Three Hungarian folk tales from Elek Benedek's great collection of Hungarian folk tales and legends. A little gömböc — the stuffed stomach, round as a ball — hangs in a poor family's attic and swallows everyone who comes near, until it rolls through the whole countryside and meets a swineherd boy with a pocketknife. A star-eyed shepherd is the one man in the kingdom who will not say "God give you health!" when the king sneezes — not for the Silver Forest, the Golden Castle, or the Diamond Lake. And a clever girl answers the king's impossible demands — come neither naked nor dressed, bring a gift that is no gift — with nothing but her own wit.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Chapters:
0:04 — The Little Gömböc
4:38 — The Star-Eyed Shepherd
13:29 — The Clever Girl
From Benedek Elek, Magyar mese- és mondavilág (Athenaeum, 1894–96), public domain; told in a fresh in-house rendering.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
