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Rudolph Leopold Nickolos Lazare: An Old Peasant Folktale
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16160 |
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CULTURE
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| Issue
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6 / 1989 |
2,036 Words |
| Author
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Evelyn Witter
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Folktales show patterns of feeling, thinking, and acting that are common to a social group and thus differ from country to country. This particular folktale originated centuries ago in central Czechoslovakia. Farming and crops were the peasants' main concern. Agriculture and mistreatment by overlords were frequent themes of Czech peasant folklore.
In this folktale, a farmer's understanding of human nature allows him to count on greed to solve a problem. This tale highlights the value of ingenuity and resourcefulness and encourages success through understanding, patience, and perseverance.
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Rudloph Leopold Nickolos Lazare was known as the most honorable farmer in all of Kalare.
What happened to this farmer could hardly be believed by the good people who knew him.
They talked about how on one day Rudolph Leopold Nickolos Lazare walked into town to see the rich merchant. He wanted a loan of money until the harvest in early fall. He was very poor because the crop was ruined by hail last year.
The poor farmer worried that his wife, Wilhelmina, their baby daughter, Kartrina, and their three sons (who were all named after their father) would soon have to do without the simple pleasures of life.
Just as Rudolph Leopold Nickolos Lazare put his foot upon the steps leading up to the rich man's store, Neighbor Nicknish came running down the steps. He carried a coarsely woven sack upon his shoulders.
"Stop thief! Stop thief!" yelled the merchant from within the store. "Whoever he may be, somebody stop him!"
The farmer looked up to see the fat merchant standing in the doorway.
"Whoever the man may be, stop him!" shouted the merchant in a voice as high as the cry of a hog caller. "I saw him, I tell you! I saw a man run out with my sack of gold coins just as I came back from the wood-shed!"
Rudolph Leopold Nickolos Lazare was about to tell the merchant about Neighbor Nicknish leaving the store when he felt hard hands grab him by the shoulder.
It was Constable Kroc. The constable quickly bound the hands of the farmer with rough rope.
"Come with me to the dungeon," said Constable Kroc. "You will have to stay there until Magistrate Miklic returns to town and can hear your case."
"But I have no case," protested Rudolph Leopold Nickolos Lazare. "I am innocent of any wrongdoing!"
But Constable Kroc kept pushing him toward the dungeon.
"You will wait here," said Constable Kroc, pushing the
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