Prace komisji nauk.pdf - Instytut Filologii Angielskiej Uniwersytetu ...

this inn when the old AncuŃa lived” or “in that our old woman’s times”, one of
the ancestors of this AncuŃa.
The inn can be seen as a house situated at the crossroads of other times. It
is AncuŃa who bridges the past and the present. The passing of time is also
marked linguistically by the use of the demonstrative which differentiates this
from the other AncuŃa. AncuŃa’s Inn is location of the story-tellers and to know
how “to let words work their way”, to tell stories seems to be the only criterion
the travellers require in order to join those sitting around the hearth, waiting for
the master of tellers, the equerry Ionita, to begin his second story: “Are you
good at narrating a story? the equerry IoniŃă asked Costandin, the blindman”. “I
am as good as the others – why shouldn’t I be?!” he replied quickly”(The Poor
Blindman p. 104). As good as any other traveller who is within the precincts of
the fortress-like inn. With its gates open “as if a royal court”, as the narrator
himself says, AncuŃa’s Inn is more a test for the travellers who know how to
spin stories, carrying in their heart, throughout all their travels, a story of longforgotten
times. The sojourn of the travellers stretches out in bringing the old
past to the present day of telling. “According to the length of time spent at the
inn by the characters, each of them is displayed in successive periods of time,
like in a bas-relief of time” (Cristea 1979: 228).
The equerry IoniŃă, a kind of “corephaeus of the story-tellers’ chorus” can
be found at the inn as a “pillar” of the stories: “He stood still there…” no one
knowing since when, while other story-tellers make themselves known at the
inn, e.g. Lipscan, the Pedlar short-story: “in the darkness of the night one hears
some shouts and noises on the road to Suceava” (Lipscan, the Pedlar p. 88).
When seeing the new guest, whom she recognized as an old friend of the place
“the inn-keeper knew her customer and her voice grew or lowered in a sweet
silky voice (idem p. 89)” The newcomer is introduced to the audience by the
inn- keeper and only afterwards is he received among the story-tellers: “Well
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