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640 UN DEBAT : LES MENTALITES COLLECTIVES 10

learnt of the story of Genevieve, so wideły spread in western Europę²²; but this fragment is only eontained in the pages of a very smali number of copies of the work of Petru Movila’s disciple.

From a selection of a similar aim and mentality, Amartalon Sotiria by Agapie Landos (also translated at the end of the 17th centnry),tho tale of a related theme, of “a girl with severed hands”, has an impressive number of copies not only as part of the whole compilation, but also indepen-dently, along with other “istorii”, “ciivinte”, “povesti”, gathered here and there.²³ In the mind of copyists the tale of the “girl with seyered hands” was still alive, collected (of course in modern time) in numerous versious found among the Romanians, north and south of the Danube.²* The cir-culation of the tale was dated as being previous to that of Landos’ collee-tion because, among other reasons, such versions included episodes which did not appear in Amartalon Sotiria, but were detected in narratiyes pre-sent in western Europę. The Bomanian folklore comprised also other nar-ratives about the “unjustly castigated woman” (or jnetly castigated, after yiolating regulations) — by having her hands cut off, by losing her sight or speech — healed thereafter through a miraculous interyention.²⁵

Similarly with the Catalonians and the Portuguese, the tale of Genevieve was preserved up to the lOth century within a narrow circle of readers, while the story of the “girl with seyered hands” had been widely spread. After the translation, the copies were multiplied in Moldavia, Transylvania, Dobrudja (at Coco* nionastery, near the old cultural centre of Niculi(el), in Wallachia and mostly in Oltenia, specially in its northern region.²⁰ It was in Oltenia, too, at Rimnic, that the “miracle of the girl with seyered hands” was printed in 1820, as part of a wider collection, and resumed many times Iater on. ²⁷ Near Rimnic, at Jghiabul hermitage — liidden among forests — Rie of Teius, the church painter, was not only a

²²    Felix Karlinger, Irmgard Lackner, Romanischc VoU:sbtlcher, Darmstadt, 1978, p. 158—223. See also Enzyklop&iie des Mdrchcns, vol. I, II, New-York — Berlin, 1977, 1979.

²³    Some of these apparently independent records from the 18th century of ccrtain legends and parahles are in fact fragmentary-selective copies after the Prologue (sce RESEE, 1981, No. 2). But, if from the mass of narrative materiał, offered by the compilation — li-brary, only ccrtain extracts have been kept, this very choice is telling, sińce one can no longer doubt the contact with other writings. We are cmphasizing that terms like “istoric”, “ciiylnt”, “poveste” had another meaning than the present one, referring to a spccies of old Romanian literaturę, with no written, preclse definitłon in that epoch, but with a vcry elear, practical idea about their specificity.

²⁴    C. Bflrbnlescu, Analiza basmulul romflnesc “Fala cu mlinile lóiale”, “Rcvista de etnografie ęi folclor”, XI, 1966, No. 1, p. 27—40; Rodica !>uiu, Genooeua in Dtcf. UL rom.; see also the bibhography of N. Cartojan, Car/tle populare, vol. II, 1938.

²⁶    O. Blrlea, Mlca enclclopedie, p. 239 — 241.

²⁰ In the same region, the orał traditlon has prescrved to this century, genuine narrative cycles about historical personalitics, with a clcarly defined cultural importance such as Nicodim of Tismana or Grigorc Decap litul of Bfstrita. The figures of Varlaam and Ioasaf, related to the wcll-known popular book, have been largcly eclioed In figurative art, as well as the accounts and representations centcrcd on the motif: “izvorul cu apA vic^M (Leopold Kretzen-bacher, *Lcbensspendender Quell\ Blindenheilung und Propheiie der Kalserwiirde. Zum heu-itgen *Legendenrzóhlen’ der Neugriechen, der Sńdslauen und der Rumfincn zwischen Bildgcgen-wart und Volksbuch_t “Fabuła”, XVI, Berlin, New-York, 1975, p. 209 — 226.

²⁷    Radu Cretcanu, Zugraoli din Teinę, “Magazin istoric”, 1970, No. 12, p. 14 — 19; 1971, No. 9, p. 97; idem, Vinfluence des liures populaires sur les beaux-arls en Valachie au XVIII^e et XIX^e slćcles, “Synthesis”, III, 1976.