Old Czech Legends

In his book titled Old Czech Legends (first published in 1894), Alois Jirásek compiled his unique interpretations of thirty-four national legends, attempting to revive not only stories from ancient Bohemian times and the Christian era, but also Prague legends and ancient prophecies. The book opens with a section of mythical tales from Czech prehistory, from the arrival of Forefather Čech to the death of Prince Hostivít. This is followed by legends from the Christian tradition with themes that are not only Czech, but also Moravian, Slovak, and Jewish, with the 'Of Old Prague' cycle forming a relatively independent part. The collection concludes with a section of ancient prophecies.

In 2001, Old Czech Legends, one of Alois Jirásek's most famous works, was published for the first time by Česká knižnice. Now, Česká knižnice returns to this work and presents Old Czech Legends in an updated re-edition. In the accompanying commentary, Jaroslava Janáčková and Karel Komárek explore the literary genesis of the work and trace the evolution of its exceptional reception.

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Česká knižnice presents representative literary works created in the Czech lands from the beginnings of our literature to the present day. This long-term series, which began publication in 1997, strives to make expertly prepared, textually reliable, and annotated editions accessible. Since 2016, the series has been jointly published by the Česká knižnice Foundation, the Institute of Czech Literature of the CAS, and Host publishers.