Vâlvă

What it is

Vâlvă (plural vâlve) is a female spirit in Romanian folklore. The vâlve are said to travel across hilltops after dark. Tradition divides them into two kinds: Vâlve Albe, the white ones, held to be helpful, and Vâlve Negre, the black ones, held to be harmful. Now and then they are described in human shape, particularly when they are said to shield a village from a storm. At other times they are said to look like shadows or black cats, and they are credited with the power to change form. Different vâlve are attached to different things: springs and fountains, crops, mines, money, buried treasure, woodland, plague, the days of the week and old citadels.

Where it comes from

The vâlve come from oral tradition rather than from any written text. The best known are the vâlve of the mines, and stories about them cluster around the old metal-working districts of Romania, such as Roşia Montană, a place known for gold and for its folklore. Mining people there hold that a white vâlvă must lend her help before gold can be found, and that she turns black when greed, waste or theft enters the picture. Other vâlve are tied to springs, fields, woodland, money and ruins.

What it is for

The vâlve are held to watch over particular places and goods rather than to serve a person's wish. Vâlva Apei looks after springs and fountains; Vâlva Bucatelor after the poor and the harvest; Vâlva Băilor after mines and tunnels; Vâlva Banilor after money; Vâlva Comorilor after buried treasure and is said to show where it lies; Vâlva Pădurii after woodland; Vâlva Cetăţilor after old ruins. Two more carry other duties: Vâlva Ciumei is linked to plague and disease, Vâlva Zilelor to the days of the week. Miners in particular are said to depend on a white vâlvă's guidance to find gold and keep their bearings underground.

Peoples and places

Romania is the home of the vâlvă, and the stories are told by Romanian country people and by mining communities in particular. The richest cluster of tales comes from traditional metal-working areas, with Roşia Montană named as a place where gold and folklore sit side by side. Beyond the mines, the different vâlve map a landscape: water sources and fountains, fields and the poor who work them, woodlands, buried hoards and the ruins of old citadels. Vâlva Pădurii is described as close in character to Muma Pădurii, another figure of Romanian story.

What people believe

Behind the vâlve sits a simple moral rule. A white vâlvă is believed to reward fair dealing: she shows miners where gold lies, or helps them find their way in the galleries. Should someone grow greedy, squander the money or steal gold from the family it was first shown to, the same vâlvă is said to turn black and to pursue the wrong until the insult is answered. Knocks heard through the rock, in a corridor where nobody should be, are taken as her sign. Miners say that ignoring her warning brings the galleries down.

When it is done

The vâlve are night figures: they are said to cross the hilltops after dark. One of them, Vâlva Zilelor, is tied to the calendar itself, with a separate vâlvă for each day of the week. The rest are attached to places rather than dates, watching over a spring, a field, a mine or a ruin. In the mining districts, knocking through the galleries is described as an ordinary sound, heard as if from the very next corridor.

Compare and confuse

The vâlve are not one figure but a family of them, each named for what she guards: Vâlva Apei, Vâlva Băilor, Vâlva Pădurii and the rest. Vâlva Pădurii is compared to Muma Pădurii, a woodland figure of Romanian folklore. The division into white and black vâlve is the main way the stories sort them, since the same vâlvă can be described as helpful or as punishing depending on how people behave.

Questions people ask about Vâlvă

Good reading and sources

• Vâlvă on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data