# ADSactly Folklore: The legend of the walled-up wife

*If you want to build something that will last, you have to put some soul into it. This is a saying most of us are tempted to see as a metaphor for the act of creation, yet hundreds and thousands of years ago it had a quite literal meaning. Human sacrifice as a means of accomplishing mastery is a practice documented in many folkloric creations, well-known all over Europe and Asia.*

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_{[source](https://mrtripp.tours/blog/the-curtea-de-arges-monastery-a-romanian-emblem)}</center>

The idea for this post comes from a ballad children in my country, Romania, study in school - ‘The Ballad of Master Builder Manole’, a gruesome folk tale we were told to interpret metaphorically. No one ever told us all the other countries in the Balkans have similar ballads, all pointing to the old custom of burying someone alive at the site of important buildings.
The ballad of Manole the builder refers to the construction of one of the most beautiful monasteries in our country, dating from the 16th century and situated in the town of Curtea de Arges, the place were our kings and queens were laid to rest.

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_{[source](https://i1.wp.com/www.voci.ro/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/desen_manastire_arges.jpg)}</center>

Legend has it that Prince Radu hired the best masons in the country to build the monastery, but try as they might, whatever they built by day would crumble overnight. As the Prince was getting angrier, the ten builders remembered an old custom and decide to bury alive the first woman to bring food to her husband the next day. As a fearful Manole wakes up, the distant figure walking towards the monastery is revealed to be his own pregnant wife, Anna. He prays God to unleash a terrible rain to make her go back, but nothing would stop the devoted wife. Manole cannot go back on his oath and he helps immure his wife in the monastery’s walls. There will be no more crumbling and soon the building is completed. However, when the Prince hears the masons boast they could build another church even more magnificent, he orders his men to remove the scaffolding, leaving the workers stranded on the roof. The only means of escape they could think of was crafting wings out of wood planks, which, of course, turn out to be useless. As he leaps to his death, Master Manole hears his wife laments coming from the walls.

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*The fountain built on the spot Manole died*
_{[source](http://info-herodot.ro/item/cod-4511-fantana-mesterului-manole/)}</center>

The Romanian ballad is almost identical to a Hungarian folktale about a stonemason named Komuves Kelemen. His ballad refers to the building of the citadel in the city of Deva, sometime in the 16th century. Back then the city was under Hungarian rule, but know Deva also belongs to Romania. Just like Manole, Kelemen sacrifices his own wife, also named Anna, whose remains are mixed with the mortar.

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_{[source](https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=632&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=W47-XLSAH_K21fAP6umUwAQ&q=deva+citadel&oq=deva+citadel&gs_l=img.3..0j0i8i30.73035.77694..78150...0.0..0.112.1242.5j7......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......35i39j0i24j0i10i24.frT-2pbY7a4#imgrc=pWtzSbFcEaZ32M:)}</center>

In Bulgarian folklore, the mason is called Manol and the building he is supposed to have built is the Selimiye Mosque, in the Turkish city of Edirne.
"The Building of Skadar", a citadel in modern day Albania, is a famous Serbian folktale.This time, the builders are three brothers and although they all swear an oath, the older two warn their wives to stay away. The only one to come is the youngest brother wife, who accepts her fate but begs of them to leave an opening so she can continue breastfeed her newborn. Although her voice dies down after one week, her milk keeps flowing for one whole year.
All in all, there are hundreds of variants of this legend in the Balkans, but researchers believe it might have been brought to Europe from Asia, as the basic story can be found in Indian, Mongolian or Japanese folklore.
In his 1996 book, “The Walled-Up Wife”American folklorist Alan Dundes mentions an Indian legend regarding a sacred wall at the Hampi temple, where the master builder buried his pregnant daughter.

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*Maruoka Castle in Japan*
_{[source](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6605.html)}</center>

In Japan, the practice of burying someone alive at a building site, as a sacrifice to appease the gods is known as ‘Hitobashira’. Old chronicles are full of such gory stories. For instance, during the construction of the Maruoka Castle, a one-eyed woman was convinced to sacrifice herself, In return, she is promised one of her sons will be made a samurai, which does not happen.Legend has it that every spring the resentful woman would cry tears of sorrow, causing the moat to overflow.
The Matsue Ohashi bridge was also built upon human sacrifice, the victim being one man called Gensuke. A nearby park bears his name to honor his sacrifice. The belief is such tales is so strong that in the 19th century when the bridge was rebuilt people from nearby villages were afraid to go to town for fear they might be chosen as human sacrifice.
Researchers believe the story was brought to Europe by the Gypsy population arriving from India, who spread all over Europe. However, there are many stories that point to the idea that human sacrifice was also practiced in Western Europe.

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*Liebenstein Castle in Germany*
_{[source](https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=632&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=SZD-XOnnIOKr1fAP--eZyAQ&q=liebenstein+castle&oq=liebenste&gs_l=img.1.0.0j0i30j0i5i30l3j0i30l5.35329.38232..40048...0.0..0.114.948.1j8......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......35i39j0i67j0i10i67.4XkElJZN6Y8#imgrc=wvQ_xDOnPDnzrM:)}</center>

According to Alan Dundes, when the Bridge Gate in Bremen (Germany) was demolished a child’s skeleton was found buried in the foundation. During the construction of the castle in Liebenstein, legend has it a child was purchased from his mother to be buried alive. As the builders worked, the child could be heard saying *‘Mother, I see thee still’*. When the wall was completed, the boy cried out *‘Mother, now I see thee no more’*. This is very similar to the story of a little boy sacrificed at the site of a bridge in the Bretagne region. The child was walled-up holding a candle in one hand and a piece of bread in the other. According to legend, when the wind howls at night, the child can be heard crying *‘My candle blew out, Mother, and my bread is no more’*.
There are also many recorded instances of people being immured in the walls of English churches.During restoration works of the parish church in Holsworthy (Devon), human remains were found embedded in stone and mortar.

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_{[source](https://www.google.com/search?q=london+bridge+human+sacrifice&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiElaKmuN_iAhULDxQKHZEcDiwQ_AUIECgB&biw=1366&bih=632#imgrc=oXoDRFUmyQE_GM:)}</center>

Even one of the most famous nursery rhymes in the world, ‘London Bridge Is Falling Down’ is believed to reference the same practice, the version we know today being a sanitized one, where the human sacrifice was edited out. While no human remains were ever found on site, a story of the aristocratic Leigh family of Stoneleigh Park speaks of a family member being offered as sacrifice.
According to ancient beliefs, a human sacrifice was needed to appease the gods of the earth upon which a building was to be raised, or the spirits of the river where bridges are concerned. By building an important structure, it was thought the gods would be angered by the humans arrogance. If they want to usurp the divine power of creation, they must pay with their own blood.
According to Serbian folklorist Zora Devrnja Zimmerman:
> “Human ambition advances civilization, but it also brings about suffering. In short, mortals are punished for their defiance of the gods, but defiance gives knowledge.”

Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade explores the notion of spiritual transference that takes place through the act of human sacrifice. As he points out, sacrifice is a fundamental in most cosmogony myths, where the world is built from the torn limbs of a slain giant. In his analysis of the Master Manole legend, professor Eliade points out:

> “To last, a construction (house, technical accomplishment, but also spiritual undertaking) must be animated, that is, must receive both life and a soul. The ‘transference' of the soul is possible only by means of a sacrifice, in other words, a violent death. We may even say that the victim continues its existence after death, no longer in its physical body but in its new body—the construction—which it has 'animated' by its immolation; we may even speak of an 'architectonic body’ substituted for a body of flesh."

When human sacrifice was abolished, master builders substituted it with animal blood or with burying the captured shadow of a human being. Still, the person whose shadow had been buried at the foundation of a new building was expected to die within 40 days.
Please share in comments the legends involving human sacrifice popular in your area!
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**Post authored by @ladyrebecca.**
**References:** [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me%C8%99terul_Manole), [2](http://www.archiwik.org/index.php?title=Ballad_of_The_Walled-Up_Wife#cite_note-20), [3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dundes).</center>