Solomonari

The Solomonar or Șolomonar (German phonetization: ''Scholomonar'') is a wizard believed in Romanian folklore to ride a dragon (zmeu or a balaur) and control the weather, causing rain, thunder, or hailstorm.

They are recruited from common folk and taught their magic at the Solomonărie or Şolomanţă (German phonetization: Scholomance).

General description

The Solomonars are said to be tall, red-haired, wearing long white robes of peasants, sometimes woolen, or clad in ragged attire made from patches, a small version of a Semantron, which serves to summon the Vântoase (alternatively the winds are contained in a little wooden jar). When not helping the Devil, they are most often seen around begging for alms, and the collected coins are then thrown into rivers, as offerings to the water spirits. The contents of their magic bag are instruments such as an iron axe used as lightning rod (also as a wand to summon them or his mount), birchbark reins or a golden bridle, and a book of wisdom which contained all their knowledge, and is the source of their power. A branch that has killed a snake is included in some lists. Once they are in the guise of beggars (often crippled or blindfolded beggars), they blend in with the populace so they cannot be distinguished as wizards.; German tr., However, they apparently have the knowledge and memory of which peasant's farm deserves his retribution when he acts as a dragon-rider sending down his hailstorm.; German tr.,

Schooling

The Solomonari, by some accounts, are recruited from the people. They are taught their magic and the speech of beasts at the school (Scholomance), and become capable of riding the dragons. Tradition says they became the Devil's students, either being instructed by him, or becoming a servant to his commands.Marian (1879), pp. 54–56; German tr.,

An additional belief was that the students were taught at the Devil's school which was situated underground, and that the students avoided the rays of the sun for the seven-year duration of their study. They were in fact a type of Strigoi or Vampire, according to S. F. Marian, who collected the folklore from the field.

Dragon-riders and weather

The solomonari were regarded as dragon-riders who control the weather, causing thunder, or rain, or hail to fall.

One way in which this belief was articulated was that a particular pupil out of the graduating class of ten would be selected by the Devil to become the designated Weather-maker () who rode the "Ismeju" dragon (German phoneticization of ''zmeu'' dragon). Or he became the "Devil's aide-de-camp" who rode the ''zmeu'' to make thunderbolts. Or thirdly, the ''Solomonariu'' would fly up into the skies, and whenever his dragon glanced at the clouds, rainfall would come. But God intervened to keep the dragon from growing too weary, lest it plummeted and devour a great part of the earth.

A rather different presentation is that Solomonari who normally lived as beggars among the populace would occasionally engage himself for a fee to become the dragon-rider and hail-bringer. He selected which fields to damage, knowing which peasants behaved unkindly to them. A peasant may hire a "counter-Solomonari" (; pl. Contra-Solomonarĭ) to cast spells to divert the dragon-riding Solmomonari.

In this version, the type of dragon they rode were the ''balauri'' (sing. ''balaur'').Marian (1879): "Cînd voiesc Solomonarii să se suie în nori, iau friul cel de aur şi se duc la un lac fără de fund sau la o altă apă mare, unde ştiu ei că locuiesc balaurii", quoted in: Hasdeu, Bogdan Petriceicu; Brâncuș, Grigore (1976) edd., ' 3, p. 438.Marian (1879), pp. 54–56, German (tr.), : "''Mit diesem Zaum zäumen die Solomonari die ihnen anstatt Pferde dienenden Drachen'' (''Balauri'')" or, "With this oldenbridle, the Solomonari rein their dragons (''balauri'') that they use instead of horses". This dragon can be brought out of a bottomlessly deep lake by using "golden reins" or bridle ("; ), and the wizard and dragon would create storms or bring down hail.

19th century sources

"Scholomance" and "Scholomonariu" appeared in print in the Austrian journal ''Österreichische Revue'' in 1865, written by Wilhelm Schmidt (1817–1901) The piece is discussed as a belief present in the Central Romanian Fogarasch (Făgăraș) district and beyond, with additional lore from Hermannstadt.; reissued:

Emily Gerard later wrote on the topic of "Scholomance", although she only referred to its attendees as "scholars", and did not specifically employ the term ''Solomanari'' or the equivalent.

Romanian ethnobotanist Simion Florea Marian described the Solmonari in his article on "Daco-Romanian Mythology" in the ' (1879). Marian collected this folklore orally from the people in Siebenbürgen (Transylvania) and the adjoining Bukovina-Moldavia region.

Nomenclature

''Solomonar'' is the singular form, and the variant ''Șolomonar'' also listed. The German phonetization ''Scholomonar'' which is closer to the latter form was given by Gaster.

The modern-day dictionary plural form in Romanian is ''Solomonari'', and "solomonars" in the plural has been used in English translation.

An old dictionary form in the plural ''Șolomonariu'' occurs in a lexicon published in 1825, where the term is glossed as , , and . Andrei Oișteanu remarked that this form is rather dated.

''Scholomonáriu'' is defined as ''Zauberer'' or "sorcerers" in an even earlier source, a glossary appended to a book dating from 1781.

Etymologies

The default explanation is that the word is connected to King Solomon via the addition of the occupational suffix "''-ar''", although this may be folk etymology. A folkloric account attests to the association with the biblical king. In an account given by Friedrich von Müller the "Kaiser Salomo" has the ability to control the weather, and the inheritors of his art are called "Scholomonar". The association of Solomon with wizards may have been popularized by the adventure tale '' Solomon and Morcolf''.

Gaster, more complicatedly, suggested a hybrid of the word for the magic school '' Scholomantze'' (Romanian orthography: ''Şolomanţă'') from association with Salamanca, and ''Solomonie'' (from Solomon). An alternate derivation from the German ''Schulmänner'' ("scholars"), in reference to the popular belief that solomonars attended a school, is credited to J. Vulcan.

Zeus hypothesis

King Solomon as weather-maker may derive from the Greek myth of Zeus the king of gods controlling the weather, a theory proposed by A. Oișteanu

Red Jews hypothesis

As the Solomonari have been described as red-haired giants (, ''pl.''), a connection to them and the legendary Red Jews (''evreilor roşii'') has been suggested by . This hypothesis builds on Lazăr Șăineanu's theory that giant/Jews in Romanian folklore derived from the historical Khazars, and Arthur Koestler bringing the notion of the "Red Jews" into that formulation (Koestler's '' The Thirteenth Tribe'', the ultimate source being A. N. Poliak's book on the Khazars in Hebrew).

Dacian ascetics hypothesis

Similarity with the Geto-Dacian ascetics called the '' ktistai'' described by Strabo was noted by Traian Herseni (d. 1980) who hypothesized that they were the original Solomonari.; Herseni posited that the ''ktisai'' were more properly called "''skistai''" meaning "those who abstain from worldly pleasures", and that the cryptic byname that Strabo gave them '' Kapnobatai'' (which literally means "smoke-treaders") really meant "travelers in the clouds".

The theory has found its strong proponent in Eugen Agrigoroaiei, who pronounced that the origins of the Solomonari had been established, and the Dacian cloud travelers must have been authentic Solomonari. Andrei Oișteanu cautions that while "enticing", the "hypothesis remains as only as plausibility". He points out that a tradition kept alive from Caesar's time to the 19th century presents a credibility issue, since there is a complete vacuum in the records about any of it for the 1900-year interim. is another skeptic who referred to the idea as "speculation by Herseni".Coman, 1983, p. 123, cited by

Parallels and synonyms

Parallels with the legend of the Serbo-Croatian ''garabancijaš dijak'' () " necromantic scholar" had been sought in Moses Gaster's paper, which is one a major source for the Solomanari folkloristics. The Croatian version was described by Vatroslav Jagić and the Hungarian version by .

A number of synonyms can be found in Romanian, including "''zgrimințeș''", and it is considered synonymous or closely connected to the widespread Balkan legend known in Serbo-Croatian (for example) as ''grabancijaš dijak'' ("the necromancy student").

Anecdotes

Friedrich von Müller (1857) reported a story from Schäßburg (Sighișoara in Transylvania) in which a Romanian mistook a robed student for a solomonar.

Explanatory notes

References

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Romanian legendary creatures
Magicians (supernatural)