Petre Ispirescu

There was once an emperor who had three lovely daughters whom he cherished but he had to leave them to fight an invading Army.

A Romanian Fairy Tale

The Enchanted Hog

Sheila Goicea

See a detailed review of this fairy tale on my blog at: shesgoingbookcrazy.com

What a strange little tale. It's hard to say how much of this tale was changed during translation from the original version written in Romanian (titled Porcul cel fermecat). While there were definitely some great traits, a majority of this tale is bizarre and rather upsetting.

The youngest of three princesses discovers that her fate has set her to wed a pig. Distraught by her fate, she is instructed by her father to do as her husband says, and hopefully, heaven would release her from her misfortune. After some time, however, she grew to love her husband. Noticing that he turned into a man at night, she realized that some strange enchantment had befallen him. Eager to help him out, she seeks out the help of a witch, who ends up giving her bad advice and sending her on a long, tiresome journey to find and free her husband.

While I appreciated the resilience of the main character, the overall moral of the story is unclear. Again, perhaps this is due to the fact that this tale was changed during translation. My guess is something along the lines of loving someone for who they are and where they are at can have great rewards? While there are some weird, little tidbits throughout, (like the part where she cut off her own finger to complete a ladder) I appreciated the broad world this was sent in. 

Another part I don't understand is how did her older sisters get away with their disobedience? They were rewarded with their disobedience by being married off to princes from different provinces...and that's the last we hear of them. The tale felt a bit incomplete to me but was an interesting read overall. 

My Rating: ★★★

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The Enchanted Hog A Romanian Fairy Tale

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