No wonder if in Sardinia, the harsh, beautiful country and outside the continent things happen out of the ordinary, but it would never be thought that the society of a Sardinian village tried to “move a fountain” by force !!
Don’t you believe it? It’s all true … or is it just a legend?
The village of Sorso, that we’ve recently talked about it, thanks to the story of the bride that was left alone on the altar and she still celebrated, seems to be home of crazy people. Maybe that’s because of the fountain of the Billellera, the fountain that makes people crazy?
In Sardinia they say “Sossù, Calangianus and Lodè are all three puppies” … that is, Sorso, Calangianus and Lodè are all three crazy… so crazy stuff!
Well, today, we talk about madness, how we like it in our Sunday’s curiosity column, fantastic things, absurd, epic happenings, a bit like surviving Asterix’s house that makes people crazy in his twelve tasks (a masterpiece by Goscinny and those who did not watched it feel in punishment).
Who would not want to drink from the fountain that makes crazy?
But above all, who would not want to have the strength to bring in a beautiful fountain in its own village?
Envy, isn’t it?
The myth brings us back to Sorso, whose populace, proud of its own fountain, called Billellera, built in the 17th century by Baron Deliperi but envious of the beauty of Rosello’s fountain in Sassari and “stoned” by the effects of their own due to the presence of the plant “Helleborus lividus” (Elleboro, which was used to cure madness or epilepsy but was poisonous so was believed to make people crazy), tried to “bring in their village” the Sassari fountain with ropes made of palm extracts, practically elastic.
Buffy, the more you pull, and the more you seem to be pulling but the more you move away and the more what you’re pulling is where you left it.
How exhausting!
In a parallel story the Sorsesi people defend themselves in the legend by saying that the Sassaresi were MACCHI (crazy) defending their own fountain by binding it with ropes also made of the palm elastic material… so whoever pulls it wins it?
As Obelix would say “These Sardi are crazy“, but this is not surprising… in fact, this diatribe between madness and beauty of fountains has pervaded Sardinia for years. On one side the Sorsesi who accept with self-irony the jokes of the rest of the island and on the other those who tell they are crazy for drinking from the fountain that makes… well, crazy.
Steve Jobs said “Stay hungry, stay foolish“… but here we are thirsty.
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring” perhaps it is better to approach this quote by Marilyn Monroe and join the Sorsesi.
Better crazy than normal.
But would you do a tug-of-war to bring a fountain home?
