The Good and the Evil: An Avestan Central Theme in a Peripheral Romani Folk-tale through Language and Myth

This paper deals with the Iranian heritage in Romani religious beliefs1, ascribable to a Zoroastrian and Avestan conception, after an investigation within the methods of historical linguistics and comparative literature. The starting point is a folk-tale about the creation of the world attested in three similar versions among three groups of Vlax Roma, from Hungary, Transylvania (Romania) and Sardinia (Italy). The compresence of God (the Good Spirit) and the Devil (the Evil Spirit) during creation is a dualistic feature as a relic echo referring to Iranian cosmogony as attested in the Avesta. Moreover, the paper investigates further manifestations of the Devil from Romani folk-tales compared to Avestan texts, that show an even closer linguistic and narrative similarity to Zoroastrian religion and belief.