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    Balkan Folktales: Balkan Folktales, #1
    Balkan Folktales: Balkan Folktales, #1
    Balkan Folktales: Balkan Folktales, #1
    Ebook78 pages1 hour

    Balkan Folktales: Balkan Folktales, #1

    By Tatjana Nikolovska

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    About this ebook

    This edition, the first volume in the series "Balkan Folktales" includes 12 amazing folktales. Reality and fantasy are intertwined in the tales, yet anything imagined becomes real when it is being told, i.e. because it has been told.

    In this literary work, the author also imbues every passage with benevolent humor, which finds its way to all readers. Tales also explore the social relations and injustice - tales are always on the side of the poor, the deprived, the subjugated, tales criticizes the corrupt priests, officials and judges expose human stupidity, vanity, greed, and stinginess, exalts the moral values of honesty, chastity, faithfulness, and quite calmly expounds the fatality of human destiny, in which righteousness always prevails.

    Perhaps most importantly, even amidst all the hardship and suffering of his people and of his own, the author firmly believed in ultimate justice. As the people in this region saying goes - 'Justice and truth may thin themselves out, but they are never torn'.

    In this sense may this edition of only a small section of Balkan's stories, but we are certain that the author's humanism will conquer the hearts of his English readers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTatjana Nikolovska
    Release dateAug 25, 2019
    ISBN9781393573456
    Balkan Folktales: Balkan Folktales, #1

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      Book preview

      Balkan Folktales - Tatjana Nikolovska

      © 2019 by Tatjana Nikolovska

      1st edition

      EDITED BY GEORGE NIKOLOV

      Cover and book design by goNik design team

      Published by

      Draft2Digital

      9400 N. Broadway, Ste. 410

      Oklahoma City, OK 73114

      United States

      Printed in the US

      ISBN  978-1-365-85062-2

      Contents

      FOREWORD

      The Wolf and the Rams

      Hungry Fox and a Badger

      The Cat Sylvester Who Became a Monk

      The Mouse and the Frog

      How the Fever and the Debt Become the Best Friends

      Truth and Falsehood

      A Shepherd Who by Mistake Killed His Faithful Dog

      Femme Fatale and the Three Brothers

      The Three Seers and the Judge

      The Woodcutter with the Five Donkeys

      Caught in the Garlic

      Clarky the Duck

      Foreword

      THIS EDITION, THE FIRST volume in the series Balkan Folktales includes 12 amazing Macedonian folktales. It includes the longest and most famous tale Clarky the Duck, considered a masterpiece and rightly valued as one of the first prose works in Modern Balkan literature.

      There is an interesting conclusion to this story:

      So there it is dear Reader, the story of what happened to Clarky from village Labin. I know that you too think it’s just a fantasy, but I know it is true because my father told me this story, and that’s just what he said to me when he first told it.

      In this short passage lies an important clue to authors approach to this material. All the artistic wealth that had survived in the collective memory of the Balkan people has a legitimacy of truth because it has been told, and in some parts of this region, even today, the spoken word, the direct contact has crucial importance. The forefathers are given all the deserved respect - and nowhere does the line in the beginning was the Word resound more strongly than in Balkan. The passage also foreshadows what would be called in Latin America literature - magical realism.

      Reality and fantasy are intertwined in the tale, yet anything imagined becomes real when it is being told, i.e. because it has been told.

      In this literary work, the author also imbues every passage with benevolent humor, which finds its way to all readers. Tales also explore the social relations and injustice - tales are always on the side of the poor, the deprived, the subjugated, tales criticizes the corrupt priests, officials and judges expose human stupidity, vanity, greed, and stinginess, exalts the moral values of honesty, chastity, faithfulness, and quite calmly expounds the fatality of human destiny, in which righteousness always prevails.

      Perhaps most importantly, even amidst all the hardship and suffering of his people and of his own, the author firmly believed in ultimate justice. As the people in this region saying goes - ‘Justice and truth may thin themselves out, but they are never torn’.

      In this sense may this edition of only a small section of Balkan’s stories, but we are certain that the author’s humanism will conquer the hearts of his English readers.

      The Wolf and the Rams

      Once upon a time, a wolf went out hunting in some lowlands. He wandered here; he wandered there, and at first, he came upon two rams that were grazing, side by side.

      Ha, now rams, I will eat you, said the Wolf, both of you.

      Ah, indeed you will eat us, Oh Wolf answered the two. But do you know what we’d like? For the time being, eat just one of us, because the two of us together at one sitting will be far too much for you. Leave one of us for tomorrow. You know the people’s saying: There are more days than there are banquets’. You should let us have our way in this matter and do you know why? Because we’re thinking of your own good. As for us, why we’re only rams. Our destiny is to be served up as someone’s dinner. But seeing you’ve found us well you eat us. Our owner seems to have deserted us, anyway. So, you eat us and just leave our horns as a memento for him. It will serve him right! So you see our request is that you eat one of us today, and the other tomorrow. Now listen, the best method of arranging it is this. You stand over there on that flat piece of ground. From where you’ll stand, one of us will walk one hundred paces to your left, and the other one hundred paces to your right. Then we’ll race towards you. You can eat the winner of the race tomorrow and eat the loser today. What do you say, oh Wolf? Don’t you agree it’s a good idea? Come on, let’s start to the race"!

      Fine, replied the Wolf to the rams, if it makes you happy.

      The Wolf sat down on the designated spot and started to sharpen his teeth in anticipation of a juicy meal of mutton. The rams paced out the correct distance, one in one direction, the other in the opposite direction. Suddenly they began to run. They charged towards the Wolf as fast and hard as they could and butted him so violently with their horns; they winded him completely and left him barely breathing.

      Aahhhh! gasped the Wolf. Poor me; what a fate, and he collapsed, barely conscious.

      In the meantime, the rams ran home to their owner in the village as fast as they could.

      After the Wolf revived, he got up and said out aloud to himself, What a blockhead! Why did you need to leave one ram for tomorrow? As soon as you find something-eat it if you find nothing-go hungry. Since when have you been a gourmet?

      He set out on the hunt again. Luck was with him, for not far away there was a mule, grazing. The Wolf said to the Mule, Ha, now Mule, I will eat you.

      "Oh, Wolf, your plan might be to

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