose her way, she dropped pink stones on the ground, all along the way. Thanks to this, the mouse was able to follow her. When the sorceress arrived in Paris, she learnt that her brother had been beheaded and, shocked by this terrible news, she fainted near St. Denis.
The mouse, which had also arrived to destination, saw the sorceress and the animal had mercy on the sorceress, even though it had been transformed by her. The mouse approached and stopped a few metres away from the sorceress, thinking and trying to find a solution to help the sorceress before people could see her like that.
People watched the sorceress and the mouse, and they were surprised by what happened next: the animal went in the sorceress’s mouth, straight to her heart, to make it beat again. The mouse succeeded to come out of the mouth then. When the sorceress woke up, she was very surprised that the animal helped her after all that she had done. She asked for forgiveness and she transformed the mouse back into a man.
That is the reason why the man had the nickname Mouse-Man throughout the world! When he died, the sorceress paid tribute to him and buried him in St. Denis Basilica in France.
Written by Aboubaker Seddik

The story of Melusine

The story begins like this: a woman called Melusine lived a very difficult life. One day, her husband came back from work, drunk. He wanted to kill her, but Melusine pushed him back. He had a knife in his pocket, he took it and killed his wife when she was asleep.
When Melusine was buried in Normandie, she didn't understand what happened so she tried to go out, but she was locked underground. At night, she could hear people talking. One day, she prayed to God to let her go out. Suddenly, the ground exploded and she went out and hid behind a tree. Melusine was naked, pale, she had fair hair and green eyes.
At that point, she heard people speaking and she saw strange pale people dressed in black. One of these men approached her, he was starving and wanted to bite her neck. She begged him not to do that or he would regret it. The man stopped and said:
‘If I don't do that, will you be my wife for ever?’
The man was called Dracula, he took her to his castle and told her that he was a vampire. Melusine was afraid, she also told him that she could not remember her past and that she had what she wanted.
They lived happily ever after and had eight children. Now we do not have any information on them. Maybe they live next door to you or in the same city or maybe they are dead. But as they are vampires it is not possible, is it? Who knows?
Written by Hind Suzanne Hedir

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

The princess and Gargantua

This is the story of the princess who had to get married. Her parents introduced her to many suitors, but she could not find her soul mate. Her parents were disappointed and asked her whom she wanted to marry and she answered: “Gargantua”.
Gargantua lived far from the United Kingdom, so her parents decided to send attendants to look for Gargantua in the Baie-de-Somme. The attendants were afraid of going to the Baie-de-Somme because Gargantua was an ogre who was well-known for devastating everything on his way.
On the so long expected day, the attendants landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, then they took the train to the north of France to get to the Baie-De-Somme. When they arrived at Gargantua’s cave, they explained the situation and Gargantua accepted to marry the princess.
All people in the village in the Baie-De-Somme were happy because Gargantua would not destroy their houses any longer, and the attendants were also happy because they had fulfilled their mission. They all arrived at Buckingham Palace, and the king and the queen were happy and so was the princess.
The princess and Gargantua got married, lived happily ever after and had a lot of children.
Written by Hawa Camara and Sonia Boukharta

The Giant and the Sun

Once upon a time, a giant named Gargantua left home when he was very young. He travelled on foot to many countries, aimlessly. One day, as he crossed the Romanian border, he was far from imagining what would happen to him. Towards the end of the day, he arrived in a Romanian village and he liked it almost immediately. Villagers, surprised by the giant, asked him many questions. So it was like that Gargantua started telling the story of his life to whom was willing to listen.
Romanian people came from far away to listen to his stories. Unfortunately, some of them started to become jealous and formed enemy bands telling that Gargantua was a monster and a liar. They even wanted to organize a hunt to kill him!
The Sun knew that Gargantua was right and he wanted to convince the whole world. So one day, the sun turned into an attractive man and went down to Earth, specifically in Romania, and told everybody that Gargantua's story was true. Enemy troops came to meet the Sun and said:
‘You are in cahoots with him! You’re also a liar!’ said the enemies.
‘Really?’ replied the Sun. “But I am the Sun reincarnated into a man to prove that the history of Gargantua is true and that you have no reason to want to kill him! As the Sun, I can see everything and you have to believe me!”.
He added: ‘Look, it is night, tomorrow morning at dawn, it will still be night because I won’t go up to bring you light and I won’t do it until everyone stops their threats against Gargantua!’
The enemies, not knowing what to say, went to tell their discussion with the Sun to the rest of the troops. The following day, late morning, people saw that there was still no sun, and believed the Sun, of course.
Gargantua thanked the Sun and added this event to his stories. He lived very long and died peacefully surrounded by his faithful friends...
Written by Souhem M’Hammedia

The legend of the Haunted Castle

Once upon a time there was a count who lived together with his wife and his two daughters in a castle on the Land of Vampires.
The castle had two big towers, which were locked because they were haunted by the ghost of the Bloody Vampire, who had been tortured for a long time by Sir Andalus, the father of the count. The vampire had kidnapped the count’s most valuable treasure, his daughter, whom he loved so deeply. Although the count had tried to save his daughter, he did not succeed to do that. So, when he found his daughter dead, count Andalus suffered a lot and became merciless and cruel to his son and his family. In order to avenge the death of his daughter, he caught the vampire and tortured him until he died.
After the vampire died, count Andalus locked him into a coffin in the tower of the castle. But as he could not get used to the reality that beloved daughter had died, he threw himself from one of the towers into the sea. The death of his father brought a lot of sufferance to his son because the ghost of the Bloody Vampire started to haunt the castle. The ghost kidnapped the count’s two daughters, he locked them into the towers of the castle and tortured them to death.
The count and his wife suffered enormously for the loss of their two daughters. Devoid of any hope, the two decided to end their misery. So, they climbed to the highest tower, they threw themselves from there and the abyss swallowed them forever.
After their death, the castle was desert, because no other man dared to live there.
Written by Amanuela Cormoş and Ionela Şovrea

The legend of the Church Guarded by Dragons

This legend is the story of a church hidden in the Calamity Mountains, guarded and defended by three fearless dragons that came to life after a spell made by Felix. It is said that the old man found the church and vowed to protect it even beyond death.
While wandering through lonely places on his donkey, he came to a high mountain which seemed to mean nothing else but the way to a great discovery. And as there was no way to go round the mountain, Felix was forced to cling to the dangerous rocks in order to get to its heart.
On his exhausting journey, Felix noticed that the mountain began to quake, it split in two and its depths revealed an old church. Getting closer with fear, it was a big surprise for him when he saw that the church was hosting a real treasure: several icons and holy objects of gold, which shone so bright that you could barely look at them. While he was admiring the marvelous view that appeared in front of his eyes, an angel came to Felix and told him that he was the chosen one, who would have to guard these treasures. Old Felix promised the angel that he would protect the church until his death and even beyond.
Many years passed during which the old man was endowed by God with miraculous powers as a reward for his unswerving faith and dedication with which he guarded the sacred treasures. Feeling that his death was close, the old man thought to invoke three fearless dragons to protect the church after his death. But as dragons are not eternal either, through God’s miracle they were petrified and today, they scrupulously guard the church, protecting it from those who might jeopardize its treasures.
Written by Anamaria Buda, Marius Cheşeli, Andrea Mica and Paula Pinte

The Tyrant in the Golden Mask

During the time of Louis XIVth, around 1662, Parisians were struggling with hunger and poverty, while the tyrant was wasting the wealth of the kingdom in unnecessary wars and he was kidnapping the young daughters of his subjects. Of all the girls he had kidnapped, he liked only one. This was Parilland’s daughter, his right hand. No one suspected that Louis was the one who was kidnapping the girls. Their parents were worried as they did not know what had happened to their daughters.
Seeing that his subjects could work no more, the tyrant released the girls but he kept Anne, Parilland 's daughter, for him. Years passed and no one knew anything about her, they all believed that she was dead. Louis had closed Anne in a cell in Estilon prison. No one was allowed to enter there, the king himself took food to the girl every day.
When the girl turned 21, Louis decided to bring her out from the prison and to introduce her to the entire kingdom as his future wife. In order not to be recognized by anyone, Louis put a golden mask on her face, covering it entirely.
Life in prison had turned Anne into a mean woman. Therefore, right from the moment when she was released from prison, Anne proved to be mischievous, causing sufferance to many of the people around her. She was vindictive and she would have been capable of killing everyone who did not please her. Also, the fact that she knew she could never remove her mask made her an evil human being. So, Louis had managed to transform the gentle girl into a tyrant, like him. All the subjects from the court feared her and her cruelty, calling her “The tyrant in the golden mask”.

Written by Birgitte Costinar, Raluca Danciu and Anita Sitar

Gargantua and the Magic Bird

A young child and Gargantua wanted to travel through time. So, they asked a witch with light purple dress, black heel shoes, and black hat, to help them; she accepted to take them through time on condition that they return before midnight.
They started to travel through time and they arrived in Disneyland. People in Disneyland thought they were there to make a big show and the owner of Disneyland wanted them to present a show. As the young child was looking at the owner’s magic bird, he promised the child to give him the bird if they worked until midnight. The young child accepted to make a show and Gargantua also accepted to work, on condition that he always had something to eat.
The show started. The people were happy and impressed. The show in Disneyland started with Gargantua walking in his tiger costume, which measured 15 metres high, and his boots, which were made of wood, and his hair was covered in mud. Children who saw him, shouted because they were shocked by his size. After Gargantua’s show, the young child who was wearing a golden shirt with a light red jacket, golden boots and a red cap, started to tell his story. When the show finished it was almost midnight, so the owner gave them the magic bird and Gargantua took McDonald’s food with him and they returned back to their time.
People in Disneyland were very impressed by their show and the owner gained a lot of money. From this moment they began to have parades in Disneyland.
Written by Aysel Yayilkan and Emelyne Poissonnier