I don't know how to translate this story's name properly cuz it literally means Ghost stories (little playing with words buut...) Yeah here's sketchbook dump with them entities!
(And Betty...and brainstorming)
Duchařiny art dump!
This is an entity called Black Knight that's actually based off by legends around Branišov forest or Bor (that's on the outskirts of town České Budějovice) in Czechia. It's a tall guardian with a long black cloak and a wide hat that covers his whole face. My own interpretation is that he has a helmet under it, since he can be called a knight. (He's mainly called Guardian of the forest).
Sketches of Betty with her redesigned version. She simply welcomes Xabat in this scene because he agreed that he'll work for her organisation that's focused on capturing paranormal entities (Xabat has a different opinion on this matter since he's focused only on liberating the souls from their curses).
And lastly there are sketches with Xabat alongside t h a t tree. I inverted it on accident.
„The eldest of them was named Kazi, who surpassed Medea of Colchis in herbs and song and Paeonian master in medical art, because she often made the Fates themselves cease their unending work and oracles follow the commands of her song. Hence the inhabitants of this land, when they lose something and despair.of its recovery, say the following proverb about her: “Even Kazi herself cannot get it back.” Like the place where the daughter of Ceres was abducted by a tyrant, her burial mound can still be seen today, heaped up very high by the inhabitants of the land in memory of their mistress, on the bank of the River Mže near the road which leads to the province of Bechyně, over the mountain called Osek.
Worthy of praise though second by birth, Tetka was a woman of keen discernment lacking a husband. She built a castle on the River Mže, named Tetín after herself, well fortified by the nature of the place, with rocks reaching steeply to the summit. She taught the stupid and senseless people to adore and worship Oreads, Dryads, and Hamadryads, and established every superstitious sect and sacrilegious rite. Like many villagers up until now, just like pagans, this one worships waters or fires, that one adores groves and trees and stones, another sacrifices to mountains or hills, and still another beseeches and prays to the deaf and dumb idols he has made himself, so that they rule both his home and his own self.
Younger by birth but older in wisdom, the third was called Libuše. She built a castle, the most powerful then, next to the forest which reaches to the area of Ztibečná [Zbečno], and called it Libušin after her own name. She was truly a woman among women: cautious in counsel, quick to speak, chaste in body, upright in character, second to no one in resolving the lawsuits of the people. Affable, even lovable, in all things, she adorned and glorified the feminine sex while handling masculine affairs with foresight. But because no one is altogether blessed, this woman of such quality and of so great praise—alas the terrible human conditions!—was a prophetess [phitonissa]. Since she predicted many proven futures for people, that whole people took common counsel and set her up as judge over them after the death of her father.”
- Cosmas of Prague, The Chronicle of the Czechs, translated by Lisa Wolverton, Washington, DC, 2009, 1.4 (p. 39-40)
The Lučan war/Lucká válka is one of the few Czech legends that might be actually inspired by real historical events. The reason for the war was according to the legend greediness of Lučans. Duke Neklan of Czechs sent into the war a hero Tyr while Lučans sent lord Vladislav. Even though Tyr killed Vladislav in the battle, he later lost his horse and was killed too. Czechs, however, were inspired by Tyr’s victory so much that they in the end won the battle and by getting rid of Lučan tribe they increased their influence in Bohemia.
The stop-motion animation film was made by a Czech film-maker Jiří Trnka.
This is by far my least favourite Czech legend and you'll probably soon see why. We are going back to the time when Přemysl started to reign over Bohemia by marrying the previous ruler Libuše.
Warning: this time no happy ending
Finally, Vlasta, the leader of the retinue, got so fed up with the snide remarks of men that she decide to declare war on all of them and take them from the new positions back to their scratch ploughs. Together with her retinue Vlasta build castle Děvín (not to be confused with Devín). At the same time all women in surrounding areas were asked to leave their husbands, fathers and brothers and join the women in their war.
And many of them did.
The men found this movement extremely funny and mocked the women between each other constantly, even more when Přemysl was around.
Přemysl didn’t laugh.
Apparently he had a vision last night, an awful dream about a woman wearing helmet, in one hand sword, in the other goblet. She was running around and stepping on the corpses of men, then filling her goblet with their blond and drinking covetously. To put it simply Přemysl was little bit scared and wanted his men to take this women business seriously.
It’s kind of interesting that till now the only person that had visions was his wife Libuše. So either divination is extremely contagious or…
Meanwhile the girls and women were preparing for fight. The wise were ordered to protect the castle, the brave sat on horses with weapons in their hands, the beautiful ones were ready to seduce the men and then kill them.
The men didn't take Přemysl’s speech to the heart. Actually they didn't care about it at all. That’s probably why 300 of them died pitifully when Vlasta and her women attacked. That number would be even greater if there wasn't a thick forest nearby to help some of the luckier ones to escape.
Vlasta and her women.
This battle soon turned into a legend and more and more women came to Děvín castle. A very bad time came for the men. It wasn't rare that their dead bodies were found in the morning and many of them spent the nights in the forest out of pure fear. And Děvín was impregnable. None of the girls let a man inside and none gave their secrets away. This sadly couldn't be said about Přemysl’s castle Vyšehrad where Vlasta had many sympathizers who were eager to tell the girls about what the men are up to.
One day Ctirad, one of the most skilled man warriors, was with his retinue on his way to Vyšehrad. He killed many women since the war started and for that he was passionately hated by Vlasta. As he with his retinue rode through the forest, they heard a wailing. Soon they found a beautiful girl with long hair tied up to a tree.
Oh look a woman in trouble! Let’s help her! What could possibly go wrong?
The answer is simple. Everything.
When Ctirad heard her honest pleading for help, charmed by her engaging voice, he told the men to untie her. Šárka, as she told them her name, was there left by Vlasta’s women. She was kidnapped from her father in Okořín but Vlasta's women ran away when they heard foreign horses and left her here. To mock her they tied Šárka down and put a horn on her neck to cry for help then put a jug of ale next to her make her thirsty. As she told them this Šárka began to cry and begged them to take her back to her father. Ctirad agreed but first he took the horn and put it on his neck then drank from the jog. He offered it to all of his men, as well as to Šárka. The ale was stronger than they thought and soon the trip to Šárka’s father had to be postponed since everybody was suddenly taking a nap. Then Šárka took the horn and put it to Ctirad’s mouth.
If you are drunk, you start to lose the ability of critical thinking. Ctirad probably thought it was a great idea. Let’s blow that horn! What a great idea, Šárka! Don’t worry, I’ll escort you to your father safely!
Šárka probably couldn’t care less about her father and going back to him was the last thing she wanted to do.
Of course the horn was a signal. Soon Vlasta with her women surrounded the drugged men and killed them mercilessly. When only Ctirad was left, they tied him and laughed at him, forcing him to walk alongside their horses to Děvín.
If you look closely, you might notice that their outfits are inspired by Russian folk clothes. The author wasn't probably sure how our ancestors dressed in past and since rusophilia was pretty strong in the Czech lands during our national revival, he decided for this solution.
Afterwards Ctirad was sent back to Vyšehrad but not quite in the same state as he left it.
When men saw his tortured dead body woven into the wheel, they got completely furious. The word spread around and men from all over were coming to Přemysl, ready to fight against the women and even kidnaping some on their way to Vyšehrad.
But at this point Vlasta repeated the mistake of those who she was fighting against.
She was too sure in her victory that – of course – she lost. She also rode her horse too rapidly, sure that her women are right behind here. But they were too slow and when Vlasta finally approached the enraged men she was soon killed. When the women saw this their morale was damaged. It didn't look like they would win this fight. So many of the women began to run away but it didn't matter – in the end they were all killed, no matter how hard they pleaded or how fast they ran.
This miniature 'civil war' ended with women’s defeat. Their castle Děvín was burned down and things went back to as they were before.
Remember that this is just a legend and we have no evidence if any of this actually happened. On another note I was this close to naming this "the Girls's war", although "the Women's war" would probably be the best. Just for a clarification - all kinds of women joined Vlasta, even the married ones. The English wikipedia article also talks about them as Amazons but Vlasta and her women didn't really go that far as you can see in the pictures.
And what to learn from all of this? Underestimating the enemy only leads to death - often a very painful one.
Czech legends: About Krok, his daughters and lucky guy named Přemysl
Now little bit of history: There is very high probability that this character was inspired by our first ruler ever - Sámo, a Frank merchant who unified Slavs and established the first Slavic empire.
It was a good choice. Krok was wise and even-minded man who ruled well. He had three daughters. Kazi who knew all kinds of herbs and spices. She healed wounds of people with her best knowledge and later married Bivoj. Second sister was called Teta. She was very religious (but definitely not to Jesus) and truth to be told, not that much interesting. The most popular between people was the youngest - Libuše. Why?
According to the legend she was beautiful, chaste, kind yet serious, sure in her speech so even harsh men praised her. So when elders met after Krok's death it was only logical to choose her as his successor. She ruled wisely from Vyšehrad castle. Until...
In the same way as her father, Libuše worked as a judge in various disputes between people. One day two brothers came to her and it turned out that the older one was stealing field from the younger brother. That's why Libuše decided in favour of the younger one.
But the older guy threw a fit, not able to accept his defeat. His main argument was that they are for laughs to others with woman as a ruler.
When nobody stood up for Libuše, she told them all to go home with promise that assembly will the next day chose the man to rule over them and who she will take as her husband. She also hinted that the days when they were ruled over kindly would be soon over...
Now it gets kind of weird.
Another important thing you should know about Libuše is that she was a prophet. Her most famous prophecy was about Prague. She literally said: "I see a big city, which fame will reach the stars. It will be called Praha." See the picture:
The silhouette in the distance is Prague Castle, which at the time this picture is set in, actually isn't there yet. They are all standing on Vyšehrad hill and the man holding Libuše's hand is our mysterious Přemysl. We'll get to him very soon.
After her speech in front the elders, Libuše came up with another prophecy. She very accurately described the way to the village Stadice, where on specific 12-step field ploughs their future ruler. She even described his oxes with an outstanding detail.
So imagine you wake up in the morning. You are a farmer as almost all Slavs at the time were and you need to plough your field unless you want to starve during the winter. Suddenly weird people come to you, put a crown on your head and tell you that you are their duke. Your beautiful wife is already waiting for you. In the castle. You try to wake up but no. This is your reality. This is your life. You became founder of the dynasty that will wear during coronation bast sandals in your honour.
I don't know about you but to me this prophecy kind of stinks. We already know that Libuše was a very wise woman. Even our Czech chronicler Kosmas bitingly ads that Libuše's horse, which led the way to Sedlec where Přemysl lived, walked "as if he went this way more than once".
So could it be that Libuše and Přemysl were far from strangers when she got that vision? Was this only a smart way to allow her to take a common man as her husband?
But Vyšehrad is around 90 km from Stadice, so it's kind of unlikely that Libuše and Přemysl visited each other. There are few other theories which in the end don't make any more sense that this one. So I guess we will have to stay with the legend.
There was a great wedding. Czech writer Alois Jirásek described it as if he was really there - there was plenty of food and mead, they were singing songs about heroes from the past, listening to the music and celebrating till the late night, accompanied then by the light of bonfires. Another European dynasty - Přemyslids (Přemyslovci in Czech) - was established.
Note: In the similar way also came to existence Polish Piastovci or German Goths.
About Libuše was a few years ago made a movie (Pagan Queen). It's awful. Don't watch it. I already regret mentioning it here.
I think I already mentioned this legend here but now I will tell you the whole story.
The main participants of this story: forefather Čech and Říp Mountain. We don't know if Čech truly existed but Říp is a real place, about 50 km from Prague.
Long time ago in Charvát country behind Tatras, near the Visla river, was the original homeland of all Slavs. But as it goes with too many Slavs in one place, they started to fight between each other and it became a bad place to live. Two brothers named Čech and Lech decided that they don't really want to be part of this and left with their people to the West, thinking that in the middle of Europe they'll live peacefully.
It was a long way through deep forests, swamps and shrubs. Their families started to feel tired and complained that there is no end to this horrible trip. Čech pointed to the "big" mountain in front of them. "We'll rest there," he said. Afterwards they named that mountain Říp.
The next day Čech decided to climb up the mountain. Alone because his family apparently had enough. When he looked around, he saw a beautiful country with forests, meadows and rivers. He came down and shared the news with his relatives. They (I'm suspecting out of fear he'll make them climb that mountain too) exclaimed that the country should be called after him: Čechy. Čech was moved and also very pleased by this. He knelt down, kissed the land and blessed it. So they settled here and began to cultivate the land.If they only knew...
Fact: In the early Slavic times in our country there wasn't any settlement around Říp, probably because of no water source. Interesting is that the Říp mountain lied in the middle of the area of former Slavic settlement and the horizon of all what we cab see from its top edge in past formed borders of this settlement.
But back to Čech or more correctly to his brother. When the family grew, Lech decided it's time to leave and build his own castle and village. It was hard to say good-bye but Lech didn't leave too far. He inhabited country now called Poland.
Lech and Čech with Čech's imaginary castle. This picture is right from Chronica Boëmorum written by Cosmas of Prague in 12th century.
You can see Lech is holding feather in his hand. That's because Polish version actually continues after this. When Lech left Čechy, he arrived in place somewhere around today's Poznaň. There he saw nest with beautiful white eagle, which captivated him so much that he put it on his coat of arms.
Funny that there are no mentions of brother Slovak - perhaps at the time they were with Čech in dispute over some medieval winter game. Who knows.
Anyway, this story is in the end just a legend that was for hundreds of years passed from generation to generation and we can't exclude that there weren't made some alterations.
No matter how it really was, Říp Mountain will forever stay memorable place of our mythology and history.
Before we get to Bivoj, I would like to introduce you to someone:
This is a wild boar. In Czech he has many names like kanec, divoké prase, divočák or ta svině, co nám rozryla záhony.
Bivoj caught divočák by its ears, put it on his back and took it to the castle Libušín, where ruled mythical female duchess Libuše.
When Bivoj got to the castle's courtyard, he met Libuše together with her sister Kazi. The women were impressed by his strength and the fact that the boar was still alive on his back. Bivoj said that the animal caused great damage in his region and that he'd like to kill it in front of them.
Kanec is pretty dangerous animal, this one in particular, was feared by everyone, destroyed fields and even killed few people.
When Bivoj killed it, Libuše invited him to celebrate with them. During the feast he got from her fancy belt as a gift and Libuše didn't forget to mention that her sister Kazi picked it up for him. Very subtle, Libuše.
Afterwards Bivoj left with Kazi's retinue. Kazi was so fond of him that later she took him as her husband.
Tradition of killing wild boars is still prevalent in the Czech Republic and there is lot of them since they don't have any natural enemies.
Well, besides us.
This picture is from the movie Slavnosti sněženek (based on the book of Bohumil Hrabal), where is famous scene with men chasing the wild boar around the town.
The idea of chasing divočák around the city is not by any means far-fetched. They live in the forest but aren't shy to visit you in your garden or in the fields. I only hope that I won't scare any potential tourists because just this year we had wild boar in Prague. It swam across Vltava and destroyed display window in Hilton, then it was chased by city police through Prague districts until one of our police men lied down on it and caught it.
You can watch the video of the police intervention in this article.
This legend is called Blaničtí rytíři. It says that inside the mountain called Blaník rests army that waits until the Czech nation will be at its worst. Their commander is none other than the patron of the Czech nation Saint Václav.
Blaník Mountain. Its height is 638 meters above sea level. Not very good for alpine hiking but great for storing medieval armies.
So according the legend when our country will be in the greatest distress, a dry oak on Blaník will turn green and a spring underneath it will be giving out so much water that the spring overflows and the water will flow down the hillside.
Then the mountain opens in Veřejová rock and knights inside will wake up from a deep sleep. Then they will defeat all enemies and peace will occur in Bohemia again.
Blaník knights led by Saint Václav
This legend was wrote down by Alois Jirásek. Here we learn for example that one year in the mountain is as long as one day. Attention to Blaník and to the legend of St. Václav army brought again the Czech National Reviva. Blaník then appeared in other Czech literature. This legend was also strongly criticized by Jára Cimrman.
The main legend was most likely created in the 15th century among ordinary people and based on event when at the south-east foot of Blaník was miraculously defeated the enemy army. Blaník is connected with various other legends. Some of have their origin probably in the Celtic times as the legend about the army of warriors sleeping inside the mountain, ready to help their people, is spread throughout the Celtic world.
