River Legends This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
“When the legends die, the dreams end; there is no more greatness. “
Tecumseh
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The Italian Legend: Clepie, the evil spirit of the river Po
We, the founders of “Cities on Rivers” project, are proud to present the collection of legends connec-
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The Island of the Hanged
ted with our rivers. The aim of the project is not only to protect the river in terms of ecology but also preserve customs and traditions related to it.
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the Tejo, the Guadiana and the Douro
part of national heritage and therefore should neStudents from each country participating in the
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translated it into English so that the beautiful tales
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the world of magic and show them what our main characters: the Po from Italy, the Brda from Poland, the Douro from Portugal, the Suceava from Romania, the Guadarrama from Spain, the Manavgat from Turkey experienced throught their lifetime.
The Spanish Legend: The “legend” of the Guadarrama river
about the rivers could be told around the world. With these stories we want to take the readers to
The Romanian Legend: The advice of the spring water
project: Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Turkey chose their legend, illustrated it and
The Portuguese Legend: The Legend of the Three Rivers:
We strongly believe that legends are an integral ver be forgotten.
The Polish Legend:
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The Turkish Legend: Legend of Belkis in Aspendos region the Manavgat River
Clepie, the evil spirit of the river Po his legend tells the story lived by a character named Zambell. Zambell, which in the Po Valley dialect means thin, was a boatman, who ferried merchants from one bank of the river Po to the other. One day he saw a nice girl passing and carrying a flower, the curnarett, a plant which grows in river areas and whose flowers resemble horns. Zambell was dazzled by this vision and suddenly he wasn’t able to speak anymore. He had fallen under the spell of Clepie, the evil spirit who dwelt in the depths of the river Po and had chosed that girl as her favorite. The spirit of the Po was evil, an enemy of man, who had the power to decide where to direct the floods, where to “steal” terrain from men, where to flood houses and cause the death of the peasants. The peasants used to throw the “curnarett” into the river to ingratiate themselves with the evil spirit. The girl decided to help Zambell. She sat on the bed of the river and began to remove the petals from the “curnarett” throwing in the river one petal at a time and calling the spirit of the river: “Clepie, where are you?”. Three times the girl called the spirit who finally answered from the river bottom: “Tell me, what do you want from me?”. The girl said: “Clepie, I would like to talk to you, so long that you won’t rest.” Clepie replied: “Little girl, do you want to challenge me, perhaps?”. Clepie, like all the evil spirits, was very curious and accepted the challenge. Confident that she would win, she did not hesitate to declare: “If you were to win, you can ask me anything, but if I win, I’ll take your life”. The young girl did not appear frightened and began to talk without interruption. They spent days and nights talking. The girl was now very tired and her voice was barely audible. She rose to give up, but just then Clepie, exhausted, said: “Tell me what do you want me to do for you, because I am too tired and I need to rest”. The joyful girl said: “Before disappearing forever into the floods of the river you will need to return the voice to Zambell, the boatman, and set him free from your spell”. Clepie wondered at such a request, but just to be free to go and rest, she was glad to undo the spell. The girl ran to Zambell, who said: “I know that you helped me, I shall be forever grateful and I will live for you and with you from here to the eternity”. All is well what ends well.
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Munir Romasa
“The Island of the Hanged” - the legend connected with the Brda river ummer was coming to an end. The first storks were flying away, days were becoming shorter and nights colder. Yet, this one brought back memories from the best of all summer nights - the sky was covered in thousands of shining dots and its middle was cut through with the accumulation of stars - the Milky Way. The temperature allowed people to spend the night in light clothes. That’s how the lady standing on the river’s bank and gazing at the freckled sky was dressed. Her robe was light and delicate. That didn’t disturb her at all, in fact it was another virtue of this warm summer night. That was because she was just going out to meet with her lover. They had to meet in secret. She was the daughter of a famous nobleman from Bydgoszcz and he was a raftsman. That is why her father did not approve of the relationship. When they last met , he gave her an hourglass. He couldn’t afford to buy it, so he made it by himself - he took some sand from the bottom of the Brda river and put it into small glass containers made by his friend –a glassworker. Then he framed them and burned out initials “J.S.yM.” He said to the girl, that he would be waiting for her on the island within ten rotations of the hourglass after the sunset. The girl turned the hourglass for the ninth time and she still was staring at the sky and waiting patiently. She didn’t notice that all the sand was again in the bottom part of the hourglass. Meanwhile the boy was already on the Island. He wanted to make a comfortable clearing for both of them so he spent the whole evening on cutting out the bushes, pulling out roots and chasing off every kind of worms. He already finished but the girl still was not here. He knew how long ten revolutions of the hourglass took – because he made it by himself – and he knew, that the time was up. To get to the island one should swim a few meters.A young rafter could swim perfectly but it didn’t cross his mind that Nobleman’s daughter may not be able to swim. He realised it later that night. He hoped that the reason for the delay of his beloved was the night sky, which had dazzled her with its beauty, and she didn’t notice when the hourglass turned for the tenth time. A better perspective than the one which began slowly poisoning his heart, that she had been caught by her father during her escape from home. He hoped that she hadn’t appeared there yet, or that she was somewhere there.
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Wiktoria Ozner
His desperate search went on until the crack of dawn. He searched through every bush and tree. He looked into each hole, which she might have fallen into. She was nowhere. He found only the hourglass which he had given to her. All of the sand rested in the bottom part. A few days later they were to send along the Brda river another loading, which had to be passed to other raftsmen sailing to Gdańsk. The boy promised himself that as soon as he finished his work, he would go to his beloved’s home to find out whether she was safe and sound even if there was a risk of physical confrontation with her possessive father. Somewhere in the middle of the way one of his friends said that this summer there were exceptionally many drowned people, and at that moment they just passed by another one. The boy jumped on his feet and looked behind the boat. The depths of water were floating the body of a young girl with blond hair. She was wearing casual, but tasteful clothes. You could see that she wasn’t a common peasant woman, but the real toff. Everyone was surprised when he dived into the river and started swimming towards her. As soon as he caught her he knew that it was her. Such a delicate and alluring body could belong only to his beloved bride. He swam out with her on the riverside and then he could take a closer look at her face. Her eyes, which used to be so deep and piercing, now were empty and cold . The most beautiful face he had ever seen was sunken and pale now. Only her straw-coloured hair looked the same, but a bit ruffled. He immersed his face into her hair and hugged her tightly to his chest. The boy couldn’t feel her galloping heartbeat anymore. He couldn’t feel her warm, anxious breath on his neck. The only thing he could feel was the chill and inertia of her dead body. He knew it was his fault.
One week later the inhabitans of the town and a surrounding area assambled near the banks of the Brda river. In the peaceful city nothing interesting ever happened but that was an unusual sight . Therefore they always came as soon as they heard about something peculiar from their neighbours. Everyone was looking in silence at the island. On its shore, there was a raft left. It was glowing brightly. Behind the flames six characters appeared. They were lit in golden glow and wreathed in clouds of smoke. They were the six raftsmen paying the price of life for the inappropriate love of one of them. They were as calm as a dead person can only be. Their bodies were slowly rotating on the ropes in the rhythm of the wind, which gave the impression as if they were performing their last dance. Joseph, because that was the name of the father of the deceased, looked at all of it. He was aware of the innocence of five of them but it didn’t matter to him. He accused all the people of theft and he used his position to persuade the judge to sentence them to death. It was the only way that he could avenge his daughter’s death. Nobody cried after them, and when the raft began to fade, everybody returned to their own activities. The bodies have never been taken off - they were to hang there forever and be a warning to all floating on the river. Today, the island is called “The Island of the Hanged” and no raft has ever moored there. źródło: firtelbydgoski.blogspot.com
He also knew that he had to give the body to the family. He carried her to her family home, where her enraged father was waiting for her. The raftsman came with her body home, and when the father saw what had happened to his daughter, he didn’t let him leave the house and ordered to capture the rest of the rafters. He knew his daughter had an affair with a raftsman, but he did not believe that he would be brave enough to personally bring her dead body home. So he thought he would better catch all the raftsmen. One of them certainly was the one because of whom Julka was dead.
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The Legend of the Three Rivers: the Tejo, the Guadiana and the Douro n old legend says that once upon a time, three small happy and bouncy rivers wanted to see the ocean. As friends, they decided to race each other, to see which one would get there first. -We leave early in the morning - one said. -We leave before sunrise - said the other. -And let us see which one reaches the sea first - said the latter. The moonlight shone on the sleeping waters of the three rivers, and the following day, the first to wake up yawned, stirred its waters and thought: - If I leave now, I will be the first one to arrive! The small river, which was known as Tajo, let itself slide down the mountain. And since it was a very friendly river, everyone it passed by greeted it with joy. Through its passage it saw many beautiful places, but in the end, what the small river dreamed of was of getting to the sea. It played with little girls who were washing their clothes in its clear waters, passed by the most beautiful avenues of pine trees, olive trees and orchards. Whenever it met local people it would always say: -I am going to the sea! Come with me! Let´s go to the sea! Many streams embraced that little and happy river and followed the Tajo on its voyage. With time it grew bigger and wider, happy and delighted with the lands it bathed. One day, a little girl playing with the little waves of Tajo called it Tejo by mistake, but the river liked its new name so much that it decided that from then on everyone who saw it would know it as Tejo. Through its journey, its crystal clear waters, filled with life, started supporting the lives of many others, such as animals, trees and even fishermen and farmers who lived near its banks. Quietly but strong-minded, Tejo finally arrived to the sea, which welcomed it with open arms. The sea, with its blue and refreshing waters and playful waves, the sea, which the little river had been looking for a long, long time. Meanwhile, the other small river, the second one to stir, which had grown accustomed to being called Ana or Uadi-Ana, was not sure which was the best way to get to the sea. During its voyage, it realised that people it passed by called it by a new name - Guadiana.
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At the end of its trip, the Guadiana River, finally seeing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, plunged into its deep blue waters joyfully. Whilst it swam happily in the sea, it then realized that it was not alone; Tejo had beaten it to it and gotten there first. The lazy third river only woke when the sun was high up in the sky. And remembering the race it thought: -I am late! It is too late! - thought the sleepy river. Its name until that trip had always been Durius, but now it seemed that people called it Duero. It ran through the low and dry lands where it took the time to observe the cultivated fields, but never stopping to rest as it knew it would be the last one to get to the sea. In a rush it spiralled down the rocky mountains. It passed through beautiful hills covered with vineyards with colourful leaves in where heavy bunches of grapes grew. -I want to reach the sea, but I’ll be the last, I know I’ll be the last! After a rough journey, Douro, previously known as Duero and Durius, was the third and last of the three rivers to reach the sea as it followed the most difficult path, making its way through strong mountains and shaping its surroundings to be the breath taking scenery we well know today.
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Liliana Magalhaes
The advice of the spring of the Suceava River adaptation of a folk tale hree travellers stopped for a rest near the spring of the Suceava River and they drank from its pure clear water. Above the spring, someone had written: “DO AS I DO!” “What do these words mean?” wondered the three travellers. “I think”, said one of them, “that the spring wants to tell us See? I always run through earth and stones, that is why I am clean. Work! Keep running, because WORK protects you against evil and keeps you clean”. “It seems to me” said the second one, “that the spring says: Do you see? I give you my water, but do not ask for money in return. Be generous, like me! GIVE AWAY from your riches and goods because Gift from gift, heaven is made”. “I think otherwise” said the third traveller. “It is like I hear him say: See how clean and fresh my water is? And if I become a little turbid, I am no longer good for anything, nobody can drink from my water. So, be GOOD with a pure heart”!
What do you think? Which of the three travellers was right?
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Mara Brădățan
The “legend” of the Guadarrama river lthough Guadarrama River doesn’t have any legends associated with it, the river has different meanings and its importance resides on the fact that the river is protected by the Regional Park. The video, recorded for the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, shows such reflections. And this could be a possible legend… Once upon a time, people who happily lived in the Guadarrma Kingdom were used to throwing rubbish into the river. They wrongly believed that they could do that because the trash would disappear with the water. However, the quality of their lives was getting worse and worse. One summer night, the King of Guadarrama had a nightmare, where three witches appeared in the forest. All four of them were at the top of the mountain. Unexpectedly, they stab the King with a knife. “For the Kingdom”, the first witch said. “For your family”, the second witch said. And finally the third one said - “for yourself”. After that, his body fell down, although instead of blood, from his light and water started to come out from him. He suddenly woke up and travelled along his kingdom to the Guadarrama River, where the witches lived. During his trip, several spirits appeared in front of him. All of them made him pass some trials in order to proof his braveness and courage. When the King finally called the witches’ attention, they started to stir substances and objects into their magical pot and said: “as you have overcome all the trials you deserve to be forgiven, your kingdom will be saved. However, you have to tell your people this: “all of you have been polluting the river, but the curse is not on Guadarrama River, it is on those people who contaminate the water”. If you don’t look after the river, we will not protect you anymore”. Every year, the inhabitants of his kingdom celebrate a ceremony near the river to be grateful for such wise advice.
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Alejandro Rende Martín
Legend of Belkis in Aspendos region the Manavgat River his is the story of Belkis, the beautiful daughter of the king of Aspendos City. The legend takes place around the years 138 – 164, when Romans ruled the country and Antonius Pius was the king of the Aspendos City. And it goes like this: The King decided to wed his only daughter Belkis, whose beauty had crossed the borders of the country. There were many men who heard about her beauty and wanted to marry her. The King could not decide among so many candidates, so he started a competition. He said: “I will give my daughter to the man who builds the most useful structure for the city.” Two of the city’s most talented architects, named Zenon and Kesos, were also in love with Belkis and they started working on their projects. They worked for days and nights to create the most useful structure. When the time had come, they presented their masterpieces. Zenon had built a spectacular amfitheatre, which could seat up to 20.000 people. The acoustics of the theatre was designed so extraordinarily, that If a person whispers or drops a needle on the stage, the sound can be heard from the upper most gallery. The second architect, Kesos, had built water channels and great aquaducts to suppy water to the city. The aquaducts, bridges and channels supplied the city with water from the nearest river,Eurymedon. Both structures looked great and it was very hard to chose. The King decided that aquaducts and bridges were more useful for city. So, he gave his daugter to talented and smart architect Kesos. Today, both structures can be seen in Aspendos. The region is named after beautiful Belkis. Zeliha ŞEN
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Team Coordinators: Italy- Daniele Roatti Poland- Katarzyna Siecińska Portugal- Gabriela Reis Romania- Alina Stanciu Spain- María Felisa Domínguez Rodríguez Turkey- Reyhan Zuhal Kutlu To find out more about our project look here: http://citiesonrivers.blogspot.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/746315288829400/
