The seventh-century story of Šárka is a myth from Bohemia. During the end 19th century it was popularised by novelist Alois Jirásek under the name Wenches' War.

Šárka is a beautiful maiden who, furious at the infidelity of her lover, swears vengeance against all the men of the world. When a band of armed men led by Ctirad is dispatched into the forest to capture Šárka and her followers, Šárka puts a horn of mead in a clearing and ties herself to a nearby tree so that she can claim the rebel maidens tied her there and put the mead out of reach to mock her. Ctirad believes her story, falls in love with her, and unties her from the tree, whereupon she pours the mead for the men as a celebratory thank-you gift. Little do the men know that Šárka and the maidens have put a sleeping potion into the mead. When all the men have fallen asleep, Šárka blows a horn as a signal for the rebel maidens to come out of there hiding places and join her in slaughtering the men.

In 1879, Bedřich Smetana turned Šárka's story into the third of a set of programmatic symphonic poems under the collective title Má vlast (My Homeland). Leoš Janáček finished drafting an opera of the same name in 1887.