‘The Rom and the Devil’
A German, a Frenchman, a Bulgarian, a Serb, an Austrian and a Rom are holding a meeting. Suddenly the Devil appears and asks each of those present to give him a task. If he, the Devil, can accomplish the task, the soul of the man who set the task belongs to the Devil.

Those present set tasks for the Devil and he accomplishes them all: He produces a banquet for the German, an orchestra with Goran Bregović for the Serb, a villa for the Bulgarian and even Claudia Schiffer for the Frenchman; and he claims their souls since they have all lost their bets with him. The last one to give him a task is the Rom, who asks him to straighten one curly hair of Claudia Schiffer. For years, the Devil tries to perform that task but he fails and finally bursts with rage without having won the Rom’s soul.

There won’t be many Romani groups with a tradition of storytelling where the story type of the Rom and the Devil (‘O Řom taj o beng’) would not be known at all. The tale of outwitting the Devil by making him straighten a curly hair is found all over Europe, including in the fairy-tale collections of the Brothers Grimm. A variation of this story is told by the basket-makers (Sepečides) from Izmir in Turkey, albeit in the form of a matrimonial conflict.

Zlatko Mladenov follows the version known all over Europe in which the Devil is outwitted. But at the same time, he demonstrates that droll stories and fairy tales are not rigid. While the Austrian is mentioned only as courtesy to the person who recorded the tale, the narrator makes use of stereotypes for the other nationalities: the German wants to eat well; the Serb wishes to listen to music by Goran Bregović, the Bulgarian desires a villa and the Frenchman wants love with Claudia Schiffer (‘Amen sam po kamimos’ – ‘We are for love’, at minute 04:26). The cunning of the Rom is another favourite cliché used in numerous tales: cunning and the art of living distinguish the Rom from the rest of the world and allow him to defeat even the Devil.

Literature

Fennesz-Juhasz, Christiane; Cech, Petra; Heinschink, Mozes F.; Halwachs, Dieter W. (ed.). 2012. Lang ist der Tag, kurz die Nacht, Märchen und Erzählungen der Kalderaš / Baro o djes, cîni e rjat, Paramiča le Kaldêrašengê. Klagenfurt: Drava Verlag (Transkript und deutsche Übersetzung / transkripto taj njamcicka translacija / transcript and German translation: 254–61).

Cech, Petra; Heinschink, Mozes F. 1999. Sepečides-Romani, Grammatik, Texte und Glossar eines türkischen Roma-Dialekts (= Balkanologische Veröffentlichungen der Freien Universität Berlin Band 34). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 165 (Version in Sepečides-Romani / Verzija pe řomano dialekto katal l’ Sepečides / Version in Sepečides-Romani).