The worlds of folklore and traditional storytelling are fascinating places to visit wherever the land or the people may be Tales from different regions are often shaped by geography and by cultural and historical factors that have accumulated over the course of centuries. At their heart, though, is an ever present desire to explain and understand the world and the experience of living in it day by day.
The Balkan Peninsula is a region in South-Eastern Europe, and has a full and rich history and tradition where cultures have been mixing for at least 2, 000 years and Slavic civilisation has had an especially strong influence. The result is diverse and fascinating folklore with its own set of mythical beings and legendary heroes.
One of the more common characters of Slavic mythology is the Samodiva. The Samodiva is a forest spirit in the shape of a beautiful woman who never loses her youthful looks. The Samodivi bathe in forest springs underneath the moonlight and sometimes make young bachelors from the nearby villages play the kaval (a wooden flute) for them. If a man steals a Samodiva’s veil, she becomes an ordinary woman and has to be his wife, but will spend every moment she can looking for her veil to regain her freedom, even if it means leaving her children behind. The Samodivi also protect forest animals.
These tales are taken from collections such as Serbian Folk-lore by Madame Elodie L. Mijatovich, published by The Columbus Printing, Publishing & Advertising Company, 1899, from Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians by Woislav M. Petrovitch, published in 1914, and from Andrew Lang’s various coloured Fairy Books from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
As ever it’s been a voyage of discovery, with common themes emerging alongside some distinct regional variations and differences. I hope you enjoy these tales.
قائمة المحتويات
PREFACE
THE BEAR’S SON
HE WHO ASKS LITTLE RECEIVES MUCH
THE WONDERFUL KIOSK
THE MAIDEN WISER THAN THE TSAR
THE SNAKE’S GIFT
THE GOLDEN APPLE-TREE, AND THE NINE PEAHENS
GOOD DEEDS NEVER PERISH
PAPALLUGA
HE WHOM GOD HELPS NO ONE CAN HARM
THE GOLDEN-FLEECED RAM
THE TRADE THAT NO ONE KNOWS
JUSTICE OR INJUSTICE, WHICH IS BEST?
THE GOLDEN-HAIRED TWINS
LYING FOR A WAGER
THE ENCHANTED KNIFE
THE WICKED STEPMOTHER
BIRD GIRL
THE GOAT’S EARS OF THE EMPEROR TROJAN
BASH-CHALEK
THE PRINCE AND THE DRAGON
THE BITER BIT
THE STORY OF THREE WONDERFUL BEGGARS
THE THREE SUITORS
THE DREAM OF THE KING’S SON
ANIMALS AS FRIENDS AND AS ENEMIES
HISTORICAL NOTES
ABOUT THE EDITOR
عن المؤلف
I was born in 1962 into a predominantly sporting household – Dad being a good footballer, playing senior amateur and lower league professional football in England, as well as running a series of private businesses in partnership with mum, herself an accomplished and medal winning dancer.I obtained a degree in History from Leeds University before wandering rather haphazardly into the emerging world of business computing in the late nineteen-eighties.
A little like my sporting father, I followed a succession of amateur writing paths alongside my career in technology, including working as a freelance journalist and book reviewer, my one claim to fame being a by-line in a national newspaper in the UK, The Sunday People.
I also spent 10 years treading the boards, appearing all over the south of the UK in pantos and plays, in village halls and occasionally on the stage of a professional theatre or two.
Following the sporting theme, and a while after I hung up my own boots, I worked on live TV broadcasts for the BBC, ITV, TVNZ, Euro Sport and others as a rugby ‘Stato’, covering Heineken Cups, Six Nations, IRB World Sevens and IRB World Cups in the late ’90’s and early ’00’s.
I try to combine my love of storytelling with a passion for information technology, and am currently Vice President – Technology with a major UK Fin Tech company.
You can find out more about Clive’s work and contact me at: https://www.boyonabench.com
المزيد من الكتب الإلكترونية من نفس المؤلف (المؤلفين) / محرر
10٬084 كتب إلكترونية في هذه الفئة
