Ursitoare

The three Ursitoare, in Romanian mythology, are supposed to appear three nights after a child's birth to determine the course of its life. They are similar to the Greek Fates or Moirai.^[1]

The Fates appearing to baptize children has been part of Romanian tradition for hundreds of years. In recent years there has been a "physical materialization" too of this tradition through the show presented during the name party.

Names[edit]

Fieldwork in the Oltenia region found dialectal variations of their names: ursătóri(le), ursitóri(le), ursătoáre(le).^[2]

Role[edit]

According to ethnologist Pauline Schullerus (fr), the Ursitoari comes at night to the newborn's cradle and weaves their fate.^[3]

Parallels[edit]

Scholarship indicates that similar beings (a trio of women that allot men's fates) also exist in South Slavic folklore, among the Serbians, Macedonians, Croatians, Bulgarians and Montenegrinians.^[4]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

^ Ristic 2008, pp. 44.
^ Golant, Natalia. "Reprezentări mitologice ale românilor din Oltenia (pe baza cercetărilor de teren efectuate în judeţele Vâlcea, Gorj şi Mehedinţi)" [Mythological Representations of Romanians of Oltenia (Based on Field Researches Undertaken in the Counties of Vâlcea, Gorj and Mehedinţi)]. In: Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei [The Yearly Review of the Ethnographic Museum of Moldavia]. p. 97.
^ Schullerus, Pauline. Rumänische Volksmärchen aus dem mittleren Harbachtal. Bukarest: Kriterion, 1977. pp. 357-362.
^ Golant, Natalia. "Reprezentări mitologice ale românilor din Oltenia (pe baza cercetărilor de teren efectuate în judeţele Vâlcea, Gorj şi Mehedinţi)" [Mythological Representations of Romanians of Oltenia (Based on Field Researches Undertaken in the Counties of Vâlcea, Gorj and Mehedinţi)]. In: Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei [The Yearly Review of the Ethnographic Museum of Moldavia]. p. 97.

Bibliography[edit]

Ristic, Radomir (2008), "The great spirits of fate", The Crooked Path (2), Pendraig Publishing, ISBN 9780979616891