Czechoslovak Tales
| 1 › 1 › 23 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Afterword
Perhaps the spirit of the nation manifests itself in its folktales. Czechs have a tendency to satire [I have toned it down]. It can be glimpsed where the story-teller makes fun of the folly of the world, the frailty of fellow-men, and perhaps his own. Hence, in Czech tales there are many who are bad and stupid, and some foolish kings are also prone to break their word.All the same, the story-teller revels how bad ones are vanquished and the foolish put to shame. He nourishes that hope. And in Czech tales there is a search for a haven of refuge from a often cruel and bad environment. We find fond dream-pictures of circumstances where all is beneficent and every important thing ends well. Great truth and justice have finally conquered and cruel tyrants are taken out. Very many tales nourish such deep-set hopes and longings.
Ranging between little nursery tales and rollicking devil tales, the stories in the third volume are all of Czech, Moravian, and Slovak origin, and found in many versions elsewhere. Most of Fillmore's versions are retellings rather than translations.
German and Slavic versions seem to have an early common source. For example, "Clever Manka" is very popular among the Czechs and Slovaks and is considered by them especially typical of their own folk wisdom and folk humor. Yet the catch at the end appears in a story in the Talmud. The story of the devil marrying a scold, another great favourite with the Slavs, also has its Talmudic parallel in the story of Azrael, the Angel of Death, marrying a woman. Still, every people puts its own marks of background, humor, and imagination on the stories that it retells.
 |
Literature
 |
 |
 |
 |
USER'S GUIDE to abbreviations, the site's bibliography, letter codes, dictionaries, site design and navigation, tips for searching the site and page referrals. [LINK]
DISCLAIMER: [LINK]
© 2004–2008, Tormod Kinnes. All rights reserved. [E-MAIL]