"Iele" The Romanian Fairies

The so-called "iele" are mythological Romanian characters, similar to fairies or elves. These supernatural beings get their name from the Romanian feminine personal pronoun in the plural (the feminine of "they"). It was believed best not to upset or offend them, and that is why they are generally given no name. However, they were given other generic names such as The Gorgeous Ones, The Fairies, The Saint Ones, The Empresses, and so on.

Ieles are some sort of spirits that appear in the form of beautiful young virgins who show up in groups of 3, 5, 7, 9 or 12. They are amazingly beautiful and according to most folk beliefs, they are dressed in white from head to toe, they sometimes wear armor on their chests and little bells at their feet. They wear flowers in their long hair.

They were said to live in faraway forests and they fly over the top of the trees to the sound of violins, flutes or bagpipes. Sometimes they travel in chariots stolen from villages. They usually carry candles, fact which makes them noticeable in the dark.

These mythical creatures would feed on flowers and would drink water from mountain springs. Springs were in fact their meeting and bathing place. They loved to party and dance, and their singing was said to be so beautiful and charming, it sounded inhuman. They would make a ring dance in a clean clearance, a green grass garden or a piece of land, where they would lay the table. On the grass spot where they would dance, the green grass used to turn dry and even burnt. And although there would grow some more grass later on, cows would refuse to eat it. As they were considered sacred, there was no permission for animals or humans to walk near their area after lunchtime.

That was because according to folk tales, the "ieles" used to feed on flowers, but also on weeds. They would taste each flower and each weed, to rid them of their healing powers. If anyone passed by the iele's dancing ring, they would leave that person disfigured or ill beyond cure. Another folk belief about these creatures was that if you upset them in their joy, they would become vindicative and leave you paralyzed or crippled, but if you let them have their fun, they would give you anything you wanted. Those who heard their singing would remain deaf, and the one who would answer when they called him/her by name, would remain dumb. If the one who sensed them coming did not throw himself to the ground and cover his head so as not to hear them singing, that man would remain dumb and crippled.

When they wanted to punish somebody the ieles used to charm him by their songs, to make them sleep in sweet dreams, then they would dance around them and start cursing. In order to keep this type of fairies away, people used to put a horse skull in their fence, for them to see and run from it.

The ieles' most nasty trick was to lure men that walked alone at night through the forest, to charm them with their looks, their scanty outfits and their heavenly voices, and those men used either to go mad, or never to be seen again by anyone.

There are several theories among folklorist about the origin of the ieles. One of them is that they were the three daughters of Alexander of Macedon; another that they were female souls that had been witched and could no longer find their peace. According to another myth, their origin would be found in the Parable of the 10 virgins from our Savior's parable in the Gospel. The ieles were in fact the 5 virgins that remained with their candles extinguished, because they did not bring enough oil with them when they went to welcome the bridegroom. Hence their unholy and often moody behavior towards humans.

Although these are mere legends, there still are old people in the countryside who are willing to tell stories of their claimed real encounters with these unearthly creatures. And so the ieles still have an impact on people's imagination.