Latvian Folk Tales — Part 1: Brusubarda · The Eagle and the Kurzeme Lad · The Drunkard's Son Becomes a King · The Good Spirit · Five Brothers — the Strongmen
Part One of our Latvian shelf opens Ansis Lerhis-Puskaitis's great collection of 1891: a proud princess married by her father's decree to the first man who comes to the feast, a wounded black eagle who repays three silver bullets with three falls and a bladder full of bulls, a drunkard's son who becomes a king and is found herding his father's pigs, a lazy boy cured by a runaway loaf, and five strong brothers who outrun a princess and carry off a sack of the king's money.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
In this part:
- Brusubarda — a king who has spent half a kingdom on seventy feasts declares that his daughter shall marry whoever comes first to the last one; a poor man comes first, and the princess's schooling begins.
- The Eagle and the Kurzeme Lad — a farmer nurses a wounded eagle back to flight and is paid in wonders; years later his son serves the eagle's master, and a ring broken in two must survive a river, a duck, and a wolf.
- The Drunkard's Son Becomes a King — a handsome tippler who drank away his father's fortune talks his way into a princess's heart and a crown, falls into robbers' hands, and is recognised at last in a pigsty.
- The Good Spirit — a boy of six who will not walk is drawn out of his cart, step by step, by a loaf of bread that will not be caught.
- Five Brothers — the Strongmen — five brothers, scattered as servants, meet again on the road: a fir-tearer, a marksman, a whistler, a runner, and a blower; together they win a race, a bride, and a sack of gold.
The tales:
01:39 — Brusubarda
07:13 — The Eagle and the Kurzeme Lad
26:51 — The Drunkard's Son Becomes a King
39:21 — The Good Spirit
41:42 — Five Brothers — the Strongmen
Source and rights: the tales performed here are from Ansis Lerhis-Puskaitis, Latviešu tautas teikas un pasakas, Part 1 (Jelgava, 1891), in a fresh in-house translation from the Latvian made for this recording. Lerhis-Puskaitis died in 1903; the book and its maker are in the public domain. Screened for this part and set aside under this shelf's content screen, each read in full: Kurbads, The Watchman's Son, Two Brothers and the Enchanted Hare, The Little Duck with the Golden Feathers, One Brother a Fool and Two Wise, The Devil's Lad, The Corpse, and Krišus the Unconquerable. God's Son-in-Law and the Judge, a sacred legend, stands parked and untouched. Every later item in the volume — beginning with The King's Gardener — stands unscreened and unread. No completeness for the volume is claimed.
Narrated by Felix.
Music: Urgent Rhythms — opening and closing theme, with a short instrumental separator between stories, and no music under the narration.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
