Myth and folktales

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this; e.g. about the water fairies who gather on the river banks, covered in bushes 
and rush. They bath there in clear nights and sing. 
Mermaids teach People to sing
Mermaids come from the sea at eleven in the evening and sing for an hour. 
Woe betide a man who hears them. They sing so beautifully and lure every 
man in the water. A man learned how to sing from mermaids. All the beauti-
ful songs sang in churches and also other beautiful popular songs were made 
by mermaids.
102
 
Slovenian folklore also mentions that the fairies, just like the mermaids, taught 
people how to sing and dance. Just like fairies did, they danced very beautifully, but 
they were also dangerous when they did. Anton von Mailly published a tale about 
the nymphs from the shores of the Lake Bohinj who make a man who comes close to 
them dance with them until dawn when he dies and is left lying on the shore (Mailly/
Matičetov 1989: 81, no. 30). 
Singing and dancing mermaids were known also in other parts of Europe, and 
have origins in antiquity. The sirens sang so beautifully and enchantingly that they 
were dangerous for the sailors. In Greek mythology, a Siren was an enormous bird 
with a head of a woman. With her singing, she lead in ruin sailors who sailed by her 
island near Sicily. Scylla and Charybdis also lure sailors in ruin. In Greek mythology, 
they were initially beautiful nymphs, until the sorceress Circe turned them into a 
monster with six heads. Each of them stood opposite on one side of a narrow channel 
of water and woe betide a man whom they enticed into the cliffs. 
MERMAID DROWNS A MAN
In his book Bisernice, Ivan Šašelj wrote about fairies in Bela Krajina, who liked 
to live at springs, where they were seen how they washed, combed their hair, spun 
thread and played. They were also dangerous for the people passing by. 
a Mermaid (povodna vila) sticks a Piece of Bread out of Water
A man crossed a dam in moonlight in the middle of the night and noticed a 
hand sticking a piece of bread out of water. He got scared and ran away. If he 
took the bread out of the hand, he would be pulled under water because this 
was the hand of a mermaid (Šašelj 1906: 216).
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Collected in Svetinje in Štajerska, published by Freuensfeld 1884: 297–298; Kelemina 1930, no. 146/I.

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In Štajerska, people also believed that the wild women, who lived in some spring, 
often pulled people in its whirlpool. For those who were destined to meet death in 
that spring, it was almost impossible to escape their fate, as is described in the tale, 
recorded by Števan Kühar in Prekmurje (Kühar/Novak, 1988: 179). In it, a man cannot 
escape the hands of unrelenting Fate even if he is killed by a little fish that jumps on 
shore and splashes him with water (Kelemina 1930: 214, no. 149). 
Mermaids who were scorned or laughed at had no mercy for such people and 
they tickled them out of rage until they died, as recounted by people in Prekmurje. 
Woe betide also a man who watched and listened to them in secret or even took away 
their clothes (Majciger 1883). 
RUSALKA
The name rusalka was used for mermaids by South and East Slavs and is rarely 
mentioned in Slovenian folk tradition. Davorin Trstenjak wrote about rusalkas in 
Prekmurje, a region of eastern Slovenia:
rusalke in Prekmurje
[…] Our neighbouring brothers over the river Mur still know some stories 
about rusalka and they still name the Pentecostal Sunday “risalska”, as was 
noted by Števan Kuzmič. They are dressed in green, have green shoes, green 
coat and green hair. Their coat was similar to long underwear, worn in the 
past by women. Ulrich Lichtenstein mentions them in his love song: “Godesche 
ein windisch weiber kleid”. 
According to most tradition, Rusalke lived at the bottom of clear waters, 
they remained forever young and if they took a young man into their homes 
he would remain forever young as well. Whoever laughs at them when they 
comb their green hair at the bank of the river will be punished if they get him 
for they will tickle him until he dies. In the nights, they ride white birds in the 
green mountains, because that is where Beliči, their lovers, who protect pure 
gold, live […] (Trstenjak 1859: 5–6; Kelemina 1930: no.146/II).
Trstenjak makes a connection between the name rusalka and the Pentecostal 
Sunday or the risalska Sunday.
Rusalke, which were among other Slavic people known also as fairies living in 
the forests or in the fields and who bring moisture to the earth, as was believed by 
Russians and Ukrainians, came in the middle of the night next to the rivers, lakes 
and the sea. Thus, the days around Pentecostal Sunday, were by some Slavic people 

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named rusalije. In Prekmurje, risali or risalski svetki were the days of flowers. This 
holiday was connected with vegetal spirits, customs and ceremonials. Etymologists 
interpreted the word rusalije as being derived from the ancient Roman holiday of 
Rosaria. 
THE DEPARTURE OF WATER FAIRIES 
Water fairies joined people as long as nobody insulted them; for example, they left 
as soon as people started to whistle, scream or crack whips and also when shepherds 
started to use whips for their cattle instead of a song or whistling. They also could 
not tolerate tobacco, whistling and screaming (Zupanc 1956: 29–31). 
Janez Majciger wrote about the aquatic maids, who once swam from the river 
Sava into the river Sotla were captured by the water sprite who lived in Veliki Pekel 
(Big Hell) in Sotla.
WATER SPRITES IN RIVER SOTLA
[…] Aquatic maids once swam from the river Sava into the Stola, but when they 
tried to return, the master of Veliki pekel (Big Hell) crossed their way. He chased 
them in his abode and put a large chain on them so they were not able to escape, but 
allowed them to appear on the surface. A lot of people heard their melancholic sing-
ing in the middle of the nights. Malo peklo (Little Hell) is just nearby, and the Škrat 
(Dwarf) lives there (Majciger 1883, no. 26, 27; Kelemina 1930, no. 229/1). 
Water sPrites (PovoDni možje)
The water sprite (povódni móž) was imagined as being large, green and scaly or 
hairy man. People imagined him as being dressed in a green coat and having multi-
coloured trousers, a red hat on his head and either glass or silver shoes on his feet. 
He might appear looking like an old beggar,
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 or even as a young man, a young boy 
or a boy dancing on water. In Pohorje, people imagined him rowing across a lake, 
wearing a belt, which he sometimes puts away on the shore, and the person who got 
the belt became very powerful (Majciger 1883, no. 7).
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Popotnik 4, no 10, 1883: 153–155.

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