Part Two of the Bosnian shelf: folk tales from Bosnia and Herzegovina, this time from Tales and Legends of the South Slavs (Leipzig: Wilhelm Friedrich, 1883–1884) by Friedrich S. Krauss (1859–1938), the Austrian folklorist who travelled the South Slav lands collecting their stories and songs. Krauss's two volumes hold tales from all the South Slav peoples; the five read here are from among the pieces his book itself assigns to Bosnia and Herzegovina, read in the order they stand among those pieces, in fresh translations made for this reading. Billed by collector and book, as the tales Krauss gathered; not a survey of all Bosnian and Herzegovinian tradition, and no completeness is claimed. Every piece his book assigns to Bosnia or Herzegovina was read and screened under this shelf's standing rule, and a great many were set aside — each one stands named, with its reason, in the shelf register.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
The Wised-Up Goat — a lean goat begs the wolf to wait until autumn, and gives him her name. The Wolf and the Dog — the wolf trades his swiftness for the dog's scent, and the dog is gone. The Cat and the Fox — a cat's counsel saves the fox from the trap, and at the great feast in the high mountains the cat plays a mighty hero before the bear, the wolf and the boar. The Two Brothers Who Lie Their Way Through the World — two have-nothing brothers of Mostar lie in tandem: a dog barking under the sky, an egg a hundred men cannot roll, and the whole Danube burnt to ashes. Luck in Old Age — a voice from a heap of stones offers a poor ploughman of Kreševo his choice, and everything he loses on the long road — oxen, wife, gold, and both his sons — is given back to him one by one.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:00 The Wised-Up Goat
2:59 The Wolf and the Dog
3:44 The Cat and the Fox
8:23 The Two Brothers Who Lie Their Way Through the World
12:29 Luck in Old Age
Friedrich S. Krauss, Tales and Legends of the South Slavs (Wilhelm Friedrich, 1883–1884) — public domain.
Narrated by Lulu. Music: opening and closing theme, "Napoli in Fiamme," also heard as a short separator between the stories — the tales themselves are read dry.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
