The Sleeping Army

A well-known legend says that when Bohemia faces its darkest hour, Brunclík’s miraculous sword will emerge from Charles Bridge in Prague, blaze with fire and turn towards Mount Blaník. With three waves it will summon Duke Wenceslas, said to sleep there with his company. The sword will then descend to the Vltava and vanish for ever with a hiss. In the Blaník region, in Louňovice, Načeradec, Světlá and many other villages, stories were told of local people meeting the knights of Blaník: sometimes a maid served them, at other times a local blacksmith shod their horses. People say that the Slavic prince Stojmír once defended himself here against an unknown tribe. He and his men were killed in fierce fighting, yet their bodies were never found. This supposedly gave rise to the original legend that they were hidden inside the mountain. Later, stories of miracles on the mountain spread across Bohemia and drew many pilgrimages. Even Master Jan Hus spoke against them, regarding them as delusions. In the eighteenth century, amid severe oppression, the legend of the hidden army spread again, now led by Duke Wenceslas. It was said that in Bohemia’s darkest hour, a dead oak on the summit of Velký Blaník would turn green and the dry spring beneath it would give so much water that it flowed down the hillside. The petrified lion on the Calvary at Miličín would then come to life, run to Veřejová skála and roar mightily. The rock would open, the army awaken and ride out to crush its enemies until the waters of the Blanice ran red with blood. According to the Sibyl’s prophecy too, the army would leave Blaník for the decisive battle and drive the enemy as far as Cologne on the Rhine, where it would be destroyed. The army would then disappear there and never return to the mountain. Blaník is the archetype and best-known of the hills said in this country to conceal a sleeping army. With slight variations, the same is told of Boubín, Oškobrh, Turov and Kunětická hora in Bohemia, Hostýn and Čantoryje in Moravia and Silesia, and Sitno in Slovakia.