The Podmanický BrothersBratia Podmanickovci
Every castle keeps one story that outlived its owners. Here it is the brothers Ján and Rafael Podmanický, who held this ridge in the sixteenth century and whom the chronicles remember as the terror of the whole Váh valley.Každý hrad si podrží jeden príbeh, ktorý prežil svojich majiteľov. Tu sú to bratia Ján a Rafael Podmanickovci, ktorí v šestnástom storočí držali tento hrebeň a ktorých kroniky pamätajú ako postrach celej doliny Váhu.
As the histories tell it, the two of them used the castle less as a seat than as a base. From up here they rode out against the neighbouring estates, took what they wanted, and went back up the ridge behind their gates; and when the king's authority was invoked against them, they simply declined to recognise it. It went on long enough to become notorious. In the end they were brought to terms — but not quickly, and, the story implies, not cheaply.Ako to podávajú dejiny, hrad im slúžil menej ako sídlo a viac ako základňa. Odtiaľto vyrážali na susedné panstvá, brali si, čo chceli, a vracali sa hore na hrebeň za svoje brány; a keď sa proti nim odvolávali na kráľovskú moc, jednoducho ju odmietli uznať. Trvalo to dosť dlho na to, aby sa z toho stala povesť. Nakoniec ich priviedli k dohode — ale nie rýchlo a, ako príbeh naznačuje, ani lacno.
The chronicles remember two brothers who treated the whole valley as their own — and a king who took years to persuade them otherwise.Kroniky pamätajú dvoch bratov, ktorí považovali celú dolinu za svoju — a kráľa, ktorému trvalo roky, kým ich presvedčil o opaku.
How much of that is record and how much is reputation is a fair question, and one worth keeping in mind. Sixteenth-century chronicles were rarely neutral about a family that had made enemies of its neighbours. What survives is the story that has come down — and the ridge it was told about, which is still up there, still long, and still perfectly obvious as a place from which two brothers might decide the rules did not apply to them.Koľko z toho je záznam a koľko povesť, je oprávnená otázka a stojí za to mať ju na pamäti. Kroniky šestnásteho storočia bývali málokedy nestranné voči rodu, ktorý si zo susedov urobil nepriateľov. Zachoval sa príbeh, ktorý sa dostal až k nám — a hrebeň, o ktorom sa rozprával, je stále tam hore, stále dlhý a stále celkom zrejmý ako miesto, z ktorého by si dvaja bratia mohli povedať, že pravidlá pre nich neplatia.
