SOLOMONARʼS BOOK AND THE ETYMOLOGY OF ”CLOUD CHASERS”
SOLOMONARʼS BOOK AND THE ETYMOLOGY OF ”CLOUD CHASERS”

Summary/Abstract: In 1870, Simion Florea Marian and Iosif Vulcan made some connection between the etymology of the word ”Solomonar” and King Solomon and the German term schuller (translated scholar), counting on some similarities concerning certain features characterising Solomonars the way they are perceived by people and the biblical character or farhende schuller (wandering scholar) – a term borrowed by Romanians from the Saxon community in the Ardeal region. In the 18th century, Ion Budai-Deleanu published the first variant of ”Tiganiada” (1795) and it is there that we meet a Solomonar named Haicu, and in 1857, Fr. Muller published, in Brasov, legends from Ardeal, telling about Solomonars. In 1932, due to folklorists Simion Florea Marian and Ion G. Sbiera, there appeared the first beliefs and legends about Solomonars outside the Ardeal region. The motif ”Solomonar’s Book” was studied by Mihai Coman and Eugen Agrigoroaiei who tried to associate that book with the sacred book or with a Dacian motif in the substrate, but this association has proved to be difficult to support as far as both written proofs and understanding of the texts which make this book are concerned.

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