Reading Notes: Czech Stories, Part A

 Notes for The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis

"The Three Roses"

• Mother 
• Has three daughters 
• Goes to a market in the next town and asks daughters what they want from it 
• First and second daughter 
• Want tons of stuff from the market 
• All the stuff costs money 
• Third daughter 
• Says she doesn't need anything 
• Three roses would be nice 
• Mother is willing to bring more if she wants 
• Mother's trip to the market 
• Buys everything 
• Gets lost on the way home at night 
• Reaches a palace 
• Palace
• Has a garden of beautiful roses 
• Mother takes roses from the garden 
• A basilisk comes out of the garden and demands the daughter in exchange for the roses 
• Threatens to tear the mother apart 
• Third daughter goes to the palace 
• Does not seem upset 
• Basilisk says the daughter has to "nurse him in her lap for three hours every day" 
• Mary does this two days in a row 
• Third day 
• Basilisk brings a sword and tells Mary to cut his head off 
• She protests 
• He says he will tear her to pieces if she doesn't 
• She cuts his head off and a serpent comes out of the body 
• She cuts his head off too 
• Serpent body changes to a man 
• "This castle belongs to me, and, as you have delivered me, there is no help for it: I must marry you."
• They get married 

An Aesculapian serpent and rattlesnake with sections of it from the Wellcome Collection Gallery (source: Wikimedia). 

"The Man Who Met Misery"

• Man 
• So rich he "oozes gold"
• Has a son 
• Son 
• Spends money like crazy 
• Is told that there is misery in the world 
• "Well, I'm sick of staying at home, so I'll go out into the world to see if I can meet Misery."
• Father wants him to experience the world 
• Spends all his money and starts to have less fun 
• People still helped him when they heard his name/his father's name 
• Travels to a foreign desert country 
• Gets hungry and thirsty 
• Can't find water 
• Sees a hole with a flight of stairs 
• Finds a big man lying on a table 
• Human bones lie about him 
• Son stabs ogre in the eyes 
• Ogre tries to find him and throws a ring at him that talks when the son puts it on his finger 
• Son can't remove ring 
• Ogre rips his finger off 
• Son makes it out alive and tells his father that he met misery 
• "Indeed I did. I know what it is now. It gave me a nice run for it. It's an awful thing, and there's no joking with it."