Tradition: Romanian Mythology
Alternative Names: Marț-sara, Marți Seara
Category: Demon, Sheep

The Myth

Marțolea is a demonic being that lives in the mountains and descends on Tuesday nights. Its gender is uncertain because it can change its form. It usually appears as a goat with a human-like head, horns, and hooves, but it can also take the form of an ugly old woman dressed entirely in white, a soldier, or a handsome young man.

Marțolea comes at night to punish women who work on Tuesday, a day that is considered semi-holy and must be respected. It forbids four particular household tasks: spinning wool, sowing, boiling laundry, and baking bread. It can lure women with its singing before punishing those who have continued working.

Its punishments are terrible. Unmarried women may be killed, with their guts ripped out and hung from nails on the walls or around the dishes. Married women may be killed, or Marțolea may possess their baby or their husband when he is away from home.

Marțolea appears differently depending on whom it encounters. To married women it appears as an old woman, to married men as a virgin, and to unmarried women as a handsome young man.

Those who respect Tuesday and refrain from the forbidden work are rewarded instead. Marțolea may leave eggs on their doorstep or bring them flowers from the highest mountains of Bucovina. On the first night of March, women wearing Mărțișor charms may also receive a silver coin from Marțolea, which they must keep throughout the year.

Sources

“Marțolea.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed September 9, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C8%9Bolea

Tradition / Region: Romanian Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Sheep

The Myth

In the Transylvanian village of Heitau, a Romanian farmhand once walked along the road with two maids. As they went, the man suddenly threw himself into a somersault. Then he somersaulted a second time, and a third.

At once he was no longer a man but a grey-spotted billy goat.

The animal charged furiously at the two girls. With its horns it gored and tore at their red katana, shredding the garments into pieces. The maids fled in terror as the goat raged around them.

After some time, the creature again threw itself into three somersaults. As it completed the last one, the goat vanished and the farmhand stood there once more in human form.

Yet the transformation had not left him untouched. A small shred of the torn red cloth had grown fast to his ears, and this strange mark, it was said, remained with him for the rest of his life.

Sources

sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Knecht als Ziegenbock. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/rumaenien/siebenbuergen/knechtalsziegenbock.html