Pavol Dobšinský (16 March 1828 – 22 October 1885) was a Slovak collector of

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

and writer belonging to the period of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

and the Štúr generation. He is perhaps best known for creating the largest and most complete collection of Slovak folktales, ''Prostonárodnie slovenské povesti'' ('' Simple National Slovak Tales''), self-published in a series of eight books from 1880 to 1883.

Works

The focus of most of his work was on

. He first published a collection of Slovak tales in ''Slovenské povesti'' (''Slovak Tales'') from 1858 to 1861 in 6 volumes, with a total of 64 stories. He followed this up with ''Prostonárodnie obyčaje, povery a hry slovenské'' (''Simple National Slovak Customs, Superstitions, and Plays'') in 1880, just five years before his death. In that same year, he also started publishing a series of volumes at his own expense of a more complete and larger collection of Slovak folktales, ''Prostonárodnie slovenské povesti'' ('' Simple National Slovak Tales''). He would continue publishing more volumes of this work until 1883, bringing the total up to 90 stories in 8 volumes. As most of the folk and fairy tales were originally intended for an adult audience, Dobšinský had to edit out much brutality, eroticism and juicy humor, thus making them suitable for children and simultaneously helping them to be more popular. These works are still considered to be essential and representative collections of Slovak folklore, while they have been rewritten a number of times, too, and they have also been published in more than twenty-one countries. To this day, they remain one of the most popular Slovak books ever written.

Works online

* DOBŠINSKÝ, P., ŠKULTÉTY, A. H.br>''Slovenské povesti Kniha 1. Povesti prastarých báječných časov.''
Rožňava: .n. 1858. 401 p. - available at ULB´s Digital Library

Works

Works online

Further reading