Longshanks, Girth & Keen

Bohemian fairytale in Parker Fillmore’s translation of Czechoslovak Fairy Tales

This tale grabbed me with its lapidary style and heavy, dark images, and for being resolved not by the ranking prince but commoners with bizarre talents.

The black magician lives in an iron castle where nothing lives and his adversaries have all been turned to stone. The prince and his serving men must overcome seemingly impossible challenges or share the same fate. Each of the eponymous companions has a fabulous and redoubtable ability that  is put to the test. The third and final challenge is surely too much, even for them, yet Longshanks, Keen and Girth combine to do their mostest and the rule of three prevails.

In the critical scene, in images that stamped a stark impression on me, the last of the iron bands around the magician’s waist breaks and falls away, upon which the magician is turned into a black crow and flies away through the window, never to be seen again. Strong stuff.