#czech fairy tales

[leona-florianova]

Racochejl

[lightsinthemist]

Every time I read a post complaining about Lucille and how evil she is, I just think about how none of you would handle Milada from The Seven Ravens (1993). Not now, and definitely not as a kid.

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Dunno how to put it properly into words but lately I find myself thinking more about that particular innocence of fairy tales, for lack of better word. Where a traveller in the middle of a field comes across an old woman with a scythe who is very clearly Death, but he treats her as any other auntie from the village. Or meeting a strange green-skinned man by the lake and sharing your loaf of bread with him when he asks because even though he's clearly not human, your mother's last words before you left home were to be kind to everyone. Where the old man in the forest rewards you for your help with nothing but a dove feather, and when you accept even such a seemingly useless reward with gratitude, on your way home you learn that it's turned to solid gold. Where supernatural beings never harm a person directly and every action against humans is a test of character, and every supernatural punishment is the result of a person bringing on their own demise through their own actions they could have avoided had they changed their ways. Where the hero wins for no other reason than that they were a good person. I don't have the braincells to describe this better right now but I wish modern fairy tales did this more instead of trying to be fantasy action movies.

[marmota-b]

It should also be noted that while the above are all film fairy tales with tenuous connections to actual old folklore, S čerty nejsou žerty is (somewhat loosely) based on a fairy tale recorded by Božena Němcová under the name Čertův švagr ("The Devil's Brother-in-Law", and IIRC in this case the "devil" translation is fairly correct because unlike in the film the character is the devil? Not 100% sure right now, at the very least he's not a lowly minion the way Janek in the film basically is.) In there there isn't any mix-up with the grandmother, or any business with tails; but it's still a good example of this idea of justice and adherence to a certain kind of code of honour: the protagonist is hired to work in Hell, accepts because he's out of options, and is released after his contract is up, with rewards, and no indication that they'd be inclined to keep him there against his will.

WTF is a “čert”

-a guide from a bilingual Czech

while English has words like devil and demon, čert is a slavic mythical creature, that doesn’t have an accurate name in other languages

Czech has three (common) words:

Ďábel - THE devil, ruler of hell, usually interchangeable with Lucifer

Démon - demon, used when talking about other creatures from other mythologies

(and the enigma) Čert

Čerti (plural) are the devil's minions. They either work directly in hell or are sent on earth (often as a punishment) to make deals with sinners and drag them into hell. However they’re commonly depicted as silly idiots or playful, mischievous tricksters. And selling them one’s soul is seen as confirmation of their own foolishness (make stupid choices, win stupid prizes).

They look like humans (mostly men, but you can come across a lady here and there), with added goat features- horns, tails and sometimes even hooves. Their clothes are haggard, often featuring furs, they’re covered in soot and other dirt.

While in old tales are seen as an actual threat, nowadays (in mostly atheistic czech society) they’re depicted as pathetic little meow meows- comedic relief characters, laughable villains and even love interests for princesses (turned into humans for their good behavior)

They can be found in basically every other czech TV fairy tale. While I have seen people suggest to just use the word krampus in english, because of the surface level similarities between the two creatures, I wouldn’t recommend it. Because A)they have widely different vibes B)some czech (and other slavic) might punch you in a fit of patriotism

Disclaimer: while creatures like this are in many (if not all) slavic folklores, under varying names, this post is centered around the czechoslovak version, because that’s what I’m familiar with

[s-u-w-i]

Three more requests! I meant to make them all black&white but well, green knight somehow doesn't work all that well without green 🍀

IX. The Green Knight for romanodegois and @a-gremlin-for-my-thoughts VIII. Otesánek eating his mum for msdearcos who asked for folklore's creature from Czechia VII. for christine.kasparian who asked for spooky fairytale for the autumn season. I chose czech fairy tale Hádanka (Riddle) about this queen who made household items from the bones (and hair) of her lover to take a revenge on his killer.

Enjoy! 💀

[happylittleghost]

První šestice je hotová ale nebojte ani zdaleka nekončíme. Vaše další oblíbené lodě které chcete v této sérii vidět klidně pište do komentářů. (Nebojte petriáš je hned v další šestici)

Pokud bych udělal speciální šestici na Cimrmanovy queer postavy koho by jste tam chtěli vidět?

[valerieandherweekofwonderz]

Vlastimil Harapes as the Beast in Panna a netvor / Beauty and the Beast (1978) dir. by Juraj Herz.

[clandestinewhore]

𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑯𝒆𝒓 𝑾𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔

𝚅𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎 𝚊 𝚝𝚢́𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚞̊, 𝟷𝟿𝟽𝟶

[periodcostumefantasylover]

Cinderella's cape in Three Wishes for Cinderella

[czgif]

Loupežnická pohádka (The Robber's Fairy Tale) 1964, dir. Eduard Hofman IMDB YT

[horror-aesthete]

Beauty and the Beast (Panna a Netvor), 1978, dir. Juraj Herz

[glasscandywitch]

gankutsuou + beauty and the beast, dir. jean cocteau (1946)

[lightsinthemist]

Sedmero krkavců (1993) Theme by Petr Hapka

[lightsinthemist]

#ngl 'two evil advisors that have a gay thing going on' is my favourite czech fairy tale trope #(and yes they do have a gay thing going on na tomto kopci zemřu)

Matching gifs for you and your enemy/co-conspirator/lover

[atempause-art]

princezna ze mlejna když už máš toho čerta s vodníkem? 👉👈 teda asi to neni traditional fanart ale když už tak už

musím se přiznat, že tohle je jedna z pohádek co nemám rád. ani nevím přesně proč, ty vajby tam prostě nejsou. a popravdě kdyby mi to spojení s tím filmem došlo při vymejšlení těch dlou teplejch debilů, tak je nejspíš z adama jiný strašidlo než čert

každopádně čerti tam sou fajn

[happylittleghost]

A je hotová i druhá šestice máte ještě nějaké postavy co by jste chtěli vidět?