Stănilele

Ever since the Creation, God meant Ceahlău to be the mountain of praying and grazing. If snows, rains, windstorms took turns in ravaging its steady peaks, so did the monks and the shepherds endure their worried, joys, and suffering… We will discover such a life story from the legend of Stănilă’s Rocks, an imposing creation in stone known by the name of Stănile.

It is no longer clear when, but it must be at least five or six centuries since, among the shepherds wandering on Mount Ceahlău, there was a shy but hardworking lad called Stănilă.

Well, you see, still owing to his diligence, he had that small flock he shepherded from the east of the mountain! First, he was a diligent apprentice of shepherds, richer and more skilful at shepherding sheep and goats.

Then, one of these shepherds, who had known his father very well (Stănilă had been an orphan from a very young age!), seeing the lad’s diligence, agreed to give him as double payment some ten sheep and a breeding ram. And this is how, within five years or so, Stănilă managed to enlarge his flock which now he counted up to some fifty…

Naturally, so did the lad grow – well built and so handsome that most of the maidens took pleasure in looking at him. The trouble was that Stănilă, as I was saying, was very shy and was all work. Therefore, he could not even think of looking at one of the basil-fragranced skirts and blouses he passed by on Sundays when he sometimes came down from the mountain.

However, one day, on top of the mountain, a maiden passed on her way to her father’s flock. She was a very good-looking girl. Her had beautifully outlined eyebrows and had a swaying gate that made her body look even slenderer. Then, our poor Stănilă, as if a club struck him in his chest, he suddenly lost his breath and his hear started to beat like a drum in the rhythm of the merry girl’s gate – tap, tap, tap, tap…

He managed somehow – as he seemed to overcome his shyness! – to appear in front of the maiden on her way back. He walked with her for a while, almost reaching the foot of the mountain and forgetting about his sheep…Later on, as the maiden also felt something for him, this maiden called Maria started to come all the week long to her father! When the flocks were brought down to winter, the two went on seeing each other at the village dance or at the evening sittings, so that the others couldn’t help noticing their love.

Clean and deep was their love, but Maria’s father – who was by now the richest shepherd in the village – grew bitter and bitter and his soul grew darker. As he was greedy for sheep, land, and money, he had long planned to marry Maria to a rich widower so that his fortune may grow bigger. Therefore, he learned about the love between his daughter and the “penniless” Stănilă, should one have poured petrol over him, he wouldn’t have turned red with fury as he did!

He summoned his daughter at once and, as Maria would not forget about Stănilă, according to her father’s demand, he got so enraged that almost trampled his daughter under his feet… His wife came to rescue her child from his hands, but the wicked man was adamant. He kept Maria locked inside the house for several weeks, and then, just after holy celebration of Epiphany, made her, rather dead than alive, marry the widower.

As for the unhappy Stănilă, what is there to tell? He kept on suffering, hoping that one day, the stony heart of the miserly father would bless Maria’s and his love. When his last hope vanished, in the dead of winter, broken down with grief, he reached the top of the cliff that has borne his name ever since, and he committed himself to the abyss…