Dancing on Blades: Rare and Exquisite Folktales from the Carpathian Mountains

by Csenge Virág Zalka

Overview

Readers of folktales will relish this collection of rare stories from Hungary. Although the tales were told over one hundred years ago, Zalka's research, translation and embellishments have given these almost-lost stories new lives and fresh faces.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781624911040
Publisher:	Parkhurst Brothers, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	829 KB

About the Author

 Csenge Virág Zalka is an international storyteller from Győr, Hungary. She has a Master’s Degree in Storytelling from East Tennessee State University, and a PhD in Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University, OH. Her academic research focuses on role-playing games as collaborative storytelling. As a performer, she travels the world, sharing myths, legends, and folktales in Hungarian, English, and Spanish; she has been featured at festivals in various European countries such as Spain and Ireland, as well as the USA. She has a passion for folklore, and researches her tales extensively. Her first folktale collection in English, Tales of Superhuman Powers, was published by McFarland in 2013.

Table of Contents

“Anica, tell us a story!”
Part 1: Spinning Old into Gold. The Shoe-Shredding Princesses. 
The Cheerful Prince.
The Stolen Apples.
Golden-haired Annuska.
The Maiden with the Red-gold Hair.
Jancsi goes to the Glass Mountain. Part 2: The Kind and the Unkind. The Sleepy Lady.
The poor man and the three ladies.
The joy of the princess.
The woodcutter’s luck.
The Devil’s Godfather.
The little swineherd. Part 3: Questions Big and Small. Who owns the moonlight?.
What is the wind called?.
Why are there no fairies in the world?.
Who owns the golden apples?.
Where did the Son of the White Mare go?.
What did the little pig do in the winter?. Part 4: Anica’s Garden of Rarities. Mistress Tuberose.
Touch-me-not
The King of the Birchwood.
Little Orphan.
Szelemen in the Apple Orchard.
János of the Bees. Part 5: Love in all its strangeness and glory. The Dream of the Fairy Queen.
The boy who wanted to walk on the clouds.
The Daughter of the Táltos King.
The Boar and the Wheelbarrow.
Three princesses and a ring.
The Daughter of the Iron-nosed Witch. Sources and Further Reading.
Archival materials.
Hungarian folktale collections featuring tales from Pályuk Anna.
English-language folktale collections mentioned in comments.
Hungarian and Ukrainian folktales published in English.
 
 

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating collection of rare folktales, destined to join the ranks of classics of Central European traditional storytelling. Palyuk Anna was evidently a remarkably gifted and creative oral narrator. Ms. Zalka has done invaluable archival work in collecting and translating the breadth of her unique repertoire, and making these familiar yet distinctive versions available to modern tellers, listeners, and readers.

Joseph Sobol

“In these wonder-filled tales, the sun and the moon pause to behold beauty. Storytellers will pause and linger long over these new English language retellings of folktales skillfully translated, and beautifully retold stories of Pályuk Anna, a long-ago storyteller from Transcarpathia, for the first time made available for English language readers.

Mary Hamilton

Zalka takes us across the Óperencías sea to a fantastical world rich with magical golden fruits, shape-shifting apples, Glass Mountains, mysterious music, and devils good and bad. Her archival research and translation bring a vibrancy to this collection of engaging tales that otherwise would have remained dormant. The commentary provides interesting perspective to contextualize the stories within Hungarian folkways, making this treasury of interest to both the folklore scholar and the casual lover of really good stories. I will use this book for entertainment, reference, and inspiration!

Adam Booth