Topic Research: Silesian Folk Tales

I would like create my project from the folk tales of Silesia. I had never realized the Silesian region had its own, unique folk tales, and I doubt many other people outside of Silesia have known about them either, let alone heard them. It is this thought that gave me the idea for the style I would like to use for my project. Rather than telling these stories with a third-person perspective and using Rubezahl as a common character as my source does, I would like to write from the first-person viewpoint of someone traveling through Silesia, experiencing the stories found in Silesian Folk Tales firsthand. My introduction would be the background of the storyteller. Perhaps he could be a coal miner, as Silesia is known for its coal mining industry, from Silesia travelling to a bigger city such as Krakow or Prague. Or perhaps the storyteller could be a merchant from a distant realm just passing through Silesia. Either way, I think it would be best to set my project in the past, sometime in the 17th century: when Silesia, or at least the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which were the powers governing Silesia, were the most influential. The three stories could be really be any of the selected folk tales found in my online source. However, I would really like to retell the stories of The Three Students, The Horse Dealer, and The Master of Horse. Each tale, which would be told by our traveler, would be a tale about someone he meets along his journey. Obviously, there is a possibility that I might write in a certain way that would make one of the other tales a better fit. Fortunately, I think if I do have to be flexible, I could very easily use any one of the folk tales in the book. On top of writing from the perspective of a character I, myself, formulated, I also believe this project will mirror my own time in Silesia where I met many different people and listened to their stories. For this reason, I already feel that this project is especially personal for me and I will enjoy researching and writing it.

Ksiaz Castle in Lower Silesia. Source: #Poland

Like the beautiful hidden villages and castles that can be found in Silesia that are not widely known among outsiders, my goal for this project is to share the beautiful and distinct, yet scarcely known, folk tales that come from the region. Perhaps my project will spark an appreciation for these stories that would have otherwise never come to fruition.