Epic songs (ballads)

The oldest Gorj songs are epic songs, also called ballads. Although ballads have hundreds of motifs and themes in folkloric creation, only a few can be found in Gorje localities, dividing into the following categories:

Fantasy (eg: John the Baptist, The Serpent and the Beast, Three Sisters, The Raven and the Mad Game)

Brave (eg: Mihu the outlaw, Gruia lui Novac, Corbea, Badiul cârciumarul, Gheorghe and Arapu, Sbangă, Zdrelea, Mărunțelu, Cantecul lui Petrescu, Radu Anghel)

Shepherds (eg: Wild sheep, Shepherd who lost his sheep)

Family (eg: Ghiță Cătănuță, Uncheșelul, Oleac Voinicul, Mirea, Matei Haiducul, Cantecul lui Tudor, Costea and Catrina, Dina Duduleanu)

Oral diaries (eg: Mischie's pop song, Dincă Schileru's song, Gogin from Buduhala, My man is not dead, The wedding at Vijulan, The fire from Costești).

Always sung by men (usually the leaders of the gangs), they had an archaic character and a specific style from area to area. Most of the ballads were collected and recorded in Tismana, by the fiddler Petre Geagu called "Cătăroiu", also known as the "Gorju balladist". Other special ballads, some local, were collected and recorded from the fiddlers of Runcu and the Amaradia valley. Some are identified by legendary events, facts and people, such as the presence of the ballad of Iovan Iorgovan (character from Romanian mythology similar to Hercules). Among the old ballads, preserving the heroic-fantastical element, with a fairy tale atmosphere, we can also find "Snake and Strong".

Numerous and frequently sung until the middle of the 20th century at village weddings, today the ballads have crumbled or disappeared altogether, representing some "relics" of those performed at medieval courts. From a musical point of view, they are similar to doines, due to their rubato rhythm. However, the disappearance of the ballad does not mean its break from the world of popular poetry, its elements being retained by other folkloric species, such as the doine.

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