100 Best Original Legends About Belarus

For 15 years, I have dedicated my life to gathering materials for my original project, "250 Unique Tourist Routes Through My Belarus." I have taken about a million photographs of architectural monuments that form our country’s national heritage. For approximately 10 years, this material was published in periodicals. I have begun publishing the project in a 21-volume book series. Based on the collected materials, new independent projects have emerged, such as "Our Ruins," "Silhouettes of Heritage," "Biyaskontsa charoŭnaya Belarus" (Endlessly Charming Belarus), "Legends of My Travels," "Random Snapshot," "Texture of Time," and others.

In this book, I offer the reader a selection of my original legends. I will try to anticipate and answer in advance your perhaps most important question—regarding the authorship of my legends. You must agree that any existing legend, from one that is widely popular to one known only within a small circle of family and friends, once had an author for that "tale of deep antiquity." Time passed, and unfortunately, the author was forgotten... but the legend itself remained.

Traveling through our country, I was endlessly enchanted by its preserved architectural splendor, the diversity and picturesqueness of our fatherland’s natural treasures, and the creativity, skill, intelligence, ingenuity, and talent of its people. All of this sank deep into my soul, sometimes even giving rise to fictional continuations of what I had seen. It did not matter what it was—a huge stone, a beautiful stream, an old oak tree, or even a leaning shack, an abandoned road, a pond, or even a swamp, or the impressions from talking with dear grandmothers and grandfathers...

Thus, little by little, from small notes in my travel journal, these short stories and legends took shape. Some have been finalized, while others still remain in draft form.

The only connection my original legends have is to a specific area of our dear countryside, which I feel it is not even necessary to name, so as not to offend a neighboring area that might otherwise go unmentioned.

In conclusion, I would like to say to our dear reader: do not miss any opportunity to travel, to be a discoverer of the new, of that which has hitherto been unknown to you. You are, in a sense, a researcher of the past, an observer of the present, and a conduit for your feelings and emotions for the day to come. Be bold, my friends!