We Three Brothers

This book combines the traditional Slavic tale “We Three Brothers” by Karel Jaromír Erben with illustrative photographs and drawings by Jan Jedlička. The story is just one of dozens collected and retold by Czech folklorist and poet Erben (1811–70) and is a cautionary tale of three young brothers, sons of a peasant who leave home to find their way in the world, only to meet a mysterious man with a limp who seals their unfortunate fates. Jedlička visualizes the story in muted black-and-white images of a landscape of empty hills and rocky outcrops through which we imagine the brothers traveling. These he complements with more whimsical drawings of the characters of the tale: the brothers and their father, the limping man, a peddler and magistrate. The result is an unconventional modernization of a little-known tale, whose charm and moral still have an uncanny resonance today.