Meșterul Manole

Publication and legacy

Alongside 'Miorița', 'Toma Alimoș' and 'Dolca', it was published by Vasile Alecsandri in the first collection of Romanian folk creations in 1852, entitled 'Poezii populare, balade (Cântice bătrânești) adunate și îndreptate de Vasile Alecsandri'. Although the popular text has several variants, because the author is anonymous and the ballad was transmitted orally from generation to generation, the one published by Alecsandri is consecrated in literary form.

Many Romanian writers had the legend as a motif and source of inspiration. Among them, Lucian Blaga (in his Meşterul Manole theatre play) brought forth a modern take on the myth. In Blaga's version, Manole's self-sacrifice is not prompted by any gesture of Prince Radu, but it is instead a personal journey.

Analysis

The role of Ana, in particular was widely discussed by scholars, often as an example of a model wife, who never wavers from commitment and duty to Manole even in the face of supernatural efforts to stop her, but also as a feminist critique of marriage, which requires women to sacrifice themselves and become confined within the walls of the house for the sake of their husbands' work. The attempt by Manole and the other masons to flee the roof by building wooden wings only appears in the Romanian version and is a variation of the Icarus myth.

Similarities

A similar tale in the Hungarian culture is Kőműves Kelemen ('Kelemen, the Bricklayer'), whose synopsis is essentially equivalent to the story of Manole. Another story is that of Rozafa, the castle in Shkodra, Albania. Rozafa was the wife of the youngest of three brothers that could only built the castle after they had to wall her alive.

In Serbia, The Building of Skadar also uses the 'bricked-in wife' trope. Another similar story is the legend of the Matsue Castle in Japan. By some estimated, there are over 700 local variants of the myth.