Recently, one of the few blogs I read went off-line, after publishing one episode of their epic sagas. It’s [sort of] about Dacians, and as a sign of solidarity, I’ve decided to give the non-Romanian world an idea about it.
The moon was lounging selenarly in the sky, casting fluffy cloud shadows over the muddy marshes of the dark swamp. In the distance a majestic oak forest was visible. But it was far from the two travelers, who were getting bogged down in the swamp up to their waist, carrying the third on their shoulders, on that way through Amutria’s swamps that no man knew, tucked in the foothills of the Carpathians, in 144. They knew it because they were more than simple people. They were Dacians. And they were more than mere Dacians. They were Outlaw Dacians. And they were more than just Outlaw Dacians. They were
Hajduk-Dacian-Werewolves
There's actually another fragment worthy of inclusion as it has more to do with "ancient” interpersonal relations; maybe another time.
After this thundering beginning, I have to reveal to you that correcting the Google translation was no easy task as some of the alternative versions shown in the title are better.
- Google translated some “Dacians” with “Gauls” and others with “Dacians”, almost randomly. Obviously, translating with “Gauls” is wrong; Getae (as they had been named in some Greek old-school literature) is better, but Dacians is best.
- “Outlaws” is not an entirely correct translation of the Romanian “haiduci” as there is a better one: Hajduks (w-hajduk).
- Hajduk is a term most commonly referring to outlaws, brigands, highwaymen or freedom fighters in Southeastern Europe, and parts of Central and Eastern Europe.
- In Balkan folkloric tradition, the hajduk (hajduci or haiduci in the plural) is a romanticised hero figure who steals from, and leads his fighters into battle against, the Ottoman or Habsburg authorities. They are comparable to the English legend of Robin Hood and his merry men, who stole from the rich (which as in the case of the hajduci happened to be also foreign occupants) and gave to the poor, while defying unjust laws and authority.
- In reality, the hajduci of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries commonly were as much guerrilla fighters against the Ottoman rule as they were bandits and highwaymen who preyed not only on Ottomans and their local representatives, but also on local merchants and travelers. As such, the term could also refer to any robber and carry a negative connotation. Here’s a few, some who were subjects of “historical drama”:
- Iancu Jianu (early 19th century) from Oltenia region, befriended and fought together with freedom fighter Tudor Vladimirescu in the emancipation Revolution of 1821
- Radu Şapcă, priest and hajduk in the first half of the 19th century from the region of Oltenia, he supported the liberal revolutionaries of 1848 in Wallachia and helped organized the Islaz Assembly
- Pintea Viteazul, born Grigore Pintea in a family of little nobles, was captain in an army and hajduk in the area of Maramures (currently north of Romania). Died in an ambush in 1703 in Baia Mare. A memorial and claimed tomb is placed next to a highway on the top of a mountain, east of Baia Mare.
- “Varcolac” is probably best translated with “werewolf”, though the series Underworld introduced a subspecies, Lycan. While the Werewolf can only transform under a full moon and cannot control his transformation, the Lycan is more advanced, and can transform at will. However, in other stories the Werewolf can transform at will as well, so it really depends on the author. Here’s more on etymology from Wikipedia:
Slavic uses the term vlko-dlak, literally "wolf-skin", paralleling the Old Norse ulfhéðinn. However, the word is not attested in the medieval period (Polish wilkołak, Czech vlkodlak, Slovak vlkolak, Serbo-Croatian вукодлак - vukodlak, Slovenian volkodlak, Bulgarian/Macedonian върколак vrkolak, Belarusian ваўкалак vaukalak, Ukrainian вовкулака vovkulaka), loaned into modern Greek as Vrykolakas. Baltic has related terms, Lithuanian vilkolakis and vilkatas, Latvianvilkatis and vilkacis. The name vurdalak (вурдалак) for the Slavic vampire ("ghoul, revenant") is a corruption due to Alexander Pushkin, which was later widely spread by A.K. Tolstoy in his novella The Family of the Vourdalak(composed in French, but first published in Russian translation in 1884). (w-ww)
Hopefully, the website problems will be fixed sooner rather than later; Wordpress is finicky and expensive. For anybody else having such problems I offer hosting here and you can even run ads for free. I can help you publish stuff with your own password (which you don’t have to share with me and I cannot possibly find), if you need a part (or even all of it) encrypted, on a blog that never goes down. You can compare this blog’s uptime (going back up to 7-8 years) with any other similar blog and you will find that it either comes or top or is just as good.
Does this sogor brother suffer from Alexic Danopathy, or simply poor webhosting choices?
Sources / More info: pg-hdvm, w-hajduk
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