Tale
Klechdy, starożytne podania i powieści ludu polskiego i Rusi
Not translated into English
Kazimierz Władysław Wójcicki · 1837
Synopsis
Two volumes of popular tales that the author says he gathered from the mouths of the people and arranges in three parts. The first brings together ancient Slavic beliefs: the spirit of the air, the wind, werewolves. The second, the heroes of popular memory: the giants Waligóra and Wyrwidąb, the brigand Madej, the sorcerer Twardowski. The third, the fullest, the wondrous tales of spells, of enchanted princes and princesses, such as the golden castle on the glass mountain or the prince changed into a crow.
Context
The two volumes appeared in Warsaw in 1837, from the presses of Piotr Barycki. Their title brought the word klechda into literature, a word attested earlier in Tadeusz Czacki without the author defining it; the term remained little used in everyday language. The collection was reissued twice in its author's lifetime, the last time in 1876, and translated into German, Czech and Russian. Historians of folklore have shown that tales presented as heard from the people also derive from written sources.
Who it is for
Short tales in two volumes, in nineteenth-century Polish, accompanied by the author's notes on beliefs and customs; the original edition has been digitised.
Prizes and reception
The most widely read of its author's books, reissued to this day, and the collection that brought the word klechda into literary language.
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