History Literature / PovestealuiHarapAlb

* FairyGodMother: Holy Sunday.

* WeaponOfChoice: The backsword for Harap Alb; the bow for Păsări-Lăți-Lungilă.

While the youngest son weeps over the failure of his older brothers, an old woman appears to him in the garden and tells him to accept the quest, foreseeing he will become a great emperor. She informs him that the only way to cross the bridge is to use the clothes, sword, and horse which his father used as a young groom. While initially ridiculed by his father, in the end he accepts; the son crosses the bridge, and sets off on the remainder of his journey.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/res_ce19ae1cd9b8f3f0c4fdcec1d0c7d2b8_full.jpg]] [[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]

While the youngest son weeps over the failure of his older brothers, an old woman appears to him in the garden and tells him to accept the quest, forseeing he will become a great emperor. She informs him that the only way to cross the bridge is to use the clothes, sword, and horse his father used as a young groom. While initially ridiculed by his father, in the end he accepts; the son crosses the bridge, and sets off on the remainder of his journey.

* [[{{Animorphism}} Animorphism]]: The Red Emperor's daughter turns into a bird.
* TheAlcoholic:While not really Alcoholic,Setilă is thirsty all the time so he drinks a lot
* BaldofEvil:The Bald Man,obviously.
* BearsAreBadNews:The 2 older sons got scared of their father disguised as a bear.
** The Bear from the Garden witch guards the salads
* BigBad:The Bald Man.
* BigEater:Flămânzilă.In fact his name is derived from Romanian "Flămând" witch means "Hungry"
* CoolHorse: "Harap Alb"' horse can talk,fly and is really fast.
* DeadlyGaze: The Stag has a poisonus gaze that can kill everything that looks him in the eyes.
* DisneyVillainDeath:The Bald Man falls to his doom after the horse drops him

* EveryonecallsHimBarkeep: The protagonist is never called by his actual name.
** His brothers and father are also unnamed.
*** The Green and Red Emperors as well
*** The Red Emperor's daughter.
* ExtremeOmnivore:Besides large quantities of Food,Flămânzilă also ate dirt mixed with clay.

* GoodColorsEvilColors:The Good Emperor is Green and the Evil Emperor is Red.
* MeaningfulName: "Harap Alb"'s companions.Gerilă witch litteraly means "Frosty",Flămânzilă who's meaning was explained earlier,Setilă witch is derived from Romanian "Sete" witch means "Thirst",Ochilă witch is derived from "Ochi" witch means "Eye" and Păsări-Lăți-Lungilă who's name is derived from "Pasăre" (bird),"Lat" (broad) and "Lung" (long)witch is a reference to his streching powers and the fact that he's a bird hunter.
** The Bald Man as well.
* RatsinaBox:"Harap Alb" and his companions started arguing after Gerilă cooled down the oven house because he (Gerilă)liked it the way it was.
* RubberMan: Păsări-Lăți-Lungilă
* RuleofThree: You have 3 sons who each attempted the quest,"Harap Alb" got lost in the woods 3 times,"Harap Alb" is sent to 3 quests,He and his companions are served 3 items at the feast(12 carts of bread,12 fried cattles and 12 Barrels of wine.) by the Red Emperor,The Red Emperor's daughter flies away 3 times and finally the Red Emperor's challange is about bring 3/3 iteams
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: The Green Emperor loves Salad and Lettuce,especially the ones from the Bear's garden.
** The Bald Man was also fond of them
*** Păsări-Lăț-Lungilă loves to eat birds.
*** The Red Emperor apparently loves beef and wine since this is what he serves his "guests".

* WeaponofChoice:The Backsword for "Harap Alb" and the Bow&Arrows for Păsări-Lăți-Lungilă.
* YoungestChildWins:"Harap Alb" managed to complete the quest as opposed to his older brothers who failed miserably.

Povestea lui Harap Alb (The Story of Harap Alb) or just Harap Alb for short is a Fairy Tale wrote by The Romanian writer Ion Creangă.The story is about an old emperor named The Green Emperor who needs a male heir to succede him because he is old and can die any momment.Unfortunetly he only gets daughters and no son so he sends a letter to his borther who is a king with 3 sons to send one of his sons to succede him.The King first sends the oldest son.But when he was about to cross the bridge his father appeared before him disguised as a bear.The oldest son gets scared and turns around.Then the middle son is sent but with the same result.While the younger son was in tears over the failure of his older brothers in the garden,an old woman appears and tells him to accept the quest because she forsees that he will become a great emperor.However she tells him that the only way to cross the bridge is to use the clothes,sword and horse his father had as a young groom.While at first he was ridiculed by his father,in the end he accepted.He gathered the clothes,swrod and the horse.The horse could be identified because he was the only one who eats hot embers.So the young prince gets the embers puts them near the horses and an old horse approaches them,eats them and becomes a beautiful,magical,talking horse.Afterwards the young princes goes to the bridge and when his father appeared in the bear skin he attacks.The father stops the ruse and lets him go on his journy.However he advises him to stay away from the "Red Man" and the "Bald Man".The young prince continues his journy and at one points finds himself lost in the forest.The Bald Man appears before him and offers to help.But the prince remembered what his father told him and declines.However third time he accepts help and the Bald Man becomes his "slave" witch helps him get out of the forest.After a while they approach a well,were the Bald Man traps the prince and convinces him to switch roles and to swear loyalty on his sword.The Prince accepts and the 2 hop on the horse and go to the Green Emperor.There the Bald Man introduces himself as the Green Emperor's nephew and introduces the prince as his Slave named "Harap Alb" (white Moor).At the Palace the Bald man is served a salad.The Bald Man appreciates it and the Emperor tells him that it's salad from the Bear's garden witch are really hard to get.So the Bald Man sends "Harap Alb" to the Garden of the Bear in order to get the salad.There he meets the old lady from before who reveals herself to be "Holy Sunday" who prepares a potion to weaken the Bear's senses.After using it "Harap Alb" gathers the salads and goes back to the palace.Then the Bald Man was admiring some shiny precious stones.The emperor says that much like the salads they are also really hard to get as they can only be found in the Forest of the Stag (and the most beautiful grow on the stag itsself).The Bald Man again sends "Harap Alb" to the forest of the Stag to get the stones.However here he must be really carefull as the Stag has a poisonus stare that can kill him.Holy Sunday once again appears and gives him the visor and sword of a dwarf warrior named "Statu-Palmă-Barbă-Cot"."Harap Alb" uses this to ambush the stag and kill him.And once again he returns to the palace.There the Green Emperor and his daughters congradulate him but the Bald Man took the full credit himself claiming that "His Dad sent him the best slave" and that he instructed him.Then "Harap Alb" is put in charge of organising the royal banquet but the Bald Man makes him swear to talk to nobody.While everyone was enjoying the feast,a bird known as "Pasărea Măiastră"(the Majestic Bird) appears at the window witch causes a debate over wheter she is the Red Emperor's daughter and if not who is she.The Bald Man sends "Harap Alb" to solve the mystery.On his way he spots a bridge,but the problem was that ants were partying on it so he decides to cross trough the water so he won't kill them.As Thanks one of the ants gives him a wing and tells him to burn it and they will come to help him.On his way he also spots some bees who's hive was destroyed so he lets them stay in his hat while he makes them a new hive.After he finishes the bees also give him a wing with the same instructions."Harap Alb" continues his journy and on the way he meets Gerilă a man who is always cold no matter what,Flămânzilă a man who eats a lot but is always hungry,Setilă a man who drinks a lot but is always thirsty,Ochilă a man who can see everything and Păsări-Lăți-Lungilă a man who can strech and reach high altitudes only accesible to birds.The heroes reach the Red Emperor's palace.The Red Emperor invites them to sleep in an oven like room witch Gerilă cools down,then he prepares them a feast witch is gobbled down by Flămânzilă and Setilă,then he makes them separate poppy from sand and Harap Alb calls the ants for help,then he puts Harap Alb and his friends to guard his daughter who turns into a bird and flies away but luckly Ochilă spots her and Lungilă grabs her.And finally the Red Emperor gives them the task to distinguish his daughter from her twin sister to witch "Harap Alb" calls the bees for help.They pass the test,get the daughter but she also has a test.She wants her bird to race "Harap Alb"'s horse and bring back 3 apple twigs,3 measures of living water and 3 measures of dead water.While the bird was faster the Horse makes her give him the items.So the horse wins the race,"Harap Alb"'s companions go back to their buissness and "Harap Alb" falls in love with the Red Emperor's daughter.He also tells her about what happened and when she is brought to the Green Emepror's castle she exposes the Bald Man and tells everyone that "Harap Alb" is the real nephew of the Green Emperor.The Bald Man then takes "Harap Alb"'s sword and decapitates him with it.The Horse then grabs him flies into the air and drops the bald man who dies.The Red Emperor's daughter then uses the items to heal "Harap Alb" and bring him back to life.Afterwards "Harap Alb" marries her and becomes the Green Emperor's heir

* WeaponofChoice:The Backsword for Harap Alb and the Bow&Arrows for Păsări-Lăți-Lungilă.

* MeaningulName: "Harap Alb"'s companions.Gerilă witch litteraly means "Frosty",Flămânzilă who's meaning was explained earlier,Setilă witch is derived from Romanian "Sete" witch means "Thirst",Ochilă witch is derived from "Ochi" witch means "Eye" and Păsări-Lăți-Lungilă who's name is derived from "Pasăre" (bird),"Lat" (broad) and "Lung" (long)witch is a reference to his streching powers and the fact that he's a bird hunter.

* TheBaldofEvil:The Bald Man,obviously.

** The Bald Man is also fond of them
*** The Red Emperor apparently loves beef and wine since this is what he serves his "guests".
* VoluntaryShapeShifter: The Red Emperor's daughter.
* YoungestChildWins:"Harap Alb" managed to complete the quest as opposed to his older brothers who failed miserably.