Paper short abstract:

The paper tries to present the way in which the three Fates are portrayed in nowadays oral folk narratives of the Vlachs of North-Eastern Serbia, with a special emphasis on several memorates which do not fit in the widely known Balkan patterns.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on the field material recorded by the author between 2002 and 2009 in several Vlach villages of North-Eastern Serbia, during semi-structured interviews on mythological themes. The respondents narrate about the three Fates which visit the house of the newborn three nights after birth both in the first person singular, from their own experience, which includes them in the category of memorates, and in the third person, reproducing the already existing texts which circulate within the community for generations, the fabulates. Most of the times, these narratives, be them memorates or fabulates, fit in the widely spread Balkan patterns, which are encountered both in the Serbian and Romanian folklore, as the Vlach system of beliefs has developed at their confluence. However, we have also come across several accounts which do not follow the usual pattern and can hardly be classified, as they gather and intertwine elements from different folk genres, and, unlike other narratives about the Fates, have quite a complex plot, with a surprising end. These accounts have been obtained from what we call a 'specialized narrator', namely a charmer, a practitioner of folk magic. Analyzing these texts, we try to answer the question whether they are purely individual creations or they have been transferred, together with the magical knowledge, from the predecessor of the charmer; whether the 'specialized narrators' can act as factors of change in the community's repertoire, as well as to determine how permissive the border between fabulates and memorates is.