In the city of Craiova there is a street and a neighbourhood bearing the name Brazda lui Novac (Novac’s Furrow). Not many people know that this name comes from the medieval name of a military defence fortification, made from the ground on the northern border of the Roman Empire in the time of Emperor Constantine the Great. Traces of the respective fortification, in fact a hundreds-kilometre-long ditch that runs Romania from West to East (stretching from Mehedinți county to Braila county), can still be seen on the outskirts of Craiova.
According to the archaeologists who studied the fortification, a smaller pit was first excavated in the time of the Roman emperor Trajan, later extended by the emperor Constantine the Great. The initial purpose of the earth wave was a strategic one, to stop the migratory populations (Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Germanic populations), later becoming the northern border of the Roman Empire. The fortification was abandoned by the Romans in the middle of the 4th century. Due to the mechanization and intensification of agriculture in the modern era, the traces of the land have largely disappeared.
The name Brazda lui Novac (Novac’s furrow) comes from medieval legends, which situate the period of the realization of the wave of the earth in immemorial times. According to these legends, Novac would have been a mythological figure or the emperor of the giants. The fortification would represent “a plough furrow drawn by Novac, who was the emperor of the Great People, and who came out to plough with a large, very large plough, which he dragged with his hands and having two big black oxen”. According to these legends, Novac would have fought with a dragon “as thick as a 100-glass barrel”, which harmed people in the villages near Craiova. Novac managed to chase him, and when he ran away, the dragon left a footprint on the ground, still bearing the name “Novac’s Furrow”.
Another version of the legend says that a great curse had fallen on people’s heads between the Danube and the Mountains. Every month they had to pay tribute to a dragon with three heads coming out of a well. The tribute was a child, a young virgin innocent. It was the turn of the most beautiful girl in the country, the girl of the Prince. In the morning, the Prince’s daughter sat near the well where the dragon had to appear. And as the girl was sitting and crying, there just passed a tall man by the name of Novac. The girl told him about the problems of her nation. Novac fought the dragon and defeated him, and as a reward the Prince gave him the kingdom and his daughter to be his wife. It was a joy and for all the people in the country to know that he, Novac, snatched the dragon, put his hand on the sword and threw a furrow all over the country, which is why people called “Novac’s Furrow”.
About the legend of the giant Novac also wrote the writer Alexandru Vlahuță in his book “Romania Pitoreasca” (Picturesque Romania). We reproduce a fragment from the legend of the creation of Novac’s Furrow:
“Long, long ago, a tall and robust man lived through our parts, taking the ox with his hand of the horns, twisting his neck and throwing it down, as you would throw the cat; if he concentrated a little, he would remove the oak from its roots, as if it was a blade of grass, and if it was tied over the belt with a rope, no one could pull it down, not even one thousand persons. When the barbarians flew into the country, he was mad with rage; he was wearing chain mail, he was wearing iron shoes, he had a bludgeon thicker than his foot, he held a steel pole, and then fought, brother, defend your earth with justice; he was chasing barbarians around the country like he was chasing rabbits from cabbage. The poor Romanians were glad that God had given them such a giant, to defend their enemy, and they remained masters on the glorious earth, with tasty bread. But as time passed and Novac was getting older, his power diminished. He thought that he would die in a day soon and what would the descendants, sons, grandsons, Romanians all do?! They will be conquered and enslaved. And then Novac started working and made a plough of nine thousand steel quarts, with the beam of a healthy oak, but as old as centuries and as thick as the barrel, with a knife of eighteen steres and a coulter. He put 120 pairs of black oxen, and a same number of young men settled near them, and then Novac set out to shoot a long, deep furrow from the sunset, about the Danube. He pressed himself firmly on the edge, the plough plunged about four meters into the ground, leaving a huge ditch to the north and the furrow turned to the south, as high as four meters, like a high mound. When the barbarians flew, they stopped here; after the arrows of the Romanians flew like bees from the hive and the barbarians did not have courage to dare to cross the ditch”.
Another Romanian popular legend says that the giant Novac had pulled the furrow to serve as a burial ground when the rifle and gunpowder appeared. Rather than kill someone sneakily, and not through a straight fight, he took a chariot with oxen and pulled a deep furrow, at the end of which he was buried, covering himself with earth:
“In the old, old times, everything, since it is barely remembered, lived in this country a giant, whose name was Novac. So powerful and fierce was this man, that he was beating alone villages, cities and fortresses and many royal troops. And he did it alone, without even a single soldier around him. Fierce fighter, I bet!
But he was also an eater, as you could not find another! He ate whole pieces of meat and did not have enough; two or three herds of cattle were not enough in a week and since then the saying remains: “He ate as much as Novac!”, for one who eats a lot. However, he did great good to our nation, as he struggled only with those that did not give peace to the Romanian. And then, he wasn’t haughty either. He was behaving like us. Novac lived in the world far and wide … until a time when you know what happened? They came out into the world: shotgun and gunpowder. What did Novac say?
– Oh my God! So far I have had the courage! From now on, however, can any man, no matter how young, kill me immediately, without having to deal with it. And then this haughtiness came to earth! To live anymore? I know, but what I am gonna do? In order to not be kidnapped by anyone, I better kill myself!
And as Novac spoke in that way, he took his plough with the two huge oxen and drew a deep furrow: the furrow of Novac, which he carried, took it to where … it is unknown. At the end of the furrow, do you know what he did? The giant was buried, with the oxen and the plough; look at it, so nobody would ever know about him!
Bibliography:
• Silviu Dragomir, “Novac’s furrow”. We the Thracians, year II, no. 1 – September 1975
• Andreea Mitrache, “The strange medieval legend that links Craiova with Novac’s furrow and the three hypotheses taken into account by historians”, April 23, 2015, https://adevarul.ro/locale/craiova/ciudata-legenda-medievala-leaga-craiova-brazda-novac-cele-trei-ipoteze-luate-calcul-istorici-1_5538e92bcfbe376e357a3a15/index.html
• Andrea David, “Picturesque Romania by Alexandru Vlahuță, The Crow. Hinova”, 18 February 2013, http://drumliber.ro/romania-pitoreasca-de-alexandru-vlahuta-corbul-hinova/#more-12174
• Horia Dumitru Oprea, “Novac – historical legends”, 1 September 2010, https://istoriiregasite.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/novac-legende-istorice/