"The Maidens' War" is a tale in Bohemian tradition about an uprising of women against men. It first appeared in the twelfth-century Chronica Boëmorum of Cosmas of Prague, and later in the fourteenth-century Dalimil's Chronicle.
Contents
Tale
Following the death of Libuše, Vlasta leads a band of women against the male forces of Libuše's widower, Přemysl. Šárka, Vlasta's lieutenant, entraps a band of armed men led by Ctirad by tying herself to a tree and claiming that the rebel maidens tied her there and put a horn and a jug of mead out of reach to mock her. Ctirad believes her story and unties her from the tree, whereupon she pours the mead for the men as a celebratory thank you gift. Little do the men know that Šárka and the maidens have put a sleeping potion into the mead. When all the men have fallen asleep, Šárka blows the horn as a signal for the rebel maidens to come out of their hiding places and join her in slaughtering the men. She is captured and defeated along with the rest of the army soon afterward.
Depictions
Bedřich Smetana depicted the Maiden's War in Šárka, which is also part of his collection of symphonic poems, Má vlast. František Ringo Čech wrote a play entitled Maidens' War in 1985. The story is also depicted in the 2009 film The Pagan Queen by Constantin Werner.