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In Olt county, a legend – the Dew Prince – is very popular, which tells the sad love story of a traveling prince, melted by the sun’s rays in the morning dew.
It is said that he was once a proud and beautiful young man, owner of large estates and glass palaces near the Danube. Often, the young man started on the bank of the river Olt to the Loviștei Mountains. While walking through those places, he met a beautiful girl, whom he fell in love with. Love rattled his heart so hard that he would come to her house every night, but the young man was destined to never see the sun, because then it would melt like dew! For that reason he was also known as The Dew Prince.
The prince ordered the Road of Dew to be built, a cobbled road from his palaces on the banks of the Danube, to his beloved’s house near the mountains, to make it easier. It is said that, in order to finish the road as soon as possible, the Dew Prince would have oppressed the locals, be they old people, children or women. Nobody got rid of the hard work on the Prince’s way, even to the pregnant women he gave them twice as much work, and for the baby they were carrying in their wombs.
When the road was ready, the Dew Prince went every evening to his beloved, where he remained until the dawn of the day. As he heard the first song of the roosters, he climbed into the carriage and made a quick return to the Danube.
Legend says that, wishing to avenge the prince’s lack of humanity towards those who worked on the Dew Road, the people in the village where his lover lived killed all the roosters in one night. When morning came, no noise was heard in the village. The Dew Prince realized too late that the day was approaching, and he hurried to his great palaces, where the sun could not reach him. He whipped his horses as hard as he could, but no matter how fast they ran, he didn’t arrive on time. The first rays of the sun came after the crest of a mountain, and the Dew Prince scattered like steam, together with his horses. In that place there was only the lily of the valley shining in the sun like thousands of dew grains.
It is believed that the residence of the Dew Prince would have been in Sucidava fortress (today’s Celei, a district of Corabia town) and that he would have fallen in love with the daughter of emperor Galerius (known in the people as Ler Emperor), who lived in the fortress Romula Malva (near Caracal). When the Dew Prince melted, it would have given birth to the Potopin stream, right next to the Dobrosloveni locality today. The Dew Road would, in fact, be Trajan’s Road, which started on the territory of Romania today from the stone and wood bridge from Sucidava, near the fortress Romula Malva (near Caracal) and ascended to Transylvania on Olt River.
Bibliography:
• Adrian Bucurescu, “The Dew Prince of the Romanians”, 16 October 2012, http://epochtimes-romania.com/news/domnul-de-roua-al-romanilor—171547
• “In step with the legend: The Road of the Dew Prince, from Sucidava to the courts of Ler Emperor~, 8 March 2015, http://www.ziare.com/cultura/documentar/in-pas-de-legenda-drumul-domnului-de-roua-de-la-sucidava-spre-curtile-lui-ler-imparat-1351781
• ”The legend of the delicate dew Prince, transformed into a stream at sunrise”, 6 March 2016, https://adevarul.ro/locale/slatina/legenda-delicatului-domn-roua-transformat-parau-rasaritul-soarelui-venea-iubita-sa-fata-ler-Imparat-1_56daae555ab6550cb884c10e/index.html
• “Let’s discover Dobrosloveni … through legends: The Dew Prince”, https://zigzagprinromania.com/blog/domnul-de-roua/