THE LAD WHO FIGHTS WITH DEATH: BOGDAN DAMIAN ŞI SÂLA SAMODIVA
THE LAD WHO FIGHTS WITH DEATH: BOGDAN DAMIAN ŞI SÂLA SAMODIVA

Author(s): Sabina Ispas
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Customs / Folklore, Romanian Literature
Published by: Instituti Albanologjik i Prishtinës
Keywords: Miraculous; Knight; Death; Confrontation; Male; Female; Ruling family; Blindness;
Summary/Abstract: Within the corpus of Romanian narrative song, one grouping of texts all contains a fantastic, essentially “miraculous” series of events which are of overriding importance. At the core of these songs lies the idea of a search for a wife in order to set up a (monogamous) family. The heroes – the future couple – are antagonist personalities, and symbolize the struggle between two opposing elements. As characteristic of an ancient epic song, the conflict takes place only between the two protagonists: Bogdan Damian and Sâla Samodiva. The hero, Bogdan, shares his name with a one of the traditional hero-names found in the Romanian Royal Family, and possesses various values that make him a complex being. He goes to the border of Sâla’s land and provokes her to fight (Sâla Samodiva is a euphemistic name for death). The hero strikes her in the face, blinding her. Blindness is equivalent of castration. The hero becomes a master that the death must obey. Submission of the demon (woman) to the male power virility means mastering the femininity that is dominated by destructive love. The demonic image is humanized, gets a shape and turns into a female character because of the action space and the authority restriction of characters, diminishing her impulses and affective taming. Such characters – which are beyond human representation, such as the snake woman, Melusina, the raven woman, etc. – were meant to be founders of dynasties. Their nature enriched the human essence brought by the husband, the knight, the partner, with the special characteristics of motherhood. Most of the legends invented by ruling families to explain the genesis of their ancestors involved human and non-human mingling, which in turn gave the rulers rights over their subjects. In the Romanian folklore, the fight between man and Death also appears in tales and legends, some of them being spread all over Romanian territory.

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