Czechoslovak Fairy Tales

Parker Fillmore gathered folk tales from Czech, Slovak, and Moravian villages and polished them for American children in the early 1900s, preserving narratives that might otherwise have faded into silence. The stories pulse with the same elemental magic found in the Grimm brothers' collection, yet they carry a distinctly different flavor, slantwise humor, unexpected solutions, and heroes who win through cleverness as often as courage. The anthology opens with "Longshanks, Girth, and Keen," in which a young prince follows a painted portrait to a tower where a powerful magician holds a beautiful princess captive. Along the way, he recruits three extraordinary companions: a man who can stretch his body indefinitely, another who can swell to enormous size, and a third whose piercing vision can crumble stone. Together they face impossible tasks and a showdown with dark magic. The tales that follow maintain this pattern, impossible quests, fantastical helpers, and the quiet certainty that the clever and the brave will find their way home. These are the fairy tales that reward the patient reader. Not the familiar versions that have been told and retold until the magic wore smooth, but the stranger, sharper originals from Central European tradition. Perfect for readers who believe that a good story should feel a little unfamiliar, a little wild.