BasCelik
BasCelik , also transcribed Bash Tchelik ( Serbian for "real steel"), is the important villain of his own eponymous story, similar to the " crystal ball " of the Brothers Grimm ( Aarne-Thompson index 552A), where he lives his soul in a crystal mountain, hidden in an egg, a bird and a fox. He kidnaps the wife of the hero of the story and forces her to work as his slave.
BasCelik was an old man who was chained to a wall; but when the hero granted his request for water, he became extremely powerful, tore his chains from the wall and unfolded huge wings. He fled immediately and took the hero's wife prisoner, since she was the daughter of the king who had held him prisoner. The husband was only able to defeat BasCelik thanks to the favor of his brother-in-law, the animal kings.
In fact, bash-chelik is a Turkish word and means "iron head". Bash-Chelik is also the name of the first Serbian board game based on the same folk tale as well as Slavic mythology .
Trivia
- Bash Tchelik appears in the Monster in My Pocket series.
swell
- Woislav Petrovitch . Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians . Harrap, 1917.
- Alan Garner . The Hamish Hamilton Book of Goblins . Hamilton, 1969.