The novel's main character is Vitoria Lipan, the wife of a shepherd living in the Moldavian village Măgura Tarcăului. Vitoria has a premonition her husband Nechifor, who has gone to the town Dorna to buy more sheep, has died. The local priest and the county's prefect dismiss her premonition but for Vitoria, archaic symbols and superstitions are more trustworthy than the books of the priests or the science of the government officials. She calls home her son Gheorghiță, who is on business in Jijia village, where he waited for news from his father to pay some debts. Vitoria and Gheorghiță embark on a mythical journey, at the end of which they find Nechifor's dead body and take their revenge on the thieves who killed him. The determined and clever Vitoria Lipan is a unique female character in the Romanian traditionalist novel, despite the female stereotypes.[1][2]
The Hatchet is considered Sadoveanu's greatest work and a creative adaptation of themes from the famous Romanian balladMiorița, which inspired the novel.[3][4][5] The novel uses the ballad's epic structure, and the conflict between the three villagers and Vitoria's perseverance in the search for her dead husband. The author was also inspired by other popular, mid-19th-century ballads by Vasile Alecsandri; "Șalga", from which comes the theme of the courageous village woman who searches for groups of thieves and takes revenge for their crimes – and "Dolca", from which the author took the link between humans and nature.[6]
The Hatchet is considered a monograph of a traditional Romanian village because it shows the aspects of the village typology with Romanian traditions and superstitions; baptism, wedding, and funeral. The title is based on the weapon that makes both criminals confess but also refers to the weapon with which the dead shepherd was murdered. The novel is divided into 16 chapters. It was adapted into an eponymous movie, Baltagul, which was directed by Mircea Mureșan[7] and premiered in October 1969;[8] Vitoria Lipan was played by Margarita Lozano.
Plot
Flock of sheep in the Rarău Mountains at the beginning of the 20th century.
In Dorna, around the Saint Demetrius holiday (26 October), shepherd Nechifor Lipan leaves for Rarău to buy some sheep from a villager. Nechifor does not return home from Tarcău and does not give any sign of life for twenty days. He did move the sheep from Cristești village (close to Iași to their winter pastures in Jijia River). Nechifor needs to pay their debts for fodder and workers' wages, and needs to return home with his son, Gheorghiță. After waiting a month, Nechifor's wife Vitoria dreams one night that Nechifor rides on a horse into the sunset, and she believes he is dead.[1][9]
After hints from the priest Dănilă and the elder Maranda, Vitoria decides to pray to Saint Mary and to fast for twelve Fridays in a row, hoping Nechifor will eventually return. After Gheorghiță returns home around the winter holidays, Vitoria goes to the Bistrița Monastery to pray to the icon of Saint Anne and request spiritual advice, then leaves for Piatra Neamț to report her husband missing. The county's prefect confirms it is possible Nechifor has been robbed and killed, substantiating Vitoria's fear. The woman decides to search for her husband with Gheorghiță, taking a hatchet to defend themselves from evil-doers.[10]
The villages Borca and Sabasa at the beginning of the 20th century. The area was visited by Sadoveanu before he wrote The Hatchet.
After she sells at Noon on 10 March the rest of their sheep to a Jewish merchant, David, Vitoria and Gheorghiță begin walking the route Nechifor walked to Dorna. They travel across the Bistrița River, going through Bicaz, Călugăreni (where David leaves them), Farcașa, Borca, Broșteni, and Crucea, asking everywhere if Nechifor had been there. Vitoria eventually arrives in Vatra Dornei, where the sale records of Nechifor state that he bought 300 sheep, and then decided 100 sheep went to two other unknown mountain householders. The flocks of sheep had been sent to the Neagra Șarului River for the winter from Ștefănești by the Prut River, and from there the three comrades were supposed to have continued home.
The former "Cross of the Italians" in Stânișoara Pass. It was built by Italian stonemasons in 1914, when the Road of the Italians was completed, and it was destroyed by war in 1944.
Vitoria and Gheorghiță go on the Neagra Valley to find the flocks of sheep, going through Șaru Dornei, Păltiniș, Dârmoxa, Broșteni, Borca, and Sabasa, traveling on the Road of the Italians[ro] across the Stânișoara Pass[ro] to Suha. Arriving in Suha, Vitoria finds out from the publican Iorgu Vasiliu and his wife Maria only two shepherds had walked through there since autumn. The two shepherds, Calistrat Bogza and Ilie Cuțui, live in the Doi Meri Valley and seem to have quickly grown wealthier, and their wives became vain and spendthrift. Summoned to the city hall, Bogza and Cuțui say they bought all of the sheep from Lipan and went to the Cross of the Italians with Nechifor, returning to his house. After Vitoria gets some advice, Maria launches a rumor in Suha that the sheep that were sold to the two shepherds are questionable because after Nechifor's death, there were no witnesses, and no documents were signed.[11]
Thinking quickly, Vitoria draws a conclusion as to where Nechifor Lipan had been killed, and what happened between Suha and Sabasa. She returns to Stânișoara Pass, and finds Nechifor's dog in a villager's courtyard. The dog leads her to a ravine where Nechifor's body is found, together with that of his horse. Nechifor's skull was broken by a hatchet, proving his death was violent. The authorities investigate Bogza and Cuțui, who continue to say that they parted ways with Nechifor after they had been paid.[2][12]
Vitoria organizes a big feast in Sabasa to bury Nechifor's remains, inviting the undersheriff and the two householders from Suha. The woman accuses Calistrat Bogza of hitting her husband from behind to take his sheep, with Cuțui standing guard so they would not be surprised by a passerby. The furious householder exits the house and attacks Gheorghiță, who defends himself and hits Bogza on his forehead with the hatchet, while the dog bites Bogza's neck. Ilie Cuțui surrenders and confirms the woman's accusations, while Bogza, who was gravely wounded by the dog's bite, confesses his guilt and asks to be forgiven.[13][14][15]
Characters
Vitoria Lipan – Nechifor Lipan's wife and mother of seven children, five of whom have died.[16]:24
Nechifor Lipan – a wealthy shepherd from Tarcău who went missing.[16]:25 Descends from a family of shepherds[16]:70 and owns a flock of sheep.
Gheorghiță Lipan – the son of Nechifor and Vitoria.
Minodora Lipan – daughter of Nechifor and Vitoria who is sent to Văratec Monastery while her mother searches for Nechifor.
Lupu' – the dog of the Lipan family who leads the family to Nechifor's corpse and bites Bogza.
Priest Danil (Dănilă) Milieș – a priest from Tarcău village.
Crone Maranda – witch of Tarcău village.
Iordan – the publican of Tarcău.
Mitrea – the farm-hand of the Lipan family.[16]:29
Elder Alexa – an old man who looks after sheep for Nechifor.
↑ Ovid S. Crohmălniceanu, Romanian Literature Between Two World Wars, vol. I, publishing house Minerva, Bucharest, 1972, p. 205.
↑ Eugen Lovinescu, History of the contemporary romanian literature (1900-1937), publishing house Library Socec & Co., Bucharest, 1937, pp. 196-197.
↑ George Călinescu, "M. Sadoveanu", in Istoria literaturii române de la origini până în prezent, publishing house of the Royal Foundation for Literature and Art, Bucharest, 1941, pp. 559-560.
↑ Ion Dodu Bălan, "Reciting Baltagul", postface to Mihail Sadoveanu, Baltagul, publishing house Minerva, Bucharest, 1971.
↑ Călin Stănculescu, The book and movie, publishing house Biblioteca Bucureștilor, Bucharest, 2011, pp. 121-122.
↑ Călin Căliman, The History of the Romanian movie (1897-2000), Publishing House of the Romanian Cultural Foundation, Bucharest, 2000, p. 199.
1 2 3 4 Mihail Sadoveanu, The Hatchet, Publishing House Ion Creangă, Bucharest, 1987
Related Research Articles
Romanian literature is the entirety of literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language or by any authors native to Romania.
The University of Bucharest (UB) is a public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on 4 July 1864 by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy into the current University of Bucharest, making it one of the oldest Romanian universities. It is one of the five members of the Universitaria Consortium.
Mihail Sadoveanu was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure, who twice served as acting head of state for the communist republic. One of the most prolific Romanian-language writers, he is remembered mostly for his historical and adventure novels, as well as for his nature writing. An author whose career spanned five decades, Sadoveanu was an early associate of the traditionalist magazine Sămănătorul, before becoming known as a Realist writer and an adherent to the Poporanist current represented by Viața Românească journal. His books, critically acclaimed for their vision of age-old solitude and natural abundance, are generally set in the historical region of Moldavia, building on themes from Romania's medieval and early modern history. Among them are Neamul Șoimăreștilor, Frații Jderi and Zodia Cancerului. With Venea o moară pe Siret..., Baltagul and some other works of fiction, Sadoveanu extends his fresco to contemporary history and adapts his style to the psychological novel, Naturalism and Social realism.
Șerban Vodă Cemetery is the largest and most famous cemetery in Bucharest, Romania.
The Bistrița is a river in the Romanian regions of Maramureș, Bukovina and Moldavia. It is a right tributary of the river Siret. At Chetriș, near Bacău, it flows into the Siret. Its source is in the Rodna Mountains, at the foot of the Gârgalău Peak. It flows through the counties Bistrița-Năsăud, Suceava, Neamț, and Bacău. The towns Vatra Dornei, Bicaz, Piatra Neamț, Roznov, Buhuși, and Bacău lie along the Bistrița. The Bistrița is 283 km (176 mi) long, and its basin area is 7,039 km2 (2,718 sq mi).
George Bacovia was a Romanian symbolist poet. While he initially belonged to the local Symbolist movement, launched as a poet by Alexandru Macedonski with the poem and poetry collection Plumb ("Lead"), his poetry came to be seen as a precursor of Romanian Modernism and eventually established him in critical esteem alongside Lucian Blaga, Tudor Arghezi, Ion Pillat, Ion Barbu, and Octavian Goga as one of the most important interwar Romanian poets. In the 1950s, he wrote the poem "Cogito", which is his poetical testament.
The National University of Music Bucharest is a university-level school of music located in Bucharest, Romania. Established as a school of music in 1863 and reorganized as an academy in 1931, it has functioned as a public university since 2001. It also offered training in drama until 1950, when this function was taken over by two institutes which were later reunited as the Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film (UNATC).
Geo Bogza was a Romanian avant-garde theorist, poet, and journalist, known for his left-wing and communist political convictions. As a young man in the interwar period, he was known as a rebel and was one of the most influential Romanian Surrealists. Several of his controversial poems twice led to his imprisonment on grounds of obscenity, and saw him partake in the conflict between young and old Romanian writers, as well as in the confrontation between the avant-garde and the far right. At a later stage, Bogza won acclaim for his many and accomplished reportage pieces, being one of the first to cultivate the genre in Romanian literature, and using it as a venue for social criticism.
Pantelimon "Pan" Halippa was a Bessarabian and later Romanian journalist and politician. One of the most important promoters of Romanian nationalism in Bessarabia and of this province's union with Romania, he was president of Sfatul Țării, which voted union in 1918. He then occupied ministerial posts in several governments, following which he underwent political persecution at the hands of the Communist régime and was later incarcerated in Sighet prison.
Ilarion Ciobanu was a Romanian actor. He has been described as "a legend" in the press and the last true Romanian comic.
Dragoș Protopopescu was a Romanian writer, poet, critic, philosopher, and far-right politician.
The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University is a public university located in Iași, Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, under whom the former Academia Mihăileană was converted to a university, the University of Iași, as it was named at first, is one of the oldest universities of Romania, and one of its advanced research and education institutions. It is one of the five members of the Universitaria Consortium.
Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan was a Romanian literary critic, educationist, opinion journalist, poet and feminist militant. She spent her youth advocating socialism, and rallied with left-wing politics for the remainder of her life, primarily as a representative of Poporanist circles and personal friend of culture critic Garabet Ibrăileanu. Under Ibrăileanu's guidance, Sadoveanu wrote for Viața Românească review, where she tried to reconcile ethnic nationalism and traditionalism with aestheticism. As literary critic, she championed the recognition of Symbolism as an independent cultural phenomenon, and reviewed modern developments in English literature.
The House of Kogălniceanu, Kogălniceanul or Cogâlniceanu was one of the major political, intellectual and aristocratic families in Moldavia, with branches in modern Romania. Originally Bessarabian peasants, the first Kogălniceanus accumulated wealth and, as owners of the Scrivulenii (Râpile) estate, climbed into the boyar elite. They were also important as skilled members of the Moldavian bureaucracy, and, through brothers Constantin and Enache, also made contributions to 18th-century Romanian literature. Their work was matched and surpassed three generations later by possibly the most famous member of the family, historian and statesman Mihail Kogălniceanu, one of the founders of modern Romania and of Romanian liberalism.
Corneliu Moldovanu was a Romanian poet, prose writer and playwright.
Profira Sadoveanu, also credited as Profirița and known after her marriage as Sadoveanu Popa, was a Romanian prose writer and poet, noted as the daughter, literary secretary, and editor of the celebrated novelist Mihail Sadoveanu. She was born during her father's stay in Fălticeni, on the traditional border between Western Moldavia and Bukovina, and is sometimes regarding as belonging to a Bukovinan literary tradition. She had fond memories of the place, where she had a carefree childhood on her paternal estate. During the campaigns of World War I, the family relocated to the urban center of Iași, purchasing a villa on Copou Hill. Profira's adolescence saw her socializing with some major figures in Romanian literature, who were friends of her father. Her own debut as a poet, in the 1920s, was overseen by George Topîrceanu.
The Romanian Writers' Society was a professional association based in Bucharest, Romania, that aided the country's writers and promoted their interests. Founded in 1909, it operated for forty years before the early communist regime transformed it into the Writers' Union of Romania.
The National College is one of the oldest and most prestigious high schools in Romania, located in Iași, at 4 Arcu Street.
Jilava Prison is a prison located in Jilava, a village south of Bucharest, Romania.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
![Stanisoara Pass [ro] on the Road of the Italians [ro], also known nowadays as the Vitoria Lipan Road. Muntii Stanisoarei, 08.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Mun%C8%9Bii_St%C3%A2ni%C8%99oarei%2C_08.jpg/220px-Mun%C8%9Bii_St%C3%A2ni%C8%99oarei%2C_08.jpg)
