and there’s an oak, still small, in which a white dove’s sitting In Slavic folktales and songs the soul of a person who has died without any guilt or has been cleansed of guilt most often appears as a white dove, and the dove as stand-in for the soul takes on a darker hue commensurate with the degree of guilt found in the deceased, or even takes the form of another type of bird until ultimately the criminal soul metamorphoses into a raven.
zahor’s bed This legend is known in Bohemia, Poland, and Lusatia. The Czech name Záhofi becomes Madej in Polish folktales and Lipskulijan in Sorbian. The content and story line of this tale have their origins in early Christianity. “Into the infernal iron maiden with him!” The Czech chroniclers give accounts of a certain instrument of death known as an iron maiden, employed for noblemen sentenced to death for their crimes yet whom the courts did not want to deliver into the hands of the executioner. One such iron maiden stood in a chamber of the White Tower in Prague. But in that instant, high above him, two white doves are hovering; See the previous note to “The Dove.”
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