Ballad of Blaník (Czech: Balada Blanická), originally titled The Knights of Blaník (Czech: Blaničtí rytíři), is a symphonic poem composed in 1920 by Leoš Janáček, based on a text by Jaroslav Vrchlický.
[2] Janáček used as his source text a narrative poem by Jaroslav Vrchlický, from his Peasant Ballads (Czech: Selské balady), which is based on a Czech legend about a small army sleeping in the mountain of Blaník.
[3] Other Czech composers had previously been inspired by this legend, including Bedřich Smetana, who concluded his Má vlast set of symphonic poems with a piece named 'Blaník', and Zdeněk Fibich, who composed an opera with the same title.
According to the original legend, the army will awake and kill enemies of the Czechs in a time of trouble.
In Vrchlický's utopian version of the tale, the army remains asleep because weapons have been eradicated.