"The depth of the Danube boils"-

THE CALDRONS OF THE DANUBE AT

’’PORTILE DE FIER’’

No one knows when everything I’m telling you happened, because all is getting lost in the mist of ages. It’s a fact of which our great-great grandfathers and forefathers heard and the one from whom we found this out passed away a long time ago.

The story goes that once upon a time there was a famous emperor who owned the Danubian countrysides to far, far away, in the endless plains. This emperor was very severe, swift to anger and unforgiving with the ones who were ignoring his commands, no matter how unjust and unusual they were.And the emperor I am talking about had only one child, a boy which was handsome and had such beautiful features that he had stolen the hearts of all the girls in the kingdom. His name was Tuie and he had been brought up far away from his castle because his mother wanted him to be a man lacking the vices of the courtiers.When he grew up he had the same temper with her: gentle and sympathetic to the others’ pains and ready at any moment to come to the castaways’ rescue. When he was brought to the court, everybody’s heart was raising at the joyful thought of having a kind and upright ruler.Only the emperor was unsatisfied, since he wanted his son to be as severe as himself. Because of this, he turned him away from the court, back to his mother who was living in another castle.

Around the empress, who descended from a well-known family, surrounded by great scholars, Tuie got the feel of love for learning, for painting things which were delighting his eyes and warming his heart and for sculpting the marble of which he was composing human semblances seeming to live randomly.The time was passing fast as stolen by a fascinating bird and when the emperor was caught by the damned agedness, he took counsel with the empress and they had decided together to find the right wife for Tuie. He had sent many important advisors who had had a long way to go and each of them had came back with a lot of information about young women worth for their emperor’s son.But the heart of the young ruler had been struck by his love for an extremely beautiful girl, although very poor.

This tender creature was the one who Tuie married. When the emperor found out about this, he was so angry that he decided so not recognize him anymore as the inheritor of the imperial crown. But Tuie wasn’t affected by this decision at all, contrariwise it served his plan of living in peace with his soulmate. The emperor pretended to forget aobut Tuie’s act, but in his soulless mind the thought of the unjust revenge was growing.

Not a long time passed until one of the emperors who would have wanted Tuie to be their son-in-law, knowing the father was old and separated from his son, stormed in the kingdom with a strong army and invaded a good part of it.The father gave up on his pride and called for his son, telling him that he had forgiven his act and asking to take over the lead of the army and fight with the enemies. Saying these things, the emperor hadn’t erased from his mind the thought of revenge.

After that, Tuie left his father and came back home miserable. He kissed his wife goodbye, gave her his gold ring and told her that when it would corrode it meant that he would pass away. In response, the woman said that when the gold on her headdress would melt, she would die.

Then, the ruler went on horseback to find his army. At the head of it, until meeting the enemy, he had walked a long way for more than a week.

The battle was wild, Tuie did wonders of courage, fighting like a lion and he won.

At the comeback, before meeting the emperor, he went to see his beloved wife. Not even halfway there, he had a dark premonition and, in the eyes of his servant Tuie saw tears. Then, with pain in his voice, the man explained to him that the emperor sent a group of soldiers to demolish his house and drowned his wife in the Danube.

The lad’s heart grew hard and he could hardly shed a tear. He asked the servant where they drowned her. The place came out to be between the two gripes of the Danube. The young lady was crying with

bitter tears which were breaking through the deep water and crashing the stone into four pieces. And in the prints graved by the tears, the water starting to make bubbles, as if it was boiling.The lad took out his pocket the lady’s headdress and, as a miracle, the gold had completely melted.

Tuie asked his servant to take him to that place. When they arrived there, Tuie looked to the water bathed in the morning light and started crying. He felt restless until he finally found his beloved wife’s body, then they both drowned in the river.

The servant went back to the court and told the whole, detailed story. The empress sent people to look for his son. He was found next to his lady in the water of Danube and the both of them were lain to rest by an afflicted convoy.

Since then, many people come to see the place between the two gripes of the Danube, where, in deep circles, the Danube seems to boils like water in hundreds of caldrons, which also gave her the name: Caldrons.