Enchanted Moor

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An Enchanted Moor (Portuguese: moura encantada) is a supernatural being found in the fairy tales of Portuguese folklore, often appearing as a beautiful young lady with either long golden or black hair. Enchanted Lady Moors are magical ladies who guard castles, caves, bridges, wells, rivers, and treasures, and they can promise treasures to those who break their spell or to those who keep secrecy of their gold.

In some fairy tales they are beautiful Muslim princesses who live in castles at the time of the Reconquest, and fall in love with a Portuguese Christian knight; in some fairy tales an enchanted Moor, who lives in a castle under the earth, is in the place of the Christian knight. In other variants the enchanted Moor is a Spinning Lady Moor,who carries stones on her head and spins a yarn with a spinning wheel carried on her waist, to build a hill fort. The enchanted moors are the builders os the Hill forts, of the Dolmens and Megaliths, and still live there. In some fairy tales the enchanted Moor is a shapeshifter and takes the form of a snake.

The fairy tales are thought to be of pre-Roman, Celtiberian, origin. Almost every Portuguese town has a tale of an enchanted Moor.

[edit] References

Brandão,Abílio.(1911).Lendas de Mouras encantadas. Revista Lusitana, Volume XIV, Livraria Clássica Editora, Lisboa [1]