reading notes: czech folktales part b

 

 Misery

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a kings son wanted to venture out and meet misery. it took him a long time to run out of money and fall on hard times and a long distance traveled where his name meant nothing, but those hard time did eventually come. he found himself near a sleeping man eating ogre and was frozen by fear. he drew a dagger and stabbed the ogre in both eyes blinding him. the ogre knew the place well and chased him as he ran away after that. the son was outrunning the ogre, so he threw a ring at him and said to keep it to remember him by. the son put it on. the ogre then called out to the ring and the ring replied back. this went on for some time and the ogre kept getting closer. the ring was unable to be removed. eventually the son realized he could not get away like this and let the ogre rip off his finger, then he was able to flee. he cam home, knowing what misery was.

there was a man who killed nine flies in a single blow, so he had nine in a blow put on his belt. he was given a finch and some cheese due to this. a giant saw his belt and challenged him to a contest of strength. first they threw rocks up in the air. it took an hour for the giants rock to come down. the man threw the finch, and it never came down. next the crushed rocks. the giant crushed his into powder. the man said he could squeeze water out of one, and then squeezed the cheese until water came out, thus convincing the giant that the man was stronger. they were eating cherries from a tree and the giant flung the man across the meadow and he landed on a pile of grass. the man said he would have died if not for his skill in flying, which he would later teach the giant. they set off to kill a dragon for the king, the giant did the work and the man exclaimed he wanted it alive. so he then went to teach the giant to fly, had him jump and he died. the man told the giant died in the fight, so the man got all of the reward money.

a hunter went out to catch a very elusive fox. it turned out to be a robber knight who was to give away heaps of gold as punishment. he gave him two sacks full but said to keep it secret from whence it came. he told his wife as soon as he saw her and the two sacks of gold turned into bags of leaves.

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