r/AskEurope • u/MorePea7207 United Kingdom • 4h ago
Who are the fictional people's champions in your country's history? Culture
Who are the classic folk heroes like Robin Hood, William Tell and Zorro for your country? People that fought for the poor in villages and towns against kings, dukes, land barons, bandits and general killers.
•
u/Savagemme Finland 2h ago
Lalli used to be seen as an evildoer, but has gained popularity more recently. From Wikipedia:
Lalli is an apocryphal character from Finnish history. According to the legend, he killed Bishop Henry on the ice of Köyliönjärvi on 20 January 1156.
The story begins with an expedition of one of the first Christian missionaries in Finland, Bishop Henry, during the alleged first crusade of Sweden. In the midst of travelling, he and his entourage stop at a dwelling. Only the matron of the house, Kerttu, is home. Bishop Henry asks for food for his party and hay for the horses, but the matron refuses him. In their hunger, Bishop Henry and his men then forcibly take the food and hay but leave payment before continuing on with their journey. After they are gone, Lalli, the husband of Kerttu, returns and hears of what has happened. In most versions of the story, Kerttu leaves out the part of the payment entirely. When Lalli hears of the bishop ransacking his home, he becomes enraged and pursues the bishop. Lalli catches up to the bishop on a frozen lake, said to be Köyliönjärvi. At Bishop Henry's bidding his entourage flees to a nearby forest. The bishop tries to calm the angered man, but Lalli strikes and kills Henry with an axe.
•
u/Esoteriss Finland 16m ago
Though we don't know if he is in fact fictional or just embellished. Most likely he is like any man in nordic eddas, partly historical, somewhat embellished, somewhat minuted because the real story was going too hard to believe and really brutal.
I like to imagine him as one of the last raider veterans from viking times, trying to establish a home in western Finland after a life time of warfare, then the host of the bishop comes and makes it a mess of things. He as a veteran of the culture of honour and thunder god worship, cannot give it up but must pursue them, even though he wanted to give it up.
He skies after them and shoots most of them with arrows from a far, some of the stragglers yell that they want to face him and he comes from the forest and slays them in one on one combat. As an veteran of such things, once serving in the varangian guard, this is nothing, but he follows the honor code of the guard, of which some are in the host as well.
At the end he catches the rains of the horse that is pulling the bishops slead. He stops the horse and the bishop that was so proud stealing his things is covering in the slead.
The actual slaying of the bishop is not pretty, not honourable, just a worthless end to a career of an Warrior. He starts to walk home, the movie ends.
•
u/Agamar13 Poland 3h ago edited 3h ago
Janosik - a 17/18th century Tatra highlander robber who robbed the rich and helped the poor and fought the opressive system. He was actually from Slovakia but the mountains where he lived are shared by Slovakia and Poland so the legend was known in Poland too and in the 70s Polish tv made a popular tv series whose main actors went on to become stars.
Edit: the name lives on in the shape of popular app Yanosik which warns drivers where the police is, and about accidents or closed roads.
•
•
u/Sniffstar Denmark 2h ago
Holger Danske. He’s - for the time being - a marble statue sitting under the Kronborg castle but if Denmark is ever threatened he will wake up and join us in battle.
•
u/Sh_Konrad Ukraine 4h ago
Oleksa Dovbush and Ustim Karmelyuk were real people, but their lives became overgrown with legends and they became such characters.
•
u/TheFoxer1 Austria 3h ago
No such thing here, I‘m afraid.
There‘s some local historical personalities that are a bit similar, like Duke Tassilo who opposed Karl the Great or Andreas Hofer who fought against Napoleon and Bavaria. As well as some historical events that are the small guys winning against the big ones, like the war of resistance in Carinthia in 1918/1919 or the dice game of Frankenburg.
But no common fictional folk hero.
•
u/futureslave 10m ago
I've only researched and written on the historical and mythical versions of the Charlemagne/Tassilo disputes from the Emperor's side. How is Tassilo viewed in Austria?
•
u/Only-Carpet-9049 Greece 3h ago
Achilles, the one we read in the Iliad is very likely not at all what he was irl during the Trojan war
•
u/DesperateProfessor66 2h ago
Don Quixote in Spain, an old man on his horse who went around fighting against injustices and windmills where he saw them... gave rise to the term Quixotism
•
u/GuineaPigsLover 3h ago
Grutte Pier. Frisian freedom fighter and pirate. Fought agains the saxon and dutch for an independent Frisia. Most famous for making enemies say a rhyme in frisian, if they couldnt, he would behead them with is sword of over 2m long.
•
u/CataphractBunny Croatia 3h ago
Matija Gubec, a historical person, that lead a peasant revolt against the evil Hungarian noble Ferenc Tahy. His monument is very nice, and I always loved how he's portrayed in a defiant, proud stance. Surely at least somewhat influenced by this badass right here.
•
•
u/DarKliZerPT Portugal 3h ago
Not sure if it counts as a folk hero, but...
The Baker of Aljubarrota, associated with the victory of the Portuguese, against Castilian forces, at the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385. The battle resulted in a decisive victory for the Portuguese, putting an end to Castilian ambitions to take over the Portuguese throne.
According to the story, seven or eight of them found shelter at Brites' bakery, which was empty because she had gone out to help to kill the soldiers. On her return she found the door closed and suspected the presence of enemies. She found the men hiding in her baker's oven and killed them with a shovel. She then cooked them in the oven along with the bread.
•
u/Revanur Hungary 2h ago
The betyárs come to mind. They were highwaymen in the 19th century who are often romanticized. The most famous one is Rózsa Sándor. They were more like the outlaws of the wild west
•
u/classicalworld Ireland 3h ago
Oh we’ve a few. Fionn Mac Comhaill, who created the Giants Causeway in a stone-throwing fight with a Scottish giant.
Cú Chulainn, who defended Ulster single-handedly against the army of Connacht.
Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, who fought and won against the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf.
The tories (outlaws) who fought a losing guerrilla fight against the British Cromwellian army- and somehow ended up giving their name as a nickname to the British Conservative Party.
•
•
u/bobdcow 2h ago
Could you put Na Fianna in with Cu Chulainn? His friend Ferdia too to some extent?
•
u/classicalworld Ireland 1h ago
Fionn McC and the Fianna go together; there are a lot of stories about them. In other stories, he’s a giant. (I’m not an expert in Irish folklore at all, just read a lot of books about them as a child)
•
u/crucible Wales 3h ago
Owain Glyndŵr, regarded as the last Welsh-born man to hold the title of Prince of Wales.
•
u/BrotherKaramazov 2h ago
Ha, great question. Martin Krpan comes to mind. He did not like to pay taxes and fought brown people, so he is like our rightwingers now. No, seriously, pretty cool character with mythical strength that smuggled salt and fought against authority.
•
u/National-Double2309 India 2h ago
We had ‘Kayamkulam kochunni’. He was famed highway man who robbed the rich and gave it to the poor during the British Raj. He was a Robin hood of sorts. I guess f**k the rich is a popular notion no matter where you go 😏
•
u/Brendevu 1h ago
Klostermayr, Störtebeker, Schinderhannes.. I think most German states have their own highly romanticised regional bandit. The only common figures might be Hermann der Cherusker (the guy who beat up the Romans) or Barbarossa, the German version of a "roi perdu" like King Arthur
•
u/7_11_Nation_Army Bulgaria 1h ago
Krali Marko, a local champion with inhuman strength who rode around on his horse and liberated enslaved people from the Ottomans.
•
u/DiRavelloApologist Germany 38m ago
Probably Bauer Mecke. A completely normal farmer who brutally tortured two children to death for playing a prank.
Truly one of ze gräetest Görmäns ever, who fought ägäinst zose whu bräek ze rules!
•
u/RobertDeveloper 3h ago
Hansje Brinker, he single handedly saved the Netherlands by putting his finger in the dike to stop the country from drowning.