Abstract
An ample part of the Romanian folk lyrics deals with the topic of the badly married girl. The author analyzes the entire network of motifs specific to this sphere, starting with their ancestral roots elated to exogamy and to the rural organization based on kinship. The nuptial repertory referring to the moment when the bride leaves the parental home announces in nuce the possible future dramas caused by estrangement, by the hostility of the husband’s family, by the isolation from the world, etc. The songs of the badly married girl present them as already happened, using specific antonymous constructions, metaphors and comparisons. The central piece of this lyric category is the song including the motif of the pile on which the dowry is burnt and the motif of the heroine’s metamorphose into a bird. By taking over the drama of an entire social category, these texts transfigure inner tearing into elegiac notes.
Keywords: the badly married girl, the bad mother-in-law, the slave daughter-in-law, the pile between the borderlines, the curse of the mother, Deus otiosus, funeral messenger, the boreal owl, redemption.
Cuvinte-cheie: fata rău măritată, soacra rea, nora roabă, rugul între hotare, blestemul matern, Deus otiosus, mesager funest, minuneauă, expiere.