Hlučín region, Upper Silesia, oral tradition, demonological folk tale, devil, water-sprite,

Hlučínsko patří do jednoho z multikulturních regionů centrální oblasti Evropy. Na sběr ústní lidové slovesnosti tradované v německém jazyce se zaměřila řada autorů, kteří přicházeli z území Horního Slezska. V démonologických pověstech nejčastěji vystupují vodníci a čerti. Podle předem stanoveného schématu lze srovnáním jejich charakteristik zjistit možnost vlivu polské lidové ústní slovesnosti na německou z Hlučínska, která je součástí sbírek ústní lidové slovesnosti z oblasti Pruska, tedy i oblasti dnešního Polska.

The region of Hlučín is one of the multicultural regions in the central Europe. A lot of authors have been focusing on collecting oral tradition features passed down in the German language, these people came from Upper Silesia. Based on a corpus analysis, it is possible to say that the main part of collections is formed by local, historical, and demonological folk tales. In the latter, mostly water sprites and devils are to be found. By means of an analysis of the selected sources, it is possible to create profiles of both of those characters. These are, later on, compared with typical features of the water sprite / ?water-drowner? and the devil from the Polish corpus included folk tales. Because of the preselected scheme, it is possible to trace the influence of the Polish oral tradition on the German one by means of a comparison of their characteristic traits. The German oral tradition is a part of oral tradition collections from Prussia, which includes features from area of today?s Poland as well.