Kőműves Kelemen
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Kőmíves Kelemenné (Clement Mason) is a Hungarian folk tale about the building of the fortress of Deva. Originating in the 16th century, its plot derived from a folk ballad. There are several versions of this tale, with minor differences. The eponymous poem makes reference to a well-known Hungarian folk tale in which the central character – a stonemason named Kőműves Kelemen – finds that the castle he’s trying to build keeps falling down, and is forced to sacrifice his beloved wife and mix her remains into the mortar in order to make the castle stand. This is a reference familiar to almost any Hungarian reader, but clearly not obvious to the non-Hungarian.[1]
Kelemen, and 12 other bricklayers, are trying to build the castle of Déva. Every time they finish, it collapses. Believing themselves to be at the mercy of an old curse, they make an agreement; whoever's wife first appears in the construction area of the castle, will have their throat cut, corpse burned, and have her ashes mixed with the whitewash for the building. It is Kelemen's wife that makes a visit first, against the advice of her husband. The bricklayers murder her, and build her into the walls of the castle. The walls do not collapse this time, and the masons get their payment. Kelemen goes home, to see his son to tell him what he did. His son decides to visits the castle. Arriving at the spot where his mother died, he dies from his grief.