Mages and sages E-Book

Hristo Santulov

• Herausgeber: Europa Edizioni
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Mages and Sages is a collection of fairy tales from other times, where good triumphs over evil, and where nature is the undisputed protagonist in a thousand seasonal nuances.
Through these enchanting pages, you can feel the landscape of the seven famous mounts where the author grew up, home of games and dreams here transposed.
The Rhodope mountains, their hills and colors, and the legends that whisper their magic, are the scenography that accompanies this collection not only designed for a young audience: in a world like the current one, made of images and violence, depicting brave characters fighting for ideals is not just an escape, but it is a hope towards a better future, fairer and healthier.

Hristo Al. Santulov was born on Oct 30th in the ancient town of Plovdiv (Philippopolis) in 1940. He finished the Business school there in 1958, and in 1969 he graduated from the philosophy program of the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. For forty years he taught philosophy at schools, as well as at the Plovdiv university St Paisius of Hilendar and the Thracian university. His doctoral thesis is dedicated to the problems of gnoseology and the philosophy of education.
He is a young child during the harsh post WWII years. Time and place make their mark on him. Young Hristo is fascinated by the vibrant fast developing town full of characters of all nationalities.
Far from being autobiographical or moralizing, Hristo shares the deepest values, ideas and impressions, the beauty of places and people that preserved the child born to a family of illiterate parents that still remembers the hunger and the bread tickets of postwar times. This kid grows up to be a pater familias, a philosophy doctor, an entrepreneur and a writer in his eighties, as fresh in his mind and tales as the mountain breeze he loves to describe so much.
He has eight books of fiction published in Bulgarian and two in English - one in Europe by Europe Books and one in New York, the USA.

Leseprobe

Hristo Al. Santulov

Mages and Sages

© 2025Europe Books| London

www.europebooks.co.uk | [email protected]

ISBN 9791256970421

First edition: April 2025

The Lonely Swan is illustrated by Nadejda Slavooa

The Eagle from the Samodiva Lake and

The Emerald Castle are illustrated by Yana Antonova.

Mages and Sages

THE LONELY SWAN

1. THE ABDUCTION

One day, I don’t know why, but I wanted to be alone and went to the shore of Blue Lake. I looked into the distance, where the heavy morning mist had not yet lifted, and dived in thought. It was quiet, it felt mysterious to me, and my daydreaming imperceptibly intertwined with a legend that people still tell along those shores.

***

There, on the opposite shore, in a small house, lived Grandpa Petko and Grandma Tanya. Grandpa Petko had built the house himself, painted it light blue because they lived by the Blue Lake. He was a lake fisherman - he caught only as much fish as they needed themselves.

Every summer, their granddaughter Yana would come to visit - a girl with a white face, thick long black hair, and olive black eyes, always cheerful and playful, smiling and happy. Every time Yana arrived, the air by the lake got filled with her resounding, joyful voice. The old people were filled with affection, the home was filled with love.

One day, early in the morning, just before sunrise, when the thick fog had not lifted, Grandpa Petko untied his boat and set out into the lake to catch fish to treat Yana with the most delicious fish soup that only Grandma Tanya could cook right.

This morning, Grandpa decided to go deeper to catch bigger fish. He rowed with his strong hands, hardened by toil, and slowly, imperceptibly, entered the damp mist.

The boat was lost in the thick clouds and the shore was no longer visible, only the clatter of the oars could be heard. Since he had fished many times in the fog, the old man did not worry at all but simply chose a suitable place to cast his net into the waters of the Blue Lake.

“It’s alright here. It looks pretty deep and there must be big fish.” - the old man thought. He stood up and was ready to cast the net, when suddenly a shrill cry rang out, which startled him so much that Grandpa Petko froze motionless.

“Hey, old man, you entered my kingdom this morning!” Grandpa Petko heard a shrillfemale voice that came as a fantastic ominousecho from the depths of the lake. “Don’tyou know everyone whocame into these limits would be enchanted by me? Many fishermen like you are down in my possession!” The voice for a longtime continued to ring in the old man’s head.

Hearing this, the grandfather trembled with fear and having not thrown the fishing net into the water, collapsed heavily on the seat of the boat. He did not know what to say, but suddenly a clear memory came to his mind when his father had strictly ordered him not to go too deep into the lake, because there, in its depths, lived a very evil and ugly sorceress. Every time someone crossed the borders of her kingdom, she captured him and dragged him to the bottom, turning him into an aquatic animal.

The old man spoke softly:

“I’m sorry I broke your peace, great magician. Allow me to return to the shore and continue taking care of my wife and granddaughter. If they were left alone, there would be no one to take care of them,” he sent his request humbly, adopting his guilt.

“Okay, I’ll let you go, but in return, I’ll come and get your beautiful granddaughter right now and turn her into the most beautiful swan in this land. She will pull my golden chariot instead of the two black crows!”the sorceress returned the request. “Go now and don’t come here again!”

“Oh, poor child, what did I do?How could I?What will happen now?” the poor old man muttered confusedly.

He grabbed the oars again firmly and set to shore, which was barely visible. The boat slid away from the thick fog, but grandfather Petko’s ears were still ringing with the piercing voice wording the evil wish of the sorceress. He rushed home to tell Grandma Tanya everything, to warn her about what was threatening theirgranddaughter.

Not long after, the boat reached the shore and the old man jumped off it, tied it up, and ran to the house. There, Grandma Tanya was frying the softest bays that all three in the family loved so much.

Hearing the door slam, she turned and saw her husband standing in the doorway, staring strangely, and bowing his head.

“What’s up, Petko?What happened?”

He looked up. His frown and the line of his thick white eyebrows suggested that he had something terrible to tell her.

“Tell me straight away, please don’t delay.It bothers me so much!” she urged him.

“Tanya, this morning, I decided to go deeper into the lake to catch a bigger fish. But when I set sail, I got lost in the fog. And there, I heard the voice of the witch who lives in the depths. I had heard about her from my father, but I didn’t really believe much of his words then.”

“What are you telling me, Petko?Have you got senile already? What sorceress? Pull yourself together!Have you brought fish for the soup?” almost angrily Granny Tanya replied.

“I’m telling you the truth, Tanya. She let me go, but she wanted to take our beautiful granddaughter for herself and turn her into the most beautiful swan in our landtopull her gold chariot,” quietly, almost in tears, explained the grandfather. “I don’t know what to do, how to save Yana.”

“Are you serious, Petko?" an embarrassed and hesitant voice came from his wife, who still could not fullyunderstand whether this was true or something was going on in the head of her old man. “What if it’s true? What are we going to do now?” the frightened grandmother thought. “How can we possibly protect her from the evil sorceress?”

She approached her husband and hugged him to reassure him, but she herself was already overwhelmed by the terrible thought of the child being taken away from them.

“Come on, come onand sit here!” She pointed to a chair at the table.

And she herself sat next to him. Their granddaughter Yana was still asleep so they continued to talk quietly.

“What if we locked her in her room? Then I’ll call her father to comeimmediately and take her to the city, away from the lake and from the evil sorceress,” said Grandpa Petko and looked at his wife inquisitively, waiting for her opinion.

“But how shall we explain to the poor child that she has to be locked in her room for so long?”said the grandmother dejectedly.

The two thought deeply and tried to find a solution.

They were silent and did not notice when Yana woke up and went ashore in the dark. Suddenly, there was a loud scream from the lake in front of the house.

“Help! Grandpa! Help!” Yana’s loud cry was gradually dying away but still creeping in the impenetrable fog.

It felt as if they had woken from a deep sleep, they jumped out of their chairs and rushed into the yard. They stared in amazement at the misty darkness in the direction of the child’s cry. The sorceress’ receding golden chariot, pulled by two huge, strong, black crows, was speeding furiously and was already sinking into darkness. At that moment, the villain stood up and turned to the astonished old couple, laughing so loudly and viciously in her screechy voice that it pierced the hearts of the poor old man and his wife deeply. A moment later, they saw the chariot sink into the still thick, heavy morning mist. They only heard the loud cry of the child and the screams of the witch urging the crows to fly faster and faster: “Gaaa, gaaa, fast, fast!” shouted the evil sorceress Tedora. She was in a hurry because after a while the sun’s rays would disperse the fog, and the darkness with it, and the crows would not be able to fly. She had enchanted them so that once the sun shone on them, they could not fly, but fall into the water or on the ground. That way they would stay in the dark with her forever.

Grandfather Petko and grandmother Tanya collapsed on the couch in front of the house and wept in grief, mourning the fate of their granddaughter.

2. THE BLACK SWAN

“Here, this is my water kingdom, in which you will live like a swan,” said the sorceress, holding out her hand over the black-haired head of the seven-year-old girl. And at that moment, Yana turned into a graceful black swan with a delicate orange beak and a small, snow-white rose on her forehead. On her back and wings scattered several shiny diamonds, which completed the elegance of her figure.

“You will be the most beautiful black swan in these lands! You will only be able to talk to me as a person. You will never be able to talk to the other swans because you will not understand their language, just as they will not understand yours. They will run away from you because they will be able to tell that you are enchanted and you are not a real swan like them. This will make you the loneliest swan in the world. So you will stay with me until the end of your days. My magic can only be broken by a gesture of true love. But now, I will tell you right away that this magic of mine is so powerful that it is impossible for this to happen in my kingdom.” The sorceress finished the spell and a strange smile appeared on her face. It became even more ugly and gleeful, revealing her complacency. Yana was deeply disgusted by her presence, but there was nothing she could do. She could barely make sense of the sorcerer’s words and lowered her graceful neck down, her soul drowning in grief.

“Well, Yana, do not be so sad. You will still be the most beautiful swan and I’ll give you a beautiful castle to live in,” Tedora said and pointed down to the depths of the lake, holding the swan’s wing and they both dived underwater. In a moment, they ended in front of two gold castles guarded by two big fishes.