The folk lore of Eastern Europe is rich with magic and fanciful characters. It is on these things that I write. My world of Hadariah is populated with the skillful and helpful shretelech, the mischievous horse loving kapelyushniklech, the bridge guarding lantech, talking animals. witches, sages, giants, golems, and dybbuks.
While not all of these are in The Strings of the Violin, we will meet many more of them throughout the novels that are in the works and take place in Hadariah. I find it a sad thing that if I were to speak about most of these beings, people would not know what I was talking about. Golems and dybbuks are better known than most, thanks in part to a fairly popular X-Files episode entitled "Kaddish", and dybbuks were brought back with the recent horror film The Unborn starring Gary Oldman as a rabbi. I love the stories and lessons contained therein that came from such countries as Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the magic and superstitions that are peppered throughout are fascinating to me.
I remember being told things like "Don't have the foot of the bed face a doorway or the dybbuks will steal your soul in the night." "Don't put shoes on the table or you will invite the dybbuks into your home." "Sew red thread into your clothes to ward off evil." If I did anything good, or worthy of praise, my bubbie would spit three times to keep bad thoughts and evil at bay. She would tell me stories of how certain people in the towns where she grew up would believe in these characters. I learned of the Golem of Prague, of Asmodeus and his dealings with poor and rich alike.
I want to give these stories a new life and bring these creatures and characters to a new generation of readers. I do not hope to reinvent the wheel, rather what I write is out of love for my background and of where my family came from. I hope you get that from my stories.
While not all of these are in The Strings of the Violin, we will meet many more of them throughout the novels that are in the works and take place in Hadariah. I find it a sad thing that if I were to speak about most of these beings, people would not know what I was talking about. Golems and dybbuks are better known than most, thanks in part to a fairly popular X-Files episode entitled "Kaddish", and dybbuks were brought back with the recent horror film The Unborn starring Gary Oldman as a rabbi. I love the stories and lessons contained therein that came from such countries as Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the magic and superstitions that are peppered throughout are fascinating to me.
I remember being told things like "Don't have the foot of the bed face a doorway or the dybbuks will steal your soul in the night." "Don't put shoes on the table or you will invite the dybbuks into your home." "Sew red thread into your clothes to ward off evil." If I did anything good, or worthy of praise, my bubbie would spit three times to keep bad thoughts and evil at bay. She would tell me stories of how certain people in the towns where she grew up would believe in these characters. I learned of the Golem of Prague, of Asmodeus and his dealings with poor and rich alike.
I want to give these stories a new life and bring these creatures and characters to a new generation of readers. I do not hope to reinvent the wheel, rather what I write is out of love for my background and of where my family came from. I hope you get that from my stories.
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