Roumanian Fairy Tales, by Mite Kremnitz

‘Into the saddle then I sprung, this tale to tell to old and young.’

 Starting typically with ‘Once upon a time, something happened.  If it hadn't happened, it wouldn't be told,’ this collection of 18 Romanian fairy stories was compiled by Mite Kremnitz (1852-1916).  German-born Marie Charlotte von Bardeleben Kremnitz was a friend of Queen Elizabeth of Romania, who wrote as Carmen Sylva, and they collaborated on a number of literary productions.  Kremnitz’s Rumänische Märchen, Roumanian Fairy Tales, was published in Leipzig in 1882, and in an English translation in 1885.  Kremnitz did not do any field work to collect the stories, which are drawn from Romanian authors.

 The 18 stories are: ‘Stan Bolovan’, ‘The Wonderful Bird’, ‘The Twins with the Golden Star’, ‘Youth Without Age and Life without Death’. ‘The Little Purse with Two Half-Pennies’, ‘Mogarzea and His Son’,’ Cunning Ileane’, ‘The Princess and the Fisherman’, ‘Little Wild-Rose’, ‘The Voice of Death’, ‘The Old Woman and the Old Man’, ‘The Pea Emperor’, ‘The Morning Star and the Evening Star’, ‘The Two Step-Sisters’, ‘The Poor Boy, Mother's Darling Jack’, ‘Tellerchen’ and ‘The Fairy Aurora’.  Several were also published, in different translations, by Andrew Lang in his series of colour-coded fairy books, and some have been included in other collections.  

 They comprise the usual elements of fairy stories: the upright hero, often the monarch’s youngest son or a lad of lowly birth, setting out on quests, having adventures, doing valiant deeds, facing ordeals and overcoming evil, perhaps marrying a king’s daughter and inheriting the kingdom.  There are castles, dragons, fairies, enchantments, witches, virtuous daughters, wicked step-mothers and lazy step-sisters; humble folk attempting to get rich, and people of all classes hoping to remedy childlessness.  It is a universe where virtue is rewarded and injustice punished, even if there are many bumps along the way.

 Offsetting the fantastical elements are occasional assurances the account is true.  ‘I was present at these events, and now tell them to those who listen,’ ‘Whoever knows anything more may continue his story,’ and of course ‘If it hadn't happened, it wouldn't be told.’  Regularly there are variations on ‘if they have not died, they may be alive now.’  And perhaps in some dimension they are still alive: the tales certainly are alive, in that they have a timelessness which keeps them fresh.

 In a satisfying compilation, the one story which sticks out because of its complexity and length is the final one, ‘The Fairy Aurora’.  This is not a traditional tale but was written by Ioan Slavici (who contributed a number of stories to the book, including the opening ‘Stan Bolovan’) and published in 1872.  He claimed he had heard oral versions, but its literary feel jars when contrasted with the others’ simplicity of style.  He wrote ‘The Poor Boy’ specifically for the book, though again he said he set it down ‘just as it was related to him by the peasants.’  It seems unlikely no polishing went on, rather like those domesticated ‘folk songs’ sung by a baritone accompanied on the piano.

Epic Bike Rides of the World, by Lonely Planet

This 2016 Lonely Planet book covers a couple of hundred bike rides, most of which will appeal mainly to the committed cyclist with a good level of fitness (they are ‘epic’ rides after all).  Divided into Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania, 50 routes are described at some length, each followed by three brief ‘more like this’ suggestions.

 There is an account of one relating to the Danube, but it is confined to Austria.  Romania features very briefly in a ‘more like this’ section with a ride in Transylvania, the ‘this’ being the covered bridges of Vermont  Not particularly like the Făgăraș Mountains one would have thought; the link being they are ‘falling leaves rides’ to make in autumn.

 The suggested route starts in Bascov (near Pitești) and ends at Bâlea Lake, a distance of 73 miles.  Travelling in the autumn enables the rider to appreciate the ‘colour-infused Carpathian mountains.’  One can also appreciate the wildlife – including, we are informed, bears, lynx and wolves (this will probably put off a lot of potential tourists who contemplate the defensive properties of lycra against large predators).

 The writer recommends whizzing along the Transfăgărășan, though generous insurance cover and a sturdy helmet are surely advisable for anyone doing so.  While the reader is initially assured that the region goes beyond the vampire/creepy castle clichés, the section ends with a reference to Poenari Castle and Vlad the Impaler as inspiration for Dracula.

 As these supplementary routes are not listed in the contents, anyone idly picking up the book and scanning the front matter is not going to realise it is in the book; nor is there an index.  Of course, attempting any of the suggestions is going to require a lot more information, but the purpose is more inspirational than practical, and visiting Transylvania outside the peak tourist season to enjoy the beautiful colours is a useful idea.

Conversational Romanian Quick and Easy, by Yatir Nitzany

In his series of language books, of which Conversational Romanian Quick and Easy: The Most Innovative Technique to Learn the Romanian Language (2020) is one, Yatir Nitzany believes he has found a novel way to pick up the basics of a language with little fuss.  In this very short book he imparts the method he used, one he believes will work for anyone who follows it carefully.

His breakthrough came thus.  He was attempting to learn Spanish and, as do many others, found his progress frustratingly slow.  One day he realised that every language has a core of essential common words, and if these can be mastered it is possible to communicate adequately with native speakers.  He worked out what those words were in Spanish and ended up with a list of 350 most likely to be spoken in real-life situations.  These were capable of multiple connections with each other and, once memorised, were the means to generate enough sentences to be able to hold a conversation.

Putting the idea into practice, he found within a week he could converse in Spanish, and he went on to further study, using his technique as the basis to expand his understanding.  Then he applied the principles to other languages, including Romanian, realising they were all amenable to the 350-word method.  He was able to learn them with ease to a reasonable standard (the key words here being a reasonable standard).

The method is simplicity itself.  The reader learns batches of words which are then shown in sample sentences to assist memorisation.  As the learner progresses through the sets, words learned earlier reappear in the sample sentences to reinforce them.  Nitzany warns that each set must be mastered before going onto the next, then returned to regularly for review, until all 350 words are firmly memorised.

This is not a complete language-learning course; Nitzany concedes it is a method to allow the novice to be able to converse without frills, though it provides a platform for further elaboration.  It does not teach the fine points of grammar, and only the present tense is employed, but he argues these are unnecessary to get by and can be learned later.  The important thing is to be understood and this, he says, the learner scrupulously sticking to his method will be.

It sounds great for those with no prior knowledge, particularly useful for holidaymakers who wish to do more than ask for a couple of beers in a bar, or want a head start before embarking on a course.  So, does it actually work as claimed?  In my opinion, probably not.  Any method promising that a language can be picked up by rote learning really has to be overpromising.  There is no indication how Nitzany chose this particularly group of words as the key 350 in the entire language, and the selection feels subjective rather than based on a quantitative linguistic analysis.

Despite the book’s title, without some structure, trying to learn 350 words by constant repetition is not going to be easy and is certainly not going to be quick.  As for innovative, this is rather like a paper version of Memrise’s online flashcards, but duller.  The sample sentences help, but they are full of brackets with singular/plural and masculine/feminine constructions which look confusing and add complexity to the task of comprehension.  Some grammar rules are provided, though they are of limited help without more explanation

The likely outcome of following this process is that the learner will be able to perform well in recognition/recall tests of the individual words, but not be able to generate novel sentences fluently with roughly accurate adherence to standard syntax and without butchering word endings.  Learning this way, slavishly memorising lists of words for the recommended 30 minutes a day, sounds absolutely tedious and will likely lead to demotivation.

It would be interesting to know whether anyone has relied on Nitzany’s approach to master the basics of any of the languages he covers, of which there are over a dozen, plus quite a few Arabic dialects, and can hold a conversation in real situations.  He claims ‘hundreds’ of learners have used his books successfully but I haven’t found any testimonials to support it.  If anyone wishes to try learning the Nitzany way, it is best utilised in conjunction with other approaches that provide greater variety of practice.