BULGARIA - BULGARIANS
STORIES - FOLKTALES - FOLKLORE - LEGENDS -
FAIRY TALES - MYTHS - NURSERY RHYMES -
FANTASY and FACTS
STORY LOVERS WORLD
SOS: SEARCHING OUT STORIES
Stories, Folktales, Folklore, Fairy Tales, Myths, Legends,
Fables, Nursery Rhymes, Bible, Classics, General Information
The Story Lovers World home page is at: http://www.story-lovers.com
To add to the lists below, please e-mail jackie@storyloversworld.com
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ONLINE LINKS TO STORIES AND INFORMATION ABOUT BULGARIA AND BULGARIANS
Online links are in blue and underlined. Click on them to get more information.
Story titles are in quotation marks.
Short descriptions are included for your convenience and to save you research time
• http://www.angelfire.com/folk/balkan/bfdm.htm
Bulgarian Folklore and Dance Music.
• http://www.bourque-moreau.com/bglinks.htm
Bulgarian Folklore links.
• http://www.spellintime.fsnet.co.uk/Folklore.htm
Background to Bulgarian Myth and Folklore.
• http://www.spellintime.fsnet.co.uk/Bulgarian%20Myth%20&%20Folklore%20Resources.htm
Bulgarian Myth and Folklore Resources.
• http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/sfs/sfs51.htm
The Golden Apples and the Nine Peahens (Bulgaria).
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SOS: SEARCHING OUT STORIES AND INFORMATION ABOUT BULGARIA AND BULGRIANS
Advice, Comments and References from Storytellers, Teachers and Librarians
(excerpts from Storytell posts plus original research)
Book titles, movie titles and online links are in blue and underlined. Click on them to get more information.
Story and song titles are in quotation marks.
To retell any stories, obtain permission from the copyright holder if the material is not in the public domain.
Posts are added chronologically as they are received by Story Lovers World.
1) Try contacting Priscilla Howe at http://www.priscillahowe.com/ . She has studied, lived and worked there for several years and is now living in Lawrence, KS as a full time professional storyteller. Also she is Very, Very Good as a teller and puppeteer and will be presenting a workshop at the Chicago Conference in July. She has a very complete translation of Hodja stories that she has done herself.
2) I'm delighted to have found Priscilla Howe who translates the Bulgarian Hodja and Hitur Petur (Sly Peter) tales. There is so little Bulgarian material available in English as far as I'm aware. For those of you who want to know a bit more about Bulgarian myth and folklore, I give an introduction on our website
Tales from Bulgarian myth and folklore
http://www.spellintime.fsnet.co.uk
The page is still being developed but there's enough there to give a taster, with snippets on vampires, samodivas (the wild nymphs of the waters and woodlands) and the Thracian Horseman.
3) I'll be interviewing with A Spell In Time live on Radio Resonance, the award-winning London radio station (broadcasting on 104.4FM), on THURSDAY, 1st APRIL from 6pm - 7pm British time.
The programme will also be going out worldwide on the internet on
http://www.resonancefm.com
It's hosted by London Diaspora Live, part of the Cultural Co-operation organization, www.culturalco-operation.org If you listen in, you'll hear me, our musician, Ivor Davies, our singer Dessislava Stefanova and my mum who does the translations upon which A Spell In Time's work is based. We'll be talking about what it's like to be Bulgarian in Britain, you'll get the inside story on our work with Bulgarian traditional tales and folklore, and of course there'll be plenty of storytelling, singing and music from our shows.
Moni S.
1st of March is also the first day of spring in Bulgaria. The Bulgarians give each other little tassels of red and white for health and happiness on this day and wish each other Chestita Baba Marta - Happy Grandmother March. Baba Marta is quite a volatile character and she must be given due respect!
Moni S.
4) We are a new publisher of stories mostly from Bulgaria and the Balkan region never before published in English,
Our web-site is at:
http://www.ellefun.com
We have free stories. Sample chapters and annotations of our books, an animated clip, links and more.
Alex G. 10/24/05
Sample story: The Walnut Tree and the Philosopher
Long time ago, when people didn’t know many things about nature and that included how to eat walnuts, a walnut tree grew by the road. It might have been planted there by someone for the benefit of other travelers or it could have grown there by chance if you believe that anything in life can happen by chance.
One day a traveler passed by. He stopped by the old walnut tree to rest in its shade. Then he noticed the green fruits and tasted one of them only to spit it out in disgust with its bitterness.
Some time after he had gone another traveler passed by. He too sat under the tree and noticed the tooth marks on the fruit the first one had bitten.
“This fruit must not be very tasty,” he thought. “But everything in this world has a purpose. It must be the hard heart that is to be eaten.” And he bit the hard shell but nearly broke a tooth in the process. He too walked away hungry.
Next came a traveler with scholarly disposition. He studied the fruit carefully, first tasting the bitter skin, then scratching the hard shell until he came up with the idea to break the shell with a stone. That was rewarded with the tasty walnut. The scholar smiled contently: “Wisdom and patience conquer all,” he thought.
Soon a businessman leading a donkey laden with his goods arrived under the tree. The scholar happily shared with him his secret.
The businessman thanked him and after they had eaten loaded the donkey with walnuts for sale. He let the scholar ride the donkey as a reward for his discovery while he himself walked and rubbed his palms in anticipation of his future profit.
They traveled in silence but soon darkness fell over the road. They were worried because there wasn’t a town or village to be seen and they were afraid to spend the night in the dark forest.
Suddenly the merchant saw a faint light in the distance.
“There, he said. “I see a light!”
“But how can that faint light help us,” said the scholar. “It is so small and lonely while the forest is big, dark and threatening.”
While they were arguing the light moved closer and they saw a man carrying a lantern. That man was a philosopher who lived in a hut by a lake nearby. He took the travelers to his place to spend the night. As they entered the dark room the small lantern pushed the scary shades in the corners. Now the room looked bright and cozy.
The inventive travelers shared with him the secret of the walnut tree.
“Well done!” said the philosopher. “Tomorrow, I’ll go and pick up some of those wonderful fruits. Then I will travel all over the world and plant a walnut tree by all roads that I pass.”
“But, then who will buy the walnuts that I am trying to sell!” said the businessman, disappointed.
“Don’t worry,” answered the philosopher. “When more people taste the walnuts from the trees by the roads they will be more likely to buy them from you in the city marketplace.”
“But what will be your reward for your labor?” asked the businessman.
“And how exactly do you plan to do it?” asked the scholar. “I mean how many walnuts will you start with and where you will plant them. Where you will start your journey will you go East, West, North or South?”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know,” answered the philosopher. “But as the light from my lantern is just enough for us to see the immediate road in front of us my initial intention and desire will carry me perhaps to the next step on my way towards my humble goal. And if I meet someone else with a lantern then together we will be able to see further.”
Thus they spent the night chatting leisurely until the sun rose over the dark forest and they went each on their way to find their own happiness.
5) Check out folktales from Bulgaria and the Balkans.
http://www.ellefun.com
You can add this to your archive and visitors to your site can use it.
Following is the story:
The Holy Man and the Chief of the Thieves
A Holy Man lived high in the mountain. Many people from far-away places came to him for advice, for healing, to confess their sins or to ask the saint to pray for them, for his prayers were heard far and high, and it was believed that even God often listened to what the holy man had to say. Different people came to him, rich and poor alike. A band of thieves heard about the Holy Man and waited at the foot of the mountain to rob the rich ones of their treasures. The thieves’ fortunes were good, thanks to the holy man’s popularity.
Once the chief of the thieves said to his horrible accomplices: “I feel robbed! We have been ambushing people here for ages and they keep coming. Surely by now everyone should know that there is a band of thieves at the foot of the mountain and they still keep coming to their Holy Man! I feel jealous that we have spent so much time here and accumulated considerable treasure but still haven’t seen the Holy Man, who is obviously valued more than money by all the people that flock here like cattle knowing that we will free them of their money! I will go to the so-called Holy Man and find out if he really is that wise.”
So the Chief of the Thieves went to the Holy Man, revealed himself and asked for instruction. The Holy Man accepted the hardened criminal as a student and thus began the crook's journey toward knowledge and wisdom.
After some time, the Chief of the Thieves said to the Holy Man: “Thank you for all the wise words and for your patience. Your teachings are really remarkable. But I am a creature suspicious by my very nature. I admire your theories, but are they really true? I am burning with desire to go into the wide world and check that from firsthand experience, but I can’t leave my band of thieves. They are simple people and will get into trouble without a leader, and there is no one except you that I can trust. Esteemed Teacher, will you please lead the band while I am away?” The Holy Man agreed and the Chief of Thieves departed on his fact-finding mission.
The Holy Man, dressed as a robber, went to the band to assume his new position. “Despicable criminals,” said he to the robbers. “From now on, not only will we attack the rich travelers but also the poor! And not only we will take their money but ask them questions and act accordingly.”
The bandits were reluctant to accept the increased workload with no perspective of increased profit. Because what would you expect to gain from robbing a poor man? Still, they accepted the new rules, although grudgingly, for their chief was known to chop off the heads of those who opposed his orders.
The new rules were the following: Once they caught travelers they asked them if the victims have grown rich by honest or dishonest means. If the attacked said that they had acquired their wealth through honest ways, the thieves took their money and let them go, but if they confessed that they had earned their money in a crooked way, the thieves would take their money all the same but beat them up on top of that and instruct them to grow rich again but this time to take care and be honest. When they caught a poor traveler, the thieves would simply beat the poor soul asking why he wasn't rich and instructing the hapless chap to grow rich as fast as possible.
The Chief of Thieves came back from his journey having found out that indeed the teachings of the Holy Man were true, and he assumed his role again, but he didn’t change the rules established by the wise monk. You there, beware. If you are rich and honest, God bless you. But if you are dishonest or poor, be warned of the beating waiting for you at the foot of the Holy Mountain.
Ellefun Publishers 8/7/06
6) Bulgarian stories:
Translated from Bulgarian by Michael Holman:
When Men were Men
Ibryam-Ali
The Seed of the Dervishovs
http://members.tripod.com/~Groznijat/litera/index.htm
7) FIND OUT ABOUT A SPELL IN TIME'S BULGARIAN MYTH AND FOLKLORE SHOWS!
Here are some sample Bulgarian stories, narrative songs and other the traditional oral material from our collection, together with background notes. These indicate the scope and style of the Bulgarian oral tradition.
They were translated from the original Bulgarian by our translator, Paraskeva Armstrong. We acknowledge our debt to those who told or recorded these stories. The spoken tales have been retold by Moni Sheehan in her own words but the translation of the songs, riddles and proverbs remains as close to the original words as possible. We hope that there will be a book in due course.
Copyright No part of the text may be reproduced without permission.
Why March has 31 Days
The Bulgarian Dragon
A Dragon Speaks to a Fir Tree
Nastraddin Hodja
Hitur Petur
Riddles
Proverbs and Sayings
http://www.spellintime.fsnet.co.uk/Tales.htm
8) Southern Slavonians — Bulgarian Stories
The Bulgarians do not derive their name from a Slavonic origin, but from a small and warlike nation of horsemen, which in A.D. 679 crossed the Danube under a chief named Isperich, conquered the disunited Slavonic tribes that had settled in Mœsia, and consolidated them into a powerful realm. The conquerors melted into the conquered, and lost their language, but gave their name to the state and country. The Slavonic language of the people does not appear to have been affected by that of their Ugrian conquerors, but rather by the old Thracian language, which, conjointly with Latin, has produced the present Roumanian.... more information at:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/sfs/sfs47.htm
Cinderella
Once upon a time, a number of girls were assembled spinning round a deep rift or chasm in the ground. As they spun they chattered together and told stories to each other. Up came a white-bearded old man, who said to them: 'Girls! as you spin and chatter, be circumspect round this rift; or, if any of you drops her spindle into it, her mother will be turned into a cow.' Thus saying he departed. The girls were astonished at his words, and crowded round the rift to look into it. Unfortunately, one of them, the most beautiful of all, dropped her spindle into it. Towards evening, when she went home, she espied a cow--her mother--in front of the gate, and drove her out with the other cattle to pasture. After some time the father of the girl married a widow, who brought a daughter with her into the house. The second wife had a spite at the man's first daughter, especially because she was more beautiful and more industrious than her own, and she allowed her neither to wash herself, nor to comb her hair, nor to change her clothes. One day she sent her out with the cattle, gave her a bag full of tow, and... continued at:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/sfs/sfs50.htm
9) East of No East - Bulgarian Stories by Editor: Daithidh MacEochaidh
Four short stories from leading Bulgarian writers; Zdvravka Evitimova, Boyan Biolchev, Svetlana Dicheva and Dimitar Tomov.
10) Nasrudin and the Trees: Seven Tales
A Compilation from Eastern Europe
Retold by Priscilla Howe
Editor's note: In his introduction to the collection, The pleasantries of the incredible Mulla Nasrudin
, Idries Shah relates that Nasrudin, when a boy, had the strange power of keeping his schoolfellow's attention upon his stories. Their academic work suffered. The teacher, unable to prevent Nasrudin's magnetism working, was himself a sage who managed to modify it. He put this spell on the young man:
"From now... however wise you become, people will always laugh at you. From now... whenever one Nasrudin tale is told, people will feel compelled to tell them until at least seven have been recited."
With this "curse" in mind, storyteller Priscilla Howe offers seven tales about the trickster Nasrudin, whose name has many various spellings. He is also sometimes referred to as "the Mulla" and as "the Hodja. "
Stories at:
http://www.spiritoftrees.org/folktales/howe/nasrudin_trees.html
11) A Sack Full of Feathers
by Debby Waldman, Cindy Revell.
Created 2005; last update 7/16/09
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