Reading room

Features

Long-form texts on the nature, history and folklore of the Shatsk lake district. Every feature is connected to reference profiles and provides its sources.

Folklore · 9 texts

Legends of Svitiaz

The complete corpus of tales recorded from local villagers by Pavlo Tutkovskyi and published in 1901.

How Svitiaz and its island came to be

A folk tale about an old traveller, herdsmen, water bursting from beneath a stone and the trees on the island of Svitiaz.

Read the legend →02

The drowned man’s treasure beneath the stove

A Svitiaz tale about a restless new house, a bear, a voice from the water and money hidden beneath a stove.

Read the legend →03

Six roubles on Tatarska Hill

A tale of a strange glow, enchanted money and three treasure seekers near Svitiaz.

Read the legend →04

The chest of gold coins

A Svitiaz legend about a child, gold coins and a chest that closed itself and drifted into the open lake.

Read the legend →05

The iron cauldron of gold in Luka Bay

A tale about boys, a cauldron filled with coins and a treasure that disappeared forever in a bay of Svitiaz.

Read the legend →06

The cholera that never returned to Svitiaz

A folk tale about an unknown lady, a dangerous crossing and her promise never to return to Svitiaz.

Read the legend →07

A bell for the church or the tavern

A Svitiaz tale about a great bell caught in a fishing seine and the dispute that sent it back into the water.

Read the legend →08

The bell that fell through the ice

A winter version of the Svitiaz bell legend: a discovery, a quarrel on the ice and a muffled toll beneath the water.

Read the legend →09

The catfish without end or measure

An old Svitiaz fisherman’s tall tale about a gigantic catfish that seized a man by the leg.

Read the legend →