The legend about Janosik
Once upon a time (for those who want to be exact: in the 15th century)...

... a boy was born in a family of a poor peasant. His mother and father called him Juro and his surname was Janosik. Three weird sisters predicted his birth and brought him a belt that gave him enourmous power. There was only one little hitch in it, he had to wear it all the time, he was not allowed to put it down.

Juro Janosik - the Slovak Robin Hood

So the boy grew up soon to a beautiful young man (We dont have to say that all the village girls were his fanclub) and his parents became old. But being old in Janosik’s time wasn’t easy. There weren’t social guarantees from the state, no chance to retire when you are really tired.
 

And because Janosik’s father was really old and worked really slowly, the king’s cruel guards decided to punish him. They were beating him so long until he died. And the poor teenage Juro hadn’t any support on his way to be a man.

So he joined the company of eleven young boys to practise real social democracy. That meant stealing from the rich ones and giving it to the poorer ones. The kings guards were always trying to catch him but they never succeded. And if it happened he was strong enough to beat them (because of his enourmous power stored in his belt, and maybe because of his charisma).
But one evening he came to the village after two weeks in a forest and as you can imagine, he was really hungry. He ate and ate and ate (and maybe drank some beer) and his belt became so uncomfortable he had to take it off and put it on the table. Unfortunately, he did not notice the old ugly evil woman watching him all the time. This woman was present at his birth and knew the secret of the belt. She called the guards and when Janosik tried to escape them, this ugly woman threw a bowl full of peas under his legs. Because he had forgotten his belt on the table he was not strong enough to escape so many guards.
That’s why they caught him and hung him on the hook. As you can see it was a national way of hanging people in those times. And that was the end of the biggest slovak national hero ever, called Juraj Janosik. ... and the bell rang on the branch and so the story came to its end.



Samo Sulik
Tereza Tartarkova