Originally published in French, Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen features 20 folk tales from the Slavic countries and territories. Very few of the 20 fairy tales included in this volume have been presented before in an English dress; this will doubtless enhance their value in the eyes of the young folk, for whom, principally, they are intended. Herein you will find tales like The Twelve Months - the story of Marouckla, who is set seemingly impossible tasks by her stepmother, but with the help of the Twelve Months overcomes and succeeds. The Lost Child – the story of a childless Noble couple who pray earnestly for a child. Their wish is granted with one condition – that that the child’s feet never touched the earth until it was twelve years old…… Then you have the stories of The Sovereign of the Mineral Kingdom, Ohnivak, Tears of Pearls, Kinkach Martinko and many more. The Slav race is considerably diverse, both genetically and culturally. Famous Slavs in recent times are Pope John Paul II, the first human astronaut Yuri Gagarin, former President of Russia Mikhail Gorbachev and electrician/inventor Nikola Tesla. In earlier times Slavic groups also migrated as far North as Scandinavia, and constituted elements amongst the Vikings; whilst at the other geographic extreme, Slavic mercenaries fighting for the Byzantines and Arabs settled Asia Minor and even as far East as Syria. Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen was a French collection of the beloved fairy tales passed from generation to generation, and the stories were collected for preservation by Chodzko. Emily Harding, also known as Emily Harding Andrews, published her English translation in 1896, Harding was an illustrator for the woman’s suffrage movement, and frequent illustrator of children’s books. Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen was the first book she had translated and published under her own name. The accompanying 55 illustrations and headpieces speak for themselves, and are what might have been expected from the artist of her calibre. So sit back in a comfy chair with a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy these forgotten tales, lost to Western readers for over 100 years.

ÊI remember well the feelings roused in my mind at mention or sight of the name Lucifer during the earlier years of my life. It stood for me as the name of a being stupendous, dreadful in moral deformity, lurid, hideous, and mighty. I remember also the surprise with which when I had grown somewhat older and begun to study Latin, I came upon the name in Virgil, where it means the Light-bringer, or Morning-star,Ñthe herald of the sun. Many years after I had found the name in Virgil, I spent a night at the house of a friend in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, right at the shore of Lake Michigan. The night was clear but without a moon,Ña night of stars, which is the most impressive of all nights, vast, brooding, majestic. At three oÕclock in the morning I woke, and being near an uncurtained window, rose and looked out. Rather low in the east was the Morning-star, shining like silver, with a bluish tinge of steel. I looked towards the west; the great infinity was filled with the hosts of heaven, ranged behind this Morning-star. I saw at once the origin of the myth which grew to have such tremendous moral meaning, because the Morning-star was not in this case the usher of the day but the chieftain of night, the Prince of Darkness, the mortal enemy of the Lord of Light. I returned to bed knowing that the battle in heaven would soon begin. I rose when the sun was high next morning. All the world was bright, shining and active, gladsome and fresh, from the rays of the sun; the kingdom of light was established; but the Prince of Darkness and all his confederates had vanished, cast down from the sky, and to the endless eternity of God their places will know them no more in that night again. They are lost beyond hope or redemption, beyond penance or prayer. I have in mind at this moment two Indian stories of the Morning-star,Ñone Modoc, the other Delaware. The Modoc story is very long, and contains much valuable matter; but the group of incidents that I wish to refer to here are the daily adventures and exploits of a personage who seems to be no other than the sky with the sun in it. This personage is destroyed every evening. He always gets into trouble, and is burned up; but in his back is a golden disk, which neither fire nor anything in the world can destroy. From this disk his body is reconstituted every morning; and all that is needed for the resurrection is the summons of the Morning-star, who calls out, ÒIt is time to rise, old man; you have slept long enough.Ó Then the old man springs new again from his ashes through virtue of the immortal disk and the compelling word of the star. Now, the Morning-star is the attendant spirit or ÒmedicineÓ of the personage with the disk, and cannot escape the performance of his office; he has to work at it forever. So the old man cannot fail to rise every morning. As the golden disk is no other than the sun, the Morning-star of the Modocs is the same character as the Lucifer of the Latins.

Presents a collection of folk tales from Croatia, Georgia, Serbia, Slovakia, Moldavia, Latvia, Estonia, and Chechnia.

This book takes you through all Slavic mythology's folklore, legends, and religious beliefs. Not only will we be exploring the monsters that were birthed from the lands of Eastern Europe You’ll be taken on a journey on the shores of the Baltic Sea, celebrating and even partaking in their rituals and festivals, in awe of their sacrifices, traditions, and offerings to the Gods — all with our easy hands-on methods and clear instructions suitable for beginners. Throughout history, chroniclers have found it rather hard to gather a conclusive record of the actual practice of the old Slavic religion due to the wide array of ethnic groups practicing it, including but not limited to Russians, Ukrainians, and even Germans, which caused a lot of the beliefs and rituals to differ from one nation to another.