It is a legend about a trick that a girl called Vlasta played on Ctirad, a hated Czech squire. Ctirad was sent by Přemysl the Ploughman, the ancestor of the Přemyslid dynasty whose members ruled the Lands of the Bohemian Crown from 873 to 1306, to a village called Kopanina to settle some neighbour disputes. While Ctirad and his company were passing through the Šárka forest they heard a woman’s cry. Shortly they found – much to their surprise – a beautiful girl lying on the moss, her hands and feet tied. There were a hunting horn and a mead bottle next to her.
Ctirad freed the girl and asked her to tell him her story: „My father and I went to these woods to hunt today. I kept tracking the game for such a long time that I had lost sight of my father and he had lost sight of me. I took the hunting horn and hooted to call my father. No sooner had I finished hooting than a bunch of armed women charged towards me from the bushes, pulled me down from my saddle and tied me, threatening to bring me to Děvín if I didn’t go voluntarily. When they suddenly heard the voices of you and your company they left quickly with my horse and left me here. Before you bring me to my father, can you, please, let me get some rest? And, please, help yourself to the mead here.“
Little did she have to encourage the men to do what she asked them to do. When they finished the intoxicating drink, Šárka asked Ctirad to hoot the horn. This was a sign for Vlasta, the bad girl, and her companions to rush out of the bushes nearby. The gang killed all the men except Ctirad who was taken to Děvín and, a day later, tortured to death before Přemysl’s very eyes.
A legend has it that Šárka eventually got seized by a pang conscience resulting from her treachearous behaviour in the past and decided to end her life by jumping from the highest hill in the area called Dívčí skok (A Girl’s Jump).
