Jaroslav Foglar (1907–1999, nicknamed „Jestřáb“ — „Hawk“) was a Czech scoutmaster and a prolific and influential author of novels, short stories, comics and practical guides for the youth. The article discusses motifs in his work and life that were influenced by contemporary folklore, Zeitungssagen, forteana and other similar genres. While Foglar was not an author of fantastic or supernatural prose and was strongly inclined to keep a skeptical stance in this manner, he was also able to successfully build an atmosphere of mystery in his literal works using aforementioned genres as an inspiration. Key topics discussed in the paper are roles and importance of staged hauntings in Foglar’s scout troop, appearance of various urban phantoms in his works and Foglar’s take on the story of disappearance of Charles Ashmore/Oliver Lerch/Olivier Thomas. These examples are further discussed in the context of scouts’ folklore, campfire legends and popular culture of the 20th century
The study deals with demonic beings and phenomena that appear in the documented demonological legends from contemporary Western Bohemia; furthermore, it studies the transformations in locations where these demonic beings are supposed to reside, as the narrators admit and if the locations in which frightening stories related to the demonic beings took part, as traditional demonological legends say, remained more or less unchanged, or if they have been transformed to the extent that the demonological legends are spread only in the urban environment today. The study presents several selected legends and similar narratives, which have been documented through semi-structured interviews with the inhabitants of the Pilsen Region and its surroundings, it categorizes them according to the venue, and catalogues them. The primary emphasis is put on the cataloguing of the collected legends and narratives using the catalogue of demonological legends by Jan Luffer.
The article analyses phenomenon of the “exemplary stories” — apocryphal anecdotes often told at parties as realistic stories which supposedly really happened, but which are in fact variants of socially quite widespread, sometimes even international folkloric narratives. Also labelled as urban/contemporary legends, this type of narratives is discussed in wide theoretical and disciplinary context, including their itinerations in the modern mass media (especially newspapers) and popular literature. Finally, social and cultural functions and meanings of these apocryphal stories are presented.
The paper discusses secondary recreational uses of abandoned slate quaries, dumps and mines in the area of Nízký Jeseník (Czech Republic) focusing on campers and tramps, who colonized this area since the second half of the 1940s. A paralel between such an adaptation of former industrial places and natural succession is presented. An area of Koňský důl (Horse quarry) is used as an example of such a site where mining history, recreational usage, new local names and continuous adaptation of space led to an establishment of a distinctive, well-known place that can still be classified as a brownfield but where its new roles are much more prominent. Local contemporary legends are also mentioned, including a character called Honnbesch, a malicious former German farmer hiding in the underground.
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