Romani people in fiction

Gypsy Fortune Teller by Taras Shevchenko.

Many fictional depictions of the Romani in literature and art present Romanticized narratives of their supposed mystical powers of fortune telling, and their supposed irascible or passionate temper paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality. Particularly notable are classics like Carmen by Prosper Mérimée and adapted by Georges Bizet, Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Miguel de Cervantes' La Gitanilla. The Romani were also heavily romanticized in the Soviet Union, a classic example being the 1975 Tabor ukhodit v Nebo. A more realistic depiction of contemporary Romani in the Balkans, featuring Romani lay actors speaking in their native dialects, although still playing with established clichés of a Romani penchant for both magic and crime, was presented by Emir Kusturica in his Time of the Gypsies (1988) and Black Cat, White Cat (1998). Another realistic depiction of Romanies in Yugoslavia is I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967).

Literature

• 1613: Miguel de Cervantes' novel La Gitanilla
• 1631: Ben Jonson's play Bartholomew Fair. A comedy set in Londons Bartholomew Fair where a band of Romani entertain a crowd.
• 1700s: William Wordsworth's Vagrant Muse. A young homeless woman is welcomed by a band of gypsies who take her in and offer her charity and companionship.
• 1722: Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders. Moll's earliest memory is of wandering "among a group of people they call Gypsies or Egyptians" in England.
• 1800s: Guy de Maupassant's short stories. Romani appear in several short stories by the French writer .
• 1800s: John Clare's Vagabond in a Native Place. A selection of poems romanticizing the lives culture, and wanderings of the English gypsy people.
• 1815: Jane Austen's Emma. Gypsies make a brief appearance in Emma as children who bait Harriet in a lonely lane Austin’s description of the Gypsy is romanticised.
• 1815: Walter Scott's novel Guy Mannering.
• 1847: Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. English Romany visit Thornfield Manor to tell fortune tellers.
• 1856: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem/novel Aurora Leigh. Marian Erle is Rom.
• 1857: George Borrow's novels Lavengro and The Romany Rye.
• 1831: Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• 1841: Charles Dickens's Old Curiosity Shop. Describes the first literary mention of an English Romanichal vardo or wagon.
• 1845: Prosper Mérimée's short story "Carmen," upon which the opera was based.
• 1847: Emily Brontë's novel "Wuthering Heights."
• 1853: Matthew Arnold's The Scholar Gypsy. A poem based on a legend recounted by Joseph Glanvill in The Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661), on the thoughts and reflections of a gypsies relationship, belief in, and relationship with god.
• 1860: George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss. The protagonist Maggie runs away to gypsies, but decides she has gone out of her depth. They do not harm her, but the episode darkly prefigures the steps that she will take in adulthood.
• 1875: Georges Bizet's opera Carmen.
• 1892: Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Speckled Band.
• 1897: Bram Stoker's Dracula. Features a group of Romanies working for the Count.
• 1902: E. Nesbit's Five Children and It. The children run into a band of English gypsies on the road.
• 1908: Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Toad owner of Toad Hall, an impulsive and conceited character, buys a horse-drawn English gypsy vardo.
• 1911: Saki's short story "Esme" (included in The Chronicles of Clovis). Features a degrading depiction of a gypsy child that is used to foreground the heartless nature of the English aristocrats.
• 1926: D H Lawrence" The Virgin and the Gypsy. A young Romani hero is a useful antidote to a rigid social class system.
• 1930: Hermann Hesse's novel Narcissus and Goldmund. Features a Romani girl called Lisa.
• 1943-1978: Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine books. A gypsy family (Reuben, Miranda and Fenella) are friends and allies from the Lone Pine Club's members specially from the tomboy girl and the club's vice captain Petronella Sterling.
• 1940: Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.' Featured a Romani named Rafael.
• 1947: The Nancy Drew Mystery Story The Clue in the Old Album. Some of the main characters are gypsies.
• 1956: Dodie Smith's The Hundred and One Dalmatians. After escaping from Cruella De Vil's country house, the dogs are nearly trapped by an old gypsy woman who wants to sell them. Her horse helps the dogs escape again.
• 1957: Ian Fleming's James Bond novel From Russia, with Love. Set in a gypsy encampment in Turkey, features a traditional fight to the death between two gypsy girls vying for the affection of the same man.
• 1958: Elizabeth Goudge's The White Witch. Features a description of the lifestyle of the Romnichals of the UK during the civil war.
• 1963: Hergé's The The Adventures of Tintin comic book The Castafiore Emerald. Features several Romani characters and a few Romani words. This graphic novel is very sympathetic to the Romani characters.
• 1967: Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
• 1971, 1972: Martin Cruz Smith's Gypsy in Amber and Canto for a Gypsy.
• 1972: Rumer Godden's children's book 'The Diddakoi' (also published as Gypsy Girl). Winner of the Whitbread Award. Adapted for television by the BBC as Kizzy.
• 1975: Roald Dahl's children's book Danny, the Champion of the World. A young boy lives with his father in a traditional English vardo, although it is unclear if the protagonist Danny and his father are themselves Romanichal and admire the culture or prefer the lifestyle.
• 1978-present: The Star Wars Expanded Universe books. A race of aliens known as the Ryn possess many stereotypical gypsy traits, including clan family structures, wanderer natures, reputations as thieves and more.
• 1981, 1988: Robertson Davies's novels The Lyre of Orpheus and The Rebel Angels. Feature major characters who maintain Romani traditions, including the care and repair of musical instruments, in modern Canada.
• 1983: Tim Powers' novel The Anubis Gates. Features a band of Romanies led by Egyptian magicians and utilizes quite a few expressions from the Romani language.
• 1984: Stephen King's novel Thinner. Includes the classic plot device of the Romani curse. It was also made into a movie.
• 1985: Charles de Lint's novel Mulengro. Contemporary fantasy portrayal of the Romani and their cultural myths.
• 1986: Robert Silverberg's Star of Gypsies. A Sci-Fi epic about the King of the Romanies searching out the long lost Romany home star system.
• 1987: Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series. The latter half of features the Romani in a hugely positive light, most prominent in Being A Green Mother.
• 1987: John Crowley's Ægypt cycle. Much of the narrative of unfolds from an encounter with a gypsy fortune-teller, and revolves around the question of why people believe Romanies can tell the future.
• 199: Bernard Ashley's novel "Johnnie's Blitz."
• 1995-2000: Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Features a nomadic race called the Gyptians. Gyptians are roughly the equivalent of Gypsies in our universe, with the exception that they use narrowboats in place of caravans. Throughout the books they are portrayed as good and kindly people.
• 1996-2001: Tad Williams' Otherland series of science fiction books. A Romani character and references to Romani appear as nomads who disregard the borders of an advanced virtual reality cyberspace.
• 1999: Ana Castillo's novel Peel My Love Like an Onion.
• 1999: Thomas Harris' novel Hannibal (novel). A member of a seemingly Romani band of travellers is hired by Inspector Pazzi to pickpocket Hannibal Lecter, in order to lift a fingerprint.
• 2001: Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series of fantasy novels. Includes the Tsingani, based on the Roma.
• 2001: James Herbert's novel [[Once_(novel) | Once]. A wiccan called Nell Quick is described to be alluring and dressed in the manner of a gypsy woman. She is noted for her extremely beautiful looks and raven colored dark hair. The novel never fully explains her origins or if she is connected to the gypsies.
• 2005: Isabel Allende's novel "Zorro." Features a clan of Romanies who ally themselves with the titular hero in post-Napoleonic Spain.
• 2005: Edith Layton's novel Gypsy Lover. Daffyd, the illegitimate son of a noblewoman and a gypsy, returns to England from a penal colony in Botany Bay to pardon and clear the name of his adopted father the Earl of Egremont.
• 2006-present: Rob Thurman's novel series, The Cal Leandros Series. The lead character, and his brother, are both half-Romani on their mother's side.
• 2007: Lisa Kleypas's novel Mine Till Midnight, and its companion Seduce Me At Sunrise. Feature two half-Romani male protagonists.
• 2007: Nikki Poppen's The Romany Heiress. The heir to the Earl of Spelthorne is captivated by the arrival of a beautiful gypsy shows up on his doorstep claiming to be his deceased parents’ long lost daughter.
• 2007: Colum McCann's novel Zoli. Explores the life of a fictional Slovak Romani artist.
• 2007: Paulo Coelho's novel, The Witch of Portobello. The character Athena's biological mother is a Gypsy.
• 2007: In Sally Gardner's novel The Red Necklace, the main character Yann and his companion Têtu are Gypsy along with the antagonist Kalliovski.
• 2007, 2008: Kate Wild 's teenage/ya novels FightGame and FireFight. Thrillers with a sci fi overtone featuring young gypsy protagonist called Freedom Smith.
• 2010: Sonia Meyer's upcoming novel ( Dosha).

Other media

• The Cirque du Soleil traveling show "Varekai" takes its name from the Romani language and the characters represented on stage are loosely based on the nomadic way of life associated with the Romani people.
• The Chilean telenovela Romané features the life of the Romani in the north of Chile.
• Romani characters are frequently depicted in werewolf films, including Maleva the fortuneteller (Maria Ouspenskaya) in The Wolf Man and the Romani clan of female werewolves in Cry of the Werewolf.
• The movie, Children of Men (2006) based on the P.D. James novel of the same name, features a gypsy woman called Marichka in the refugee camp. At one point when she is trying to help the mother and baby escape, Marichka and the woman engage in a tug of war with the baby, recalling the stereotype of gypsies stealing babies.
• Ashes to Ashes Series 2 2009 Episode 2 — A British television police drama series set in the 1980’s. A police officer tries to clear her name when she is involved in the accidental death of an English Romanichal. She uncovers a pre-meditated plot to murder him. The episode does include some stereotypical elements as the plot unfolds; namely the plot device of an old Romani clairvoyant and friction between the police and the Romani camp. However these stereotypes are turned on their head as the local doctor who was obsessed with the victims wife is found guilty of poisoning and elements of police corruption.
• In 2002 the WB television series Charmed aired the episode "The Eyes Have It" which depicted Romanies as practicing a magical craft similar to those of modern-day witches. Much like the star witches in the series, Romanies possess supernatural powers and pass down family Books of Shadows.
• On the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Romanies in 19th Century Romania place a curse on the vampire Angelus to punish him for the murder of a little Romani girl, by restoring his human soul (and by extension, his conscience) and forcing him to feel guilt for his crimes. Angel was doomed to misery until he could enjoy a moment of pure happiness.
• The Canterville Ghost (1974) Television dramatization - Based on the (1887) short story by Oscar Wilde. An English gypsy group are suspected of kidapping a girl but are innocent and join in the search.
• The videogame Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King features Romani characters Kalderasha, named after the Kalderash, and his daughter Valentina.
• In The Andy Griffith Show, episode 183 in the sixth season is titled "The Gypsies". A family of Romanies (one of whom is played by Jamie Farr) places a curse on the town of Mayberry.
• In the Star Wars New Jedi Order series of books, the Ryn race are inspired by the Roma.
• In the anime Blood +, it is implied that the character Haji is Roma. However, he was bought from his caravan at a young age and does not identify as such thereafter.
• In Train de Vie, a group of fleeing Jews meet up with a large group of Roma.
• Lark Rise to Candleford, Series 2 Episode 1 — A BBC costume drama. The village is haunted by the spirit of a young English Romany girl who drowned in the local lake.
• In the Horror Role-playing game Vampire:The Masquerade, the Ravnos clan has Rom roots.
• Meggan of the Marvel comics superhero team Excalibur was born to a band of Romanies in England. She was expelled when they saw that she was a shapeshifter, and believed her to be a demon.
• In the anime Cowboy Bebop, the character Faye Valentine claims to be one of the Romani people, though this is later dispelled through her own personal flashbacks.
• In the Batman series of comics, the character Richard Grayson (a.k.a Robin and Nightwing) is shown to be of Romani descent.
• While the canonical origin of the supervillain Doctor Doom has varied over the decades, he is usually of the Romani people, and was driven to his nominally villainous actions as a response to the persecution of his family. As dictator of the fictional nation of Latveria, Doom has taken a special interest in the welfare of Gypsies, as that is his heritage, and often that race is first to be taken care of in a manner similar to Saddam Hussein showering his Tikriti tribe with benefits.
• In the HBO series Carnivale, the characters of Sophie and her mother Apollonia are said to be Roma.
• In the web comic The Science Table Comic, Alex, one of the recurring characters, is a gypsy and is adorned in what is stated by another character as his "Traditional native garbs."
• In Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock, the sentient anthropomorchi Trash Heap refers to herself as a 'gypsy Trash Heap' when she performs her only act of magic.
• Twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver respectively, of Marvel Comics are of Romani ancestry through their biological mother Magda and raised in the fictional Mount Wundagore. During Marvels Mystic Arcana the Scarlet Witch was one of the prominently featured mystic characters and depicted her Romani childhood and her encounter with other Marvel mystical characters. The Young Avengers Wiccan, Billy Kaplan, and Speed, Tommy Shepherd, are believed to be, and accepted as truth by the characters, the reincarnated souls of the Scarlet Witch and the Visions twins and can be classified as Romanies through their mother.
• In the videogame Psychonauts, a rival gypsy circus curses the main character's family to die in water.
• An episode of Dennis the Menace featured a group of Romanies who visited Dennis' town, were accused of theft, and almost inveigled police Officer Murphy into marrying one of their women, to whom he had offered bread at dinner.
• 2001 UK Film Gypsy Woman starring Jack Davenport and Neve McIntosh.
• 2007 episode of House (TV series), in which House must treat a 16 year old Romani boy with respiratory distress.

Fantasy Role-playing games

Several role playing games have adapted the stereotypical perceptions of the Romany peoples and has used them, as plot device, characters and non-player characters within the gothic horror, and fantasy genres. Different Romani groups such as the Spanish Romanies, Romanichal, and Sinti, as well as eastern European Roma groups as the stereotypical view of the Romanies and Romani culture.

• Warhammer Contains groups of Romanies called the Strigany that travel in brightly painted wagons, are fortune tellers who dress in bright coloured clothes and are portrayed as a mysterious and romanticised people.
• Blue Rose RPG Similar to the Warhammer where a group of wanderers called the Roamers travel in brightly painted wagons and tell fortunes.
• Greyhawk Has a race of people called the Rhenee inspired by the gypsies who live on barges.
• Spelljammer The Aperusa are a people based on the European Romani peoples.
• Talislanta Has the Sarista people who are wanderers.
• Ravenloft a Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game based in a Gothic world of Ravenloft where a nomadic race of wanderers called the Vistani are based on horror-film-inspired representation of several Romany groups including Roma, Romanichal and Sinti. The Vistani are the only race of humans that can travel freely between the various realms within the world.

Role playing games featuring Romanies or draws on them for inspiration in several publications by White Wolf Game Studio, a role-playing company specialising in horror based fantasy gaming. Games including;

• World of Darkness a horror-fiction themed role playing game where a nomadic group called the Gypsies are attributed magical powers.
• Vampire: The Masquerade a horror based vampire role-playing game where a group of nomadic vampires called the Ravnos are allegedly the descendants of Gypsies.
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse a horror based role-playing game cross over with another White Wolf role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade. Where a group of Romanies in the game are linked to the descendants of a Werewolf clan called the Silent Striders.

Film

Year	Title	Country	Notes
2009	Drag Me to Hell		The main antagonist and her family are Romani.
2008	Khamsa	France	The main character, Marco/Khamsa is half-Romani, half-Algerian. Most of the main characters are his Romani relatives, who live together in a camp in the city.
2008	Filth and Wisdom		Ukrainian Rom lives in London
2008	Stone of Destiny (film)		Scottish nationalists bury the Stone of Destiny in a field. They return to find a Romanichal camp and one of them barters with the Romany leader for the stone.
2006	Transylvania	France	Italian lives with Roma in Romania
2006	The Indian and the Nurse	Czech Republic	Romani nurse and non-Rom in love.
2006	Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan		Lead character claims to have been Gypsy hunter, has Gypsy tears vial.
2005	Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa	Japan	Romani character Noa is pursued by Nazis.
2000	The Man Who Cried	France	Johnny Depp is Rom in France.
2000	Gitano		Romani central characters.
1998	Black Cat, White Cat	Serbia	Romani central characters.
1997	Gadjo dilo	France	French lives with Romani girl in Romania.
1996	Thinner		Man cursed by Romanies after killing one.
1995	Haunted		Starring Aidan Quinn and Kate Beckinsale, an old Romanichal fortune reads the palms of two characters.
1988	Time of the Gypsies	Yugoslavia	Telekinetic Romani in realistic community at home, and in Italy.
1983	Angelo My Love		All-Romani cast; dir.: Robert Duvall.
1979	Tsigan	Russia	Romani's child was adopted by a russian woman; after 17 years, a single old Romani-man appears in the village and gains respect and love of the boy, disturbing the piece in the family (http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A6%D1%8B%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%BD_%28%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BC,_1979%29).
1976	Rosy Dreams	Slovakia	Romani—non-Romani lovers, societies.
1975	Tabor ukhodit v Nebo	Russia Ukraine Moldova	Free-spirited Gypsies central characters; US title: Queen of the Gypsies.
1967	I Even Met Happy Gypsies	Serbia	Realistic Romani central characters.
1966	Sky West and Crooked		Inspired by the novel The Gypsy and the Gentleman by D. H. Lawrence. A young girl played by Haley Mills finds happiness and friendship with a young English Romany played by Ian McShane.
1965	Pearls of the Deep	Czech Republic	5 shorts − last: 24-min. Romance with Romani female lead; dir.: Jaromil Jireš.
1965	Sheriff Behind Bars	Slovakia	Among prisoners is a Rom.
1963	From Russia with Love		007 in Gypsy camp in Turkey.
1963	Let Him Who Is without Sin...	Slovakia	Romani soldier copes with love, hate.
1947	Golden Earrings		Marlene Dietrich is Hungarian Gypsy in Germany, other Romani characters.
1946	Caravan		American marries Gypsy in Spain.
1944	Cry of the Werewolf		Romani werewolves.
1943	For Whom the Bell Tolls		Romani character Rafael in Spain.
1941	The Wolf Man		Romani fortune-teller.
1938	Gypsy Love	Czech Republic	Love and jealousy in Gypsy camp.
1922	Gypsy Love	Austria	Dir.: Thomas E. Walsh.
1921	Gypsies	Czech Republic	Count's son brought up by Romanies.
1921	Jánošík	Slovakia	Romani woman helps capture hero.
1918	Carmen	Germany	Pola Negri is Carmen; dir.: E. Lubitsch.
1915	Carmen		Dir.: Cecil B. DeMille.
1908	Drama in a Gypsy Camp	Russia	2-minute scripted story.
1897	A Camp of Zingari Gypsies		1-min. document, Romanies in Hungary.

See also

• Gypsy
• Antiziganism