[en] National (and not only) myths

[Traveller]

Continuing a line of thoughts from a discussion with Elvain in the Bulgarian thread, I came to ask myself "What are our national (Bulgarian) myths? And what are the foreign myths like?" So I ask you the same - what do you think about your nation's or about some other myths? No matter if they're history myths, urban legends or just mythology. In all cases, the basis is the same - a grain of truth and a whole load of "cosmetics". If you know some interesting examples or have thought about this and want to say it to the others - go ahead! :go:

[Angryminer]

A german myth that was popular during the late centuries of the holy roman empire was that the Emperor of the HRE Friedrich I.,Barbarossa, slept under a mountain in the middle of what was supposed to later become germany (versions alter about the location) together with the army he had with him when he went on the crusade where he died. The myth said he would awake when the holy roman empire would need him and he would then strenghten the empire and end all the small conflicts within it's borders.

Angryminer

[Xuca]

We already vrote about Marko Kraljevic, and I also wrote about one of my favourite subjects, Chetniks and Partizans, but those things aren't too well known in other countries...

There is an opinion that all Slavs were once called Serbs, and that only Serbs and Sorbs kept that name. Not likely, though.

[Traveller]

What about some myths not as legends? F.e. Elvain "accused" us in the BG thread of forging history myths about our greatness, which only make us "too confident". He also raised f.e. the myth that Cyril and Methodius made their alphabet because of the Moravian Prince Rastislav. :tongue:

[Elvain]

hehe..

We have no such myths :biggrin:

well there was one really nice myth that WE were the nation which had the first slavic state Ever and it was so called Samo's
that there was a merchant from Frankish empire who came to unite all slavs in "Czechoslovakia" against Avars in the 7th century.
But objective historiography said that his empire:
1) wasn't a state because:
a) didn't survive it's founder
b) was just defensive "confederation" of slavic tribes against comon enemy
2) covered only Slovakia and maybe parts of Hungary, Austria and south Moravia

also we have very similar legend the Germans have.
It is said that Saint Venceslas (the patron of Bohemia) has an army inside mount of Blaník and when the state will be in danger, he will call his men to defend it (men from 3 big lost battles: Marchfeld 1258, Lipany 1435 and White Mountain/Bílá Hora in 1620). The formula is when the worse comes worst St. Venceslas' army will come.
But with our typical ireony people say, it's never that bad it couldn't be even worse, so this "national army" will always wait :lol:

[Traveller]

Haha! Btw, when I was at some holidays in one Rhodopean village several years ago, I heard some funny legend too. Because near that village there's a very funny hill-like thing (it looked to me pretty much like a cartoon whale actually). And the legend is that this is actually the mound (wow, huge mound, it was at least 300 m. high) of some old Thracian king (or Roman emperor?), filled with treasures. And in order to open it, two twin-girls, dressedin white shirts, should put a team of twin-oxen to a golden plough and plough that hill. :pleased:
One history myth of ours is that we were the first to use airplanes for combat by "bombing" the Turks at Edirne with hand-grenades in 1913. Actually, we were perhaps the second, but the first were the Italians an year or two ago, in Africa, again against the Turks. Maybe their case didn't get so famous though and that's why this myth came to existence (that's logical (for the drawing of attention) - our victory at Edirne was a great surprise in Europe, while in the Italian case it was just some small battle, IIRC)...

[Traveller]

I guess there aren't many myths abroad, huh? Ok, then I'll tell you a funny thing I've heard some time ago - that some people (last thing I heard are that some Americans are coming as well) are searching for the tomb of Bast(et), an Egyptian goddess, somewhere in the Strandzha mountain, in Bulgaria. Now that's a funny myth, aye? I understand f.e. Richard Ballard, trying to find Noah's Ark in the Black Sea (and instead of that - finding very ancient settlements there), but the tomb of an Egyptian goddess, in Bulgaria?!