A new shelf opens with three tales told whole from "Czech Folk Tales," selected and translated by Dr. Josef Baudiš and published in London in 1917. Baudiš gathered his tales from the printed collections of Bohemia and Moravia — Kulda's Moravian tales, Tille's tales from Moravian Wallachia, and Kubín's tales of the Kladsko country — and his English is what is read here, faithfully as printed. The book holds twenty-three tales; three are told in this first part, and no more than that is claimed.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Sleepy John — a lad who can sleep anywhere at all is shut in a beer cask by mischievous farmers, wins three magic gifts from a hermit, and follows a queen who dances away twelve pairs of shoes every night. Kojata — a young prince, promised before his birth to the sorcerer who seized his father by the beard at a well, is saved by the sorcerer's own youngest daughter, known by a tiny fly under her left eye. The Waternick — two children are carried under the pond by the water-sprite who keeps human souls shut under cups, and find a way to free the souls, and themselves.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:05 Sleepy John
10:16 Kojata
17:14 The Waternick
Josef Baudiš, Czech Folk Tales (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1917) — public domain.
Narrated by Benedetto. Music: opening and closing theme, "Istanbul Cello Nocturne" — heard at the introduction and the close only; the tales themselves are read dry.
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Czech folk tales · Bohemian folk tales · Moravian folk tales · Czech fairy tales · Josef Baudiš · Slavic folk tales · world folk tales · free audiobook
