Păcală

Background

Păcală is a fictional character whose name derives from the Romanian verb a păcăli, meaning 'to dupe.' He is primarily associated with Transylvania and Oltenia, and is depicted as a native of Vaideeni, a village located in an area of contact between those two regions. The stories show him as an irreverent young man, seemingly a peasant, who reserves contempt and irony for village authorities such as the Orthodox priest, boyar, or judge, but often plays the fool or displays erratic and criminal behavior that scholars attribute to the eclecticism of sources weaved into the narrative.

Scholars note that Păcală seems to be at least partly modeled on other characters in European folklore, in particular Giufà and Till Eulenspiegel. Traian Bratu hypothesized that Romanians were introduced to the Eulenspiegel anecdotes by their prolonged contact with the Transylvanian Saxons. The stories were then adapted and, in at least some cases, substantially modified, for instance by the addition of a native mythological layer and by the appearance of a sidekick, the more slow-witted Tândală. The first written mentions of Păcală are found in early-to-mid 19th-century Saxon and other German collections of Romanian tales, which identify him as distinct from Eulenspiegel.

Păcală became a subject of interest for Romanian writers, originally with spin-off parodies of oral accounts, generally with political content. These were produced by authors from various regions including Costache Negruzzi, Alexandru Pelimon, Ion Heliade Rădulescu, Vasile Alecsandri, and Iosif Vulcan. From the 1860s, the stories were also collected and expanded upon in a number of editions. Several derivative works codify the various versions, including Petre Ispirescu's Întâmplările lui Păcală, Petre Dulfu's Isprăvile lui Păcală, and Ioan Slavici's Păcală în satul lui.