The ploughman and the pain of the soil – the exegesis of a Romanian folkloric motif

Abstract

According to Romanian folk beliefs, the soil suffers when man ploughs it. After the first humans had traced furrows, the soil shed blood and started to shout. To ease its pain, it is recommended to refrain from working at noon and at night, because the earth needs rest, like humans. This folkloric motif has known several interpretations in the Romanian ethnology. Specialists considered it, successively, as an expression of animism, a poetic image, a proof of deep respect for nature, an illustration of the sacred violence committed by the ploughman, etc. The motif of the pain of the soil has a special value nowadays when we confront a serious ecological crisis. Traditional wisdom, thus, offers us an impulse to reflect and reconsider our behaviour towards the environment.