Les eaux-delà du Danube
The Waters of the Danube

Summary/Abstract: Drawing on ten years of folkloristic research, the authors reach the conclusion that the Danube, the political boundary between Bulgaria and Romania, is not a cultural boundary. Despite the Danube’s role as a ‘limes danubius’ already in Roman times, the population of the region created symbolic cultural bridges. ‘Cisdanubia’ and ‘Transdanubia’ can thus be regarded as complementary cultural entities. The analysis of the languages, religious rituals, oral history, and particularly songs reveals a strong mythological relationship between the two territories. People living on either side of the Danube have different world views which, however, belong to one mythological cosmos in which ‘Cisdanubia’, the Bulgarian side, represents ‘Life’, while ‘Transdanubia’, the Romanian side, represents ‘Death’. Life and death have neutral meanings and are understood as relating to earth and heaven as cosmic parts which together make up ‘the whole’. This idea is expressed in the poem: “The world here is the way you see it, The other world is the way you think it is.”

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