CZECHOSLOVAK FAIRY TALES - 15 Czech, Slovak and Moravian folk and fairy tales for children E-Book

Anon E. Mouse

• Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

THIS is a second volume of 15 Czech, Slovak and Moravian folk tales, fairy tales and children’s stories retold in English by Parker Fillmore, with excellent illustrations and decorations by Jan Matulka. Herein you will find stories like “LONGSHANKS, GIRTH, AND KEEN”, “THE THREE GOLDEN HAIRS“, “THE FLAMING HORSE”, “THE THREE CITRONS” and many others.

These tales have been drawn from original Slavic sources, and were chosen for their variety of subject and range of interest. These are tales conceived with all the gorgeousness of the Slavic imagination; charming little nursery tales that might be told in nurseries the world over; folk tales illustrative of the wit of a canny people as surprising to the Anglo-Saxon imagination as they are entertaining.

This rendering of some of the old Czechoslovak tales is not offered as a literal translation or a scholarly translation but have been retold in a way that the translator hoped would please children in the West. He has endeavoured to retain the flavor of the originals but has taken the liberty of a short cut here and an elaboration there wherever these have seemed to me to make the English version clearer and more interesting.

10% of the publisher’s net profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities.
 

Leseprobe

CZECHOSLOVAKFAIRY TALES

RETOLD BY

PARKER FILLMORE

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONSBY

JAN MATULKA

Originally Published by

Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York

[1919]

Resurrected by

Abela Publishing, London

[2014]

Czechoslovak Fairy Tales

Typographical arrangement of this edition

© Abela Publishing 2014

This book may not be reproduced in its current format in any manner in any media, or transmitted by any means whatsoever, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, or mechanical ( including photocopy, file or video recording, internet web sites, blogs, wikis, or any other information storage and retrieval system) except as permitted by law without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Abela Publishing,

London

United Kingdom

2014

Source ISBN-13: 978-1-909302-54-9

Email

[email protected]

Website

www.AbelaPublishing.com

Zloboha in Dobrunka’s Clothes

Dedicated To

MISS MARJORIE RAHLSON

* * * * * * *

Abela Publishing acknowledges the work and effort of

PARKER FILLMORE

in translating and publishing this work

in a time well before electronic media was in use.

* * * * * * *

A percentage of the profit from the sale of this book

will be donated to charities.

NOTE

This rendering of some of the old Czechoslovak tales is not offered as a literal translation or a scholarly translation. I have retold the stories in a way that I hope will please American children. I have tried hard to keep the flavor of the originals but have taken the liberty of a short cut here and an elaboration there wherever these have seemed to me to make the English version clearer and more interesting.

I have gone to Czech, Slovakian, and Moravian sources. All these stories appear in many versions in the different folklore collections made by such native writers as Erben, Nemcova, Dobsinsky, Rimavsky, Benes-Trebizsky, Kulda. They represent the folk-tale in all stages of its development from the bald narrative of The Bird with the Golden Gizzard which Kulda reports with phonographic exactness, to Nemcova’s more elaborate tale, Prince Bayaya, which is really a mosaic of two or three simpler stories. I have included Katcha and the Devil for the sake of its keen humor, which is particularly Czech in character; The Betrothal Gifts to show how a story common to

other countries is made most charmingly local by giving it a local [viii] background; The Three Golden Hairs to contrast it with a famous German variant which it seems to me is much inferior to the Slavic version; and several fine stories of the prince gone off on adventures which in common with the folk-tales of all Europe show a strong Oriental influence.

In the transliteration of proper names I have not followed consistently anyone method, but for each individual name have made what seemed to be the best selection from the various possible spellings. Until transliteration from the Slavic languages has become standardized this, I am sure, is permissible and even advisable.

In the preparation of this volume I have made heavy draughts upon the scholarship and patience of my Czech friends, Mrs. Jan Matulka and Mr. Vladimir Jelinek. I beg them to accept my thanks. I am also deeply grateful to Mr. A. B. Koukol, who did me the favor of reading the final sheets. Lastly I wish to express my appreciation of the Webster Branch of the New York Public Library, which has gathered

together what is probably the most complete collection of Czechoslovak literature in America, and one particularly rich in folklore and children’s books.

P. F.

August, 1919

CONTENTS

NOTE

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

LONGSHANKS, GIRTH, AND KEEN

THE THREE GOLDEN HAIRS

THE FLAMING HORSE

THE THREE CITRONS

PRINCE BAYAYA

KATCHA AND THE DEVIL

THE BETROTHAL GIFTS

GRANDFATHER’S EYES

RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE AND CHINK-CHINK-

CHINK

THE BIRD WITH THE GOLDEN GIZZARD

THE WOOD MAIDEN

THE GOLDEN SPINNING WHEEL

THE GOLDEN GODMOTHER

THE GOLDEN DUCK

THE STORY THAT NEVER ENDS

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

Zloboha in Dobrunka’s Clothes

Music Played

When the Boys Had Grown into Handsome Youths

Kubik Greeting His Old Father

Alike in Feature but Utterly Different in Disposition

LONGSHANKS, GIRTH, AND KEEN

THE STORY OF THREE WONDERFUL

SERVING MEN

THERE was once an aged king who had an only son. One day he called the prince to him and said: “My dear son, you know that ripe fruit falls in order to make room for other fruit. This my old head is like ripe fruit and soon the sun will no longer shine upon it. Now before I die I should like to see you happily married. Get you a wife, my son.”

“I would, my father, that I could please you in this,” the prince answered, “but I know of no one who would make you a worthy daughter-in-law.”

The old king reached into his pocket, drew out a golden key, and handed it to the prince. He said:

“Go up into the tower to the very top. There look about you and when you have decided what you like best of all you see, come back and tell me.”

The prince took the key and at once mounted the tower. He had never before gone to the very top and he had never heard what was there. He went up and up until at last he saw a small iron door in the ceiling. He opened this with the golden key, pushed it back, and entered a large circular hall. The ceiling was blue and silver like the heavens on a bright night when the stars shine, and the floor was covered with a green silken carpet. There were twelve tall windows set in gold frames, and on the crystal glass of each window a beautiful young girl was pictured in glowing colors. Every one of them was a princess with a royal crown upon her head. As the prince looked at them it seemed to him that each was more lovely than the last, and for the life of him he knew not which was the loveliest. Then they began to move as if alive, and they smiled at the prince and nodded, and looked as if they were about to speak.