Păcală (Romanian, from a păcăli, "to dupe";Burada, p. 130Victor Crăciun, "Pe urmele unui personaj. Păcală", in Ateneu, Vol. IV, Issue 5, May 1967, p. 8 Romanian Cyrillic: Пъкалъ; sometimes rendered Pâcală or Pîcală) is a fictional character in Romanian folklore, literature and humor. Primarily associated with Transylvania and Oltenia, he is depicted as a native of Vaideeni, located in an area of contact between those two regions. An irreverent young man, seemingly a peasant, he reserves contempt and irony for the village authorities (whether Orthodox priest, boyar or judge), but often plays the fool, or displays an erratic and criminal behavior that scholars attribute to the eclecticism of sources weaved into the narrative. Păcală seems to be at least partly modeled on other characters in European folklore, in particular Giufà and Till Eulenspiegel. He may therefore be borrowed from Western chapbooks, with scholar Traian Bratu hypothesizing that Romanians were introduced to the Eulenspiegel anecdotes by their prolonged contact with the Transylvanian Saxons. The stories were then adapted and, in at least some cases, substantially modified, for instance by the addition of a native mythological layer, and by the appearance of a sidekick, the more slow-witted Tândală.
The first written mentions of Păcală are found in early-to-mid 19th-century Saxon and other German collections of Romanian tales, which identify him as distinct from Eulenspiegel. He then became a subject of interest for Romanian writers, originally with spin-off parodies of oral accounts, generally with political content. These were produced by authors from various regions—including Costache Negruzzi, Alexandru Pelimon, Ion Heliade Rădulescu, Vasile Alecsandri, and Iosif Vulcan. From the 1860s, the stories were also collected and expanded upon in a number of editions, creating an opportunity for updated and polished versions of the myth. Several derivative works codify the various versions of Păcală-themed anecdotes. Early on, Petre Ispirescu issued a printed version as Întâmplările lui Păcală ("The Adventures of Păcală"), part of Legende sau basmele românilor. This was followed closely by Isprăvile lui Păcală ("Păcală's Achievements"), authored by Petre Dulfu, then by Păcală în satul lui ("Păcală in His Village"), composed by Ioan Slavici. Some variants obscure those accounts which have Păcală interacting with figures in Christian mythology, and focus more or less exclusively on his relationship with anti-clericalism. Many versions, particularly derivative ones produced under the communist regime, promote his image as an anti-establishment folk hero.
First adapted as a character for Romanian theater in three plays by Alecsandri, he was readapted by Victor Eftimiu in 1911, with Înșir'te mărgărite, and again by Horia Furtună, in 1927; numerous puppet and children's theater versions have followed. Romanian cinema had begun exploring the notion of a Păcală-based feature film in 1914, with Aurel Petrescu working the subject matter into the first product of Romanian animation (in 1921), and then into a live-action film (1926). Also the subject of an opera by Sabin Drăgoi, he inspired Tudor Arghezi to write a poetic cycle and encourage a new project in cinema, undertaken by Geo Saizescu. Saizescu only completed his film in 1974—a box-office success, it made its lead, Sebastian Papaiani, be widely perceived as Păcală's real-life version.
Borrowings and specificity Păcală, Eulenspiegel, Bertoldo The Păcală stories are not traditionally connected to all regions covered by Romanian-speakers, with his presence being the least attested in eastern areas. As noted in 1936 by Bratu, in Western Moldavia (and, by extension, Bessarabia) he is less popular than another stock character, known as "Pepelea".Bratu, p. 69 In a 1988 overview, folklorist Cristea Sandu Timoc included Pepelea as a stand-in for Păcală, concluding: "There are today over 100 known variants of the Păcală cycle, spread out all over the historical provinces, and more frequently encountered in Transylvania." He himself authenticated five Păcală anecdotes from Serbian Romanian communities on the Timok Valley (a sample which includes Vlach villages).Sandu Timoc, p. XI Writer Ion Agârbiceanu, who lived at Yelisavetgrad in 1917, reported being the person to have introduced Ukrainian Romanians (or "Moldavians") to Păcală's narrative cycle;Ion Agârbiceanu, "Dela românii transnistreni", in Transilvania, Vol. 59, Issues 7–8, July–August 1928, p. 557 by contrast, the non-Romanian Gagauz people have adopted Păcală as a stock character, alongside Nasreddin.Nedret Mahmut, "In memoriam. Mihail Guboglu — contribuții folclorice", in Revista de Etnografie și Folclor, Vol. 36, Issues 1–2, 1991, p. 103 Păcală's archetypal nature, however, connects him to the areal covered by European folklore—prompting comparisons from as early as the 1880s, when Simeon Mangiuca noted links with Kullervo and Giufà. Ethnologist Ion Taloș describes the Kullervo theory as baseless, while noting that Păcală's origin in Italian folklore is entirely plausible.Taloș, pp. 324–325 Scholar Ovidiu Bârlea similarly noted analogies between Păcală, Giufà, and Djoha, the latter of whom is widely present in Arab culture.Sandu Timoc, p. XI
The stories' mention of Vaideei as Păcală's village ties Păcală closely to an ethnographic area bridging Transylvania and northern Oltenia, though some authors prefer the similarly named Vaideeni, Vâlcea County—also in Oltenia.Ovidiu Ghidirmic, "Un arheolog al spiritului oltenesc. C. S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor", in Cuvîntul Libertății, July 17, 1991, pp. I, II The first reconstructed variant of the name is Vaideești, appearing a 1498 writ.Strungaru, pp. 87–88 The modern Vaideeni is generally approximated as vai de ei, "woe to them", but linguists have criticized that reading as folk etymology, or as an intentional pun: Iorgu Iordan recalled an informant from Vaideeni that "it's as a jest that we call it Vaideei" (ne rîdem noi de-i zicem Vaideei).Strungaru, p. 87 A local tradition recorded by novelist Ioana Postelnicu contrarily reports that Vaideeni was originally known as Vaideei, identifying its settlers by their striking poverty. In this version, the Oltenian village was founded by shepherds fleeing Habsburg Transylvania.Ioana Postelnicu, "Scriitorii și Țara. Tradiția – o uriașă forță creatoare", in România Literară, Issue 34/1980, p. 14 A field report by ethnographer Ioana Armășescu dates the name to the 16th century, noting that it referred to the original inhabitants being pushed into serfdom by Bistrița Monastery; she recounts that the Transylvanian arrivals were in fact a privileged population, attracted on the estate with fiscal privileges and kept distinct from the surrounding Oltenians.Ioana Armășescu, "Ocupații tradiționale, meșteșuguri și industrii complementare într-o localitate pastorală din Subcarpații Olteniei (sec. XVIII–XX)", in Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Transilvaniei, 1999, pp. 35–37 All readings as vai de ei are rejected by philologist Diomid Strungaru, who proposes that "Vaideeni" and "Vaideei" are actually genitives of Vayda.Strungaru, pp. 88–89
Bratu also notes that Păcală developed in close proximity to the Transylvanian Saxons, who may have introduced locals to Till Eulenspiegel and the Schildbürger chapbooks.Bratu, pp. 68–74 He reports that the Romanian cycle includes punchlines which only make sense in German—his cooking of two dogs named after condiments seems to be entirely based on a fragment of Eulenspiegel, which centers on an untranslatable wordplay on the word Hopfen ("hops"); the Păcală cycle also draws heavily on elements of material culture that were at the time not popular among Romanians, but prevalent among the urbanized Saxons (such as roof tiles and waste collection).Bratu, p. 69 Writer János Ábrahám also reports that Hungarian folklore in Transylvania (as written down by László Merényi) conserves the character "Jankó Gügye", who appears as an unluckier version of Păcală.János Ábrahám, "Mozijegy. A bohókás ember", in Utunk, Vol. XXXIX, Issue 28, July 1984, p. 7 Scholar Victor Crăciun proposes that the theme originates in the Early Modern period, when Romanians in both Danubian Principalities, as well as in the Principality of Transylvania, became acquainted not just with Eulenspiegel, but also with Aesop's Fables and with Giulio Cesare Croce's Bertoldo series, synthesizing all disparate elements into a coherent new lore; their first written anecdotes are in early-19th-century almanacs. Specific episodes narrated about Păcală include his being tied in a burlap sack, which is similar to a Bertoldo anecdote. Playwright and essayist Victor Eftimiu also identified episodes and plot devices taken from "other peoples", including "The Hunchback's Tale" from One Thousand and One Nights and Breton variants of "Idiot John" (see The Hedley Kow).Victor Eftimiu, "Evocare. Petre Dulfu și Păcală", in Gazeta Literară, Vol. XIII, Issue 47, November 1966, p. 3
An early complete variant of Păcală was itself the product of foreign influence. As noted by philologist Ovidiu Papadima, this work was done in German by Arthur Schott, a Württemberger agronomist in Austrian Transylvania; it adapts the hero's name as Bakála.Papadima, pp. 18–19 In this version, published in 1845 at Stuttgart, there were 13 individual anecdotes.Taloș, p. 324 A Saxon folklorist, Franz Obert, was similarly active in collecting stories from Romanian Transylvanian peasants, rendering the character's name as Bacale.Bratu, p. 71 A century later, Bratu reported on there being "over 30 Păcală achievements", of which only eight were Eulenspiegel-modeled.Bratu, p. 69 The adaptation often has hints of national specificity, especially as a form of irreverent protest against boyars and landowners; according to Crăciun, it closely mirrors other wisecracking tricksters, with different names, appearing in tales by Creangă, Anton Pann, and Ion Luca Caragiale; a similar point was made by scholar Nicolae Manolescu, in reference to Creangă's Dănilă Prepeleac.Manolescu, p. 414
Wickedness versus heroism