THE LAUGHING PRINCE
A Book of Jugoslav Fairy Tales and Folk Tales
BY
PARKER FILLMORE
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONS
BY
JAY VAN EVEREN
NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE & WORLD, INC.
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
PARKER FILLMORE
RENEWED BY LOUISE FILLMORE
0.1.68
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY PARKER FILLMORE
CZECHOSLOVAK FAIRY TALES
THE SHOEMAKER'S APRON
Illustrated by Jan Matulka
TO BUTTON
NOTE
In calling this A Book of Jugoslav Fairy Tales and Folk Tales I haveused the word Jugoslav in its literal sense of Southern Slav. TheBulgars are just as truly Southern Slavs as the Serbs or Croats or anyother of the Slav peoples now included within the state of Jugoslavia.Moreover in this case it would be particularly difficult to make theliterary boundaries conform strictly to the political boundaries sincemuch the same stories and folk tales are current among all these Slavpeoples of the Balkan Peninsula. The special student taking the variantsof the same story might discover special differences that would markeach variant as the product of some one locality. The work of such astudent would have philological and ethnological value but not a very[vi]strong appeal to the general reader. My appeal is first of all to thegeneral reader—to the child who loves fairy tales and to the adult wholoves them. I hope they will both find these stories entertaining andamusing quite aside from any interest in their source.
Yet these tales as presented do give the reader a true idea of theamazing vigor and the artistic inventiveness of the Jugoslavimagination, and also of the various influences, Oriental and Northernas well as Slavic, which have made that imagination what it is to-day.Here are gay picaresque tales of adventure—how they go on and on andon!—charming little stories of sentiment, a few folk tales of starksimplicity and grim humor, one story showing a superficial Turkishinfluence, and one spiritual allegory as deep and moving as anything inthe Russian.
The renderings in every case are my own and are not in any sensetranslations. I have taken the old stori