Old Czech Legends

UNESCO Courier, Jan, 1994 by Calum Wise

This collection of old Czech legends was originally intended for children, but parents may enjoy it even more, now that so many people are concerned about preservation of the cultural heritage in all its forms. Alois Jirasek, a student and teacher of history, wrote popular historical novels similar in spirit to those of Sir Walter Scott, who inspired the Romantic movement in Western literature at the start of the nineteenth century.

Readers familiar with European folklore, especially that of central and eastern Europe, will find in these stories motifs and themes that also appear in Russian tales. The legends are here retold by Jirasek in the rather formal style, imbued with romantic and nationalist ardour, typical of the "national awakening" that fired central and eastern European cultures and peoples in the nineteenth century. The book is divided into five parts: "Old Czech Legends"; "Legends of Christian Times"; "Tales of Old Praha"; "Some Myths of the Middle Ages"; and "Ancient Prophecies". Each represents a different facet of Bohemian society or history. The tales are a seamless blend of romanticized historical facts and romantic or baroque fantasy, whose period charm encourages rather than hinders the reader from interpreting them on several levels. For example, two symbolic figures of the post-nuclear world, Faust and the Golem, feature in them. Ghosts, witches, mythical animals and magical objects intervene in the struggles of men against their fate. With the apparently naive symbolism of folk wisdom, the stories echo what many modern thinkers say in tortuous and complex ways: that the world of tomorrow will be multicultural.