Twenty Tales from Along The Amber Road - Stories from Russia to Italy E-Book

John Halsted

• Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Since ancient times the Amber Road has been a trade route for the transfer of amber from coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and ports beyond.We invite you to journey along the Amber Road from Russia through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Slovenia to Italy and sample twenty folk tales and stories to be found enroute.This book contains but a sliver of the rich tapestry that is European folklore. Herein you will find perennial favourites like BABA YAGA AND THE LITTLE GIRL WITH THE KIND HEART, THE FROG PRINCESS and THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN. Also included are less well known tales like THE AMBER WIZARD, THE GOLD AXE, MANNIKIN LONG BEARD, THE NIXY, VITAZKO THE VICTORIOUS, THE GLUNKEZER GIANT, BEAUTY AND THE HORNS and THE MYRTLE and many more.The PIED PIPER of HAMELIN is supported by two poems by Robert Browning. The allegorical nature of this story is also brought to light. More than a few of these tales and stories have been collected and translated by Parker Fillmore who between 1907 and 1922 specialised in collecting and publishing eastern European forlklore. Teamed with Czech born illustrator, Jan Matulka, no less than seventeen volumes of Czech, Slovakian, Moravian and Finnish folklore were produced.So, find a comfy chair, sit back and enjoy the twenty authentic stories in this unique volume. 

Leseprobe

Twenty

Folk and Fairy Tales

from along the

Amber Road

-------

Compiled by

John Halsted

Published By

Abela Publishing, London

[2016]

Twenty Folk and Fairy Tales from Along the Amber Road

Typographical arrangement of this edition

© Abela Publishing 2016

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

2016

Paperback Published Under

ISBN-13: 978-1-910882-64-1

email:

[email protected]

website:

www.AbelaPublishing.com/

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Publisher acknowledges the work that

the original collators of these stories did

in compiling, editing and illustrating

these tales in a time well before

any electronic media was in use.

* * * * * * *

A percentage of the net profit from the sale of this book

will be donated to charities

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE AMBER WIZARD – A poem

RUSSIA

BABA YAGA AND THE LITTLE GIRL WITH THE

KIND HEART

THE THREE MEN OF POWER--EVENING,

MIDNIGHT, AND SUNRISE

LATVIA

THE GOLD AXE

THE DUCKLING WITH GOLDEN FEATHERS

LITHUANIA

LUCK, LUCK IN THE RED COAT!

MANNIKIN LONG BEARD

POLAND

THE FROG PRINCESS

THE WHIRLWIND

GERMANY

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN

THE NIXY

CZECH REPUBLIC

THE THREE CITRONS

THE TWELVE MONTHS: The Story of Marushka

and the Wicked Holena

SLOVAKIA

PRINCE BAYAYA

VITAZKO THE VICTORIOUS

AUSTRIA

BIENER’S WIFE

BINDER-HANSL

THE GLUNKEZER GIANT

SLOVENIA

BEAUTY AND THE HORNS

ITALY

THE MYRTLE

THE SERPENT

INTRODUCTION

The twenty tales in this volume originate from countries along the European Amber Road. Perhaps less well known than it’s cousins, the Silk Route and the Spice Route, the Amber Road travelled North to South across Europe passing through:

Russia

Latvia

Lithuania

Poland

Germany

The Czech Republic

Slovakia

Austria

Slovenia

Italy

In old times the Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber from coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Prehistoric trade routes between Northern and Southern Europe were defined by the amber trade. As an important raw material, sometimes dubbed "the gold of the north", amber was transported from the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts

overland by way of the Vistula and Dnieper rivers to Italy, Greece, the Black Sea, Syria and Egypt commencing thousands of years ago, and continuing long after.

From, at least, the sixteenth century BC amber was moved in larger quantities from Northern Europe to the Mediterranean area. The Old Prussian towns of Kaup and Truso on the Baltic were the starting points of the route to the south. In Scandinavia the amber road probably gave rise to the thriving Nordic Bronze Age culture, bringing influences from the Mediterranean Sea to the northernmost countries of Europe.

The breast ornament of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen (ca. 1333-1324 BC) contains large Baltic amber beads. Heinrich (Henry) Schliemann, the notorious archaeologist, found Baltic amber beads at Mycenae, as shown by spectroscopic investigation. The quantity of amber in the Royal Tomb of Qatna, Syria, is unparalleled for known second millennium BC sites in the Levant and the Ancient Near East. Lastly, amber was sent from the North Sea to the temple of Apollo at Delphi as an offering.

From the Black Sea, trade could continue to Asia along the Silk Road, another ancient trade route. In Roman times, a main route ran south from the Baltic coast through the land

of the Boii (modern Czech Republic and Slovakia) to the head of the Adriatic Sea (modern Gulf of Venice).

Source: Wikipedia

From the 9thC. AD, more than any other group of people, the Vikings expanded trade along Europe’s inland waterways. Starting in Scandinavia, these passed from the Baltic up the Neva River, past St. Petersburg to Staraya Ladoga and up the Volkhov river to Novgorod. Not far past Novgorod the boats and goods would be portaged.

After portage they would travel and trade down, either, the Dnieper river to Kiev, the Black Sea and Constantinople, or, via the Volga river to Moscow, Yaroslavl, Astrakhan and the Central Asian countries bordering the Caspian Sea. At the extreme limits of the Volga route would be Iran, Iraq and the Moslem lands beyond, with which we know the Vikings had contact.

Being the opportunists, traders, and pioneers they were, the Vikings developed a portage route between the Don and Volga rivers. The Don River empties into the Sea of Azov, which in turn, is connected to the Black Sea. This portage route was called the Viking Way and is now essentially the route of the Volga–Don Canal, an important link in the Unified Deep Water Transportation System of Russia. The

Viking Way enabled the Vikings to trade down one route on their outward journey and on the other on their return journey ensuring they traded with a vast array of people.

Source: J. Halsted

THE AMBER WIZARD

SEE! O see! the Amber Wizard,

Lithuania's Amber Wizard,

How he shakes his head all golden,

Puffs his cheeks as red as apples,

Steps into the foaming wavelets,

Dives into the Baltic billows;

Downward, downward to the forests,

Ancient pine trees 'neath the waters,

Pine trees shedding balsam amber,

Fragrant amber, light as feathers!

And the Amber Wizard loosens

Lumps of amber, beads of amber,

Casts them upwards through the waters,

Casts them on the sandy seashore;

For the little ones to gather,

As they run beside the wavelets.

Then they rub the balsam amber,

Yellow amber, nut-brown amber,

Amber like the drops of honey,

Crying, "See it glow with shining!"

Crying, "Feel it tingle gently!"

Crying, "Smell it, weird and spicy!"

And the Amber Wizard watches,

Shakes his head all bright and golden,

Puffs his checks as red as apples,

Smiles, and tosses high the amber!

_________________________________________________________

From: Wonder Tales from Baltic Wizards - Olcot, 1928

ISBN: 978-1-907256-58-5

RUSSIA

BABA YAGA AND THE LITTLE GIRL WITH THE KIND HEART

Once upon a time there was a widowed old man who lived alone in a hut with his little daughter. Very merry they were together, and they used to smile at each other over a table just piled with bread and jam. Everything went well, until the old man took it into his head to marry again.

Yes, the old man became foolish in the years of his old age, and he took another wife. And so the poor little girl had a stepmother. And after that everything changed. There was no more bread and jam on the table, and no more playing bo-peep, first this side of the samovar and then that, as she sat with her father at tea. It was worse than that, for she never did sit at tea. The stepmother said that everything that went wrong was the little girl's fault. And the old man believed his new wife, and so there were no more kind words for his little daughter. Day after day the stepmother used to say that the little girl was too naughty to sit at table. And then she would throw her a crust and tell her to get out of the hut and go and eat it somewhere else.