It seems like whenever it gets really HOT, I think of stories by Adolf Wenig in his Beyond the Giant Mountains; Tales from Bohemia. Why? The book is filled with stories about the devil. Looking back to 2018 and 2020 for Wenig's stories I also found this sign from 2020.
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| From me.me |
Can't help but notice those two extra heat spells happened every two years.
If ever there was a time that sign and Wenig's stories seemed appropriate, it's now with a "heat dome" over most of the U.S. But what if the devil went on vacation? Wenig has a story for that and I found another meme.
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| Found on memedroid.com by Akane420 |
I doubt meteorologists will accept either meme's explanation, so let's shift to a story from Bohemia of old.
Before we begin, it might be useful to discuss one thing that might seem odd to modern thinking: asking a total stranger to give you lodging. Long ago if you were far away from cities, there were no motels and hotels, so you could ask if somebody would let you spend the night. Often your lodging would be in the barn! In this story the stranger stays in the home of the person asked.
While the common saying about weather is "Everybody talks about it, but no one does a thing about it", this tale is not about the weather so "chill out" and enjoy the story.
At least two thoughts popped into my mind after that story. One is if this heat is a time when the devil's on vacation, I hate to think how hot it may get if he returns. The other is that Czechoslovakia or Bohemia is a region not that far from the Ukrainian War. I picture Russia as the "sedlak" or jealous neighbor seeking Ukrainian wealth. I truly would love to see that jealous neighbor carried away from the Ukrainian house.
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This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain." The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated. I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century. My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them. I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.
At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience. Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week. This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here. (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.) Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.
Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-
There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection. I have long recommended it and continue to do so. He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm
You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories. There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"
