How was Jánošík caught? The Peas of Klenovec

A tavern in the mountains, on a winter evening. At the table sits a man the whole country is hunting. No weapon can ever wound him. For he wears a belt in which all his strength resides.

Then an old woman steps up, a sack in her hand. She pours peas onto the floor, right under his feet. He leaps to his feet, slips and falls. And before he is back on his feet, he is overpowered.

That, the song tells us, is how Juraj Jánošík was caught. A story that every child in Slovakia knows. Of all the stories about Jánošík, this may be the best known. It is older than any book about him.

And unlike the magic belt, it is not impossible. Because Jánošík really was caught. The only question is: how? This film sets the song beside the records and looks for what in it might be true.

The trail begins with a song from the eighteenth century. Its title: “Píseň o Jánošíkovi, zbojníkovi”, the song of Jánošík, the robber. A manuscript of such songs was found by the literary historian Ján Vilikovský in the Tranoscius library in Liptovský Mikuláš. When it was written is disputed: some time between 1761 and the 1790s.

All that is certain is that the song is older than its first printing in 1809. And the peas are already there in this early song. Together with a second motif: betrayal by his closest friend. The song even names the culprits: it was “the Germans”, it says, who caught Jánošík.

So the story is almost as old as the memory of the man himself. But why peas, of all things? The answer lies in the belt. In the folk tale, fairies, witches or a talking snake give the young Jánošík three gifts: a shirt, a valaška and a belt.

Sewn into the belt is a magic herb that makes him invulnerable. Hence the folk formula: “Rúbte mu do pása, tam je jeho spása. ” Strike him at the belt, there lies his salvation. A hero like that is not defeated in open combat.

It takes a trick. In many versions, a sweetheart or a traitor first takes away his belt or hides his valaška. Only then come the peas. The motif travelled down the centuries.

The poet Jonáš Záborský took it up. In 1894, Alois Jirásek wrote in his “Old Czech Legends”: “Podsypali mu pod nohy hrachu. ” They strewed peas under his feet. In Martin Frič's 1935 film, the old woman laughs with glee as she does it.

But where all this happened, the storytellers cannot agree. One tradition places the arrest in Valaská Dubová. The literature on the records names another place. Autumn 1711.

Around Michaelmas, young Juraj Jánošík from Terchová swears the outlaws' oath and joins the band of Tomáš Uhorčík. Uhorčík is some fourteen years older and has been robbing for years. Before winter he marries the daughter of Stoliga, a shepherd from Jablunkov. Then he vanishes far to the south, to Klenovec in Malohont County.

There he lives under a false name: Martin Mravec. Leadership of the band passes to Jánošík. The sentence later calls him “vúdcem aneb hajtmanem”, leader or captain. His men attack merchants, nobles, clergymen and travellers.

And again and again, his path leads to Klenovec. Klenovec becomes a base. According to Uhorčík's later testimony, Jánošík gives or lends people in the village eight and ten gold coins. In the winter of 1712 he hides for three weeks with the farmer Ondrej Kovalčík in neighbouring Kokava.

Whoever shelters a robber shares his guilt. And whoever knows of him can betray him. A network of friends is always a network of possible witnesses, too. In autumn 1712 the network tears for the first time.

After a robbery of merchants from Banská Bystrica, Jánošík and “Mravec” are arrested in Klenovec. They are taken to the manor house at Hrachovo, where the county holds its proceedings. The Slovak Wikipedia gives the date as 26 October 1712. But the two are able to prove that they took no part in that robbery.

The deputy county head of Malohont, Pavol Láni, speaks up for them. They are released. As thanks, they are said to have sent the county gentlemen fox furs and cheeses. Later, the legend turns this into a daring escape.

What the sources describe is a release. The second time, no one speaks up for him. This time the hunt comes from Liptov. The search is organised under Emerich Kubínyi.

Some twenty-five to thirty armed men set out, led by the nobleman Andreánsky. So says the Slovak Wikipedia, drawing on the researchers Melicherčík and Antolová. Their target is not a tavern. It is the house of Tomáš Uhorčík in Klenovec.

There, the haiduks of Liptov County seize the outlaw captain Jánošík. The date is disputed. The historian Miroslav Nemec dates the arrest to the turn of the year 1712 to 1713. The municipality of Klenovec and the historian Diana Duchoňová give early March 1713.

And how exactly did it happen? To that, there is a surprising answer. As early as 1929, the historian Ivan Houdek observed: “How and where it happened, the court records do not mention at all. ” “In this we depend on tradition alone.

” That is exactly the gap the peas fall into. So what in the legend could be true? Let us begin with the betrayal. A robber living in hiding under a false name is not found by chance.

And thirty armed men from Liptov do not march into another county at random. Someone must have known where to find Jánošík. Some accounts put forward names. The executed robber Mikuláš Šustek, or Turiak, called Huncaga, a companion from the band.

Neither of them is documented as a traitor. In the songs, the role of Judas usually goes to someone else: Gajdošík. And Jánošík of all people had sworn never to betray his companions, in fortune or misfortune. Let us set song and record side by side.

The arrest itself: documented. The place: according to most of the literature, Klenovec, Uhorčík's house, not a tavern. A superior force of armed men: handed down and plausible. Betrayal: possible, but not proven.

The magic belt: a fairy tale. And the old woman with the peas? For her, there is not a single source. Yet the image is not entirely wrong.

The peas tell what the records leave out: that a strong man fell not through force, but through a trick. At the time of the trial, both are in custody: Jánošík and the man who calls himself Martin Mravec. On 16 and 17 March 1713, Jánošík stands before the Liptov county court in Svätý Mikuláš. Asked about his old captain, he says: Uhorčík died in the Kremnica Mountains.

Yet at that very time, “Mravec” is held in the same custody. Whether from loyalty to the oath or calculation, no source says. Under torture, he names a hiding place for the loot: a beech beside a fir, on the way from Jablonka to Klenovec. Once again, the trail leads to Klenovec.

The sentence of 17 March: to be hung on a hook through the left side. Martin Mravec's cover does not hold. Uhorčík is unmasked and brought before the Liptov court himself. According to the historian Marián Liščák, he is broken on the wheel on 21 April 1713.

On 24 May 1713, the manorial court of Teplička nad Váhom has Martin Hatala of Klenovec beheaded, together with Ján Mikulčík of Poland. Their offence: they had associated with Jánošík and Uhorčík. The Klenovec network is smashed. That leaves the question of why the peas, of all things, won out.

The British historian Eric Hobsbawm described how people see their noble robbers. As the victim of an injustice, as someone who takes from the rich. And as someone who, in the end, falls through betrayal. A hero simply overpowered by thirty armed men does not fit this picture.

A hero brought down only by a trick does. So the song fills the gap the records leave: with a sack full of peas. In Klenovec, the spot where Uhorčík's house stood is still called “Mravcov vŕšok”, Mravec Hill. The trial records are kept in the State Archive in Bytča, in the protocol volume of Liptov County, pages 563 to 567.

About the arrest, they say nothing. And so, in Slovakia, people still tell both stories today. The story of the house on the hill. And the one about the old woman with the sack of peas.