reading notes: czech folktales part a

 

 watercolor of an eagle, bear, and a woman(maybe a fish somewhere too?)

Link

story about sleepy john. he sleeps everywhere, he even fell asleep in a barn, got put in a beer cask and placed in the middle of the forest. he then met a dying old man who agreed to give him stuff if he would stay and bury him in three days. he did this and the old man gave john a stick that could teleport himself, a hat that would make him invisible, and a bag that he could pull anything out of. he heard of a queen who was wearing the soles of 12 shoes every night and so he volunteered to try and track her, for no one else could. he tracked her on her journey to hell using the stick to follow and the hat to stay out of sight. he picked up proof and told the king the next day and got rewarded handsomely for it.

a king had three daughters. he often got lost in the forest and each time a creature offered to help him out and give him riches if he would give a daughters hand in marriage. this happened with a bear, then an eagle, then a fish. the king had a son and he saw his parents were sad, so he went off to find his sisters. he found them with their animal children and each husband gave him three hairs/feathers/or scales.  and said to rub them in time of need. they told him of an evil mage who did this to them. and he was a shape-shifter with a golden egg inside of him that needed to break to lift the curse. the brother found the mage and rubbed the hairs when he turned into a bull and the bear came and beat him, then he turned into an duck to fly away, but he rubbed the feathers and attacked him out of the sky. an egg popped out and fell into the water. he rubbed the scales and the fish got the egg and then the brother broke it, uncursing the animals and returning them to humans.

the story of a girl who only wanted three roses, whilst her sisters wanted everything. her mother picked them on the way home and angered a basalisk he decided to marry the daughter. he had the daughter chop off his head and out came a prince.

Story source: The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis (1922).