Rade Vujisic

As much as one wanted to and made efforts he never succeeded to realize all he had planned. Since I was little, while sitting in my mother’s lap, I have heard myriad wonderful stories, legends, anecdotes and other tales. Some of them made me laugh, others seamed utterly scary and gave me creeps, and the more I listened to them the more I wanted to remember them, write them down and save form oblivion. That is the reason why I felt special respect to those who recited well these popular stories. These stories were recited and carried through generations, from one to another, for centuries. Love, hate, sadness, joy, power, weakness, faith, suspicions, fear, bravery, wisdom and confidence were expressed through them ; in one word they pictured an entire life. That is why, long time ago, I started writing what I have heard. I did it for more than three decades. I never forgot to put down on paper a story or a legend I just heard. I especially liked spending time with elder people because they had keys to this treasure, from them I heard lots of these tales which mainly were born at the country side, during long winter nights, next to the fire, among shepherds where many wise men and story tellers gathered. Many of these notable persons helped me and it is not possible to mention everyone and say thank you because it would be a very long list of names, and in order not to forget someone in this manner I will express to all of them my gratitude for giving me the treasure that I have placed into this book.

I hope that no one will mind for making an exception towards my mother Bojana who actually gave me most of these tales that I have preserved. From her I heard stories about dragons, fairies, werewolves, witches, Honey harvest field and Fairy’s spring, spells and curses, evil people, bad marriage and mean neighbors and who knows what else! My mother heard many of these stories during eight and a half decades of her honorable life. I was listening to her and soaking all of them in. The last story she told me just before she died was “ Seven gems” . I know that I did not really do much in preserving this treasure and that my work is just a small drop in the sea, but at least these tales will not be forgotten as myriad of those that were lost and perished with people that knew them. Dare I repeat the saying ” A sparrow in the hand is better than a pigeon on the roof “. I hope people will forgive me for being sparse and giving only a dozen of these tale and legend titles for that is all I could write for now. I hope to expand this list with some more titles in the future. The fact is that I did not succeed in fulfilling my dream. I still owe it to myself.