Legend has it that, in the beginning, the earth was flat like a plate and, since the devil was not in too much of a hurry to get rid of God and rolled the earth too fast the night when the Most High fell asleep, the earth grew so large that it expanded beyond the bounds of the water and the sky.

This made God wonder, as He did not know what to do anymore to fit the whole earth within the bounds of the sky. He sought advice from those around, but no one could give him good advice. And so he got very upset.

Then he remembered the hedgehog, who was known as a philosopher and a sage back in those days, perhaps because he was always hunchbacked and grumpy. God sent the bee to ask the hedgehog for advice. The bee found the hedgehog when he had just finished lunch and was preparing his bed to get some rest.

Upon hearing what it was all about, the hedgehog got very upset that the bee ruined his good sleep: – “Why is God asking me for advice, for he is smarter than everyone else” – and he did not want to tell the bee anything. The cunning bee pretended to leave and hid behind the door.

The hedgehog, thinking the bee was gone, began to mumble while nestling for rest: “Unbelievable… God sends someone to ask my advice for that! Can’t he think for himself to fasten some straps around the earth to make hills, mountains and valleys?”

Once the bee heard that, she ran back to God and told him in one breath what she had learned from the hedgehog. Then God started to scrunch up the earth, as you would crumple a piece of fabric in your hand, so as to make it fit within the bounds of the sky.

Soon the whole earth was strewn with hills, mountains, and valleys, depending on how crumpled it got. And God endowed the bee with the gift of making sweet honey, fragrant with all the scents of the field, for she had done him this big favour of bringing him the hedgehog’s advice.

[Marcel Olinescu, Mitologie Românească (Romanian Mythology), Saeculum I.O. Publishing House, 2003]