“We grew up listening to stories and legends of a magic realm: Transylvania. Of home. We discovered in their characters that we are of many types and we order the world differently, but what unifies us is stronger than what dissociates us. For me, the differences are an untiring source of charm and wonder. Knowing ourselves, we may watch with serene eyes, with sincerity and particularly with the humour full of imagination characterising us.
As a mirror of the world, our stories reflect our character and our fundamental cultural concerns. How the Saxons arrived in Transylvania, prophecies and legends which write their destiny, knights and durable citadels, giants and golden globes, industrious or playful Saxons, stories about courage, justice, love and steadiness are the epic threads absorbing us in a travel all over the epochs and all over Transylvania. Some of them entertain us, enlighten us or intrigue us, other are sadder or more romantic, so that in the end they will tell us that each of us is the sum of all the ever written stories. And the large history is composed of all the tiny, personal, endlessly told stories.”
We drew out the legends of this place from the dusted cases of memory, but for some of you they will be brand new. You may know some of them from your grandparents, I translated other from German or from Saxon dialect and I published them for the first time in Romanian. I found out other from you. Around the legends themselves, I made references to reality, simply because they often recall about people and places less known. Over the end, you may find also two extraordinary samples of old folklore creations in Saxon dialect, so rarely used today. I fumbled books and archives to find out forgotten histories, I strayed on untravelled paths in Transylvania and Germany, I listened to living thesaurus people, memories and folklore, and in the end, I peppered some magic powder. This first little book is only a crumb of what means Saxon stories. Read it against the wool or feed your soul with it and make other people happy telling them the exploits of yesterday and today’s Saxons.”
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