Myth and folktales

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The povodni mož was believed to live in an underwater castle and was superior 
to all other water animals and also water fairies or mermaids. The fairy tales describe 
this castle as a wonderful palace, full of jewels, with halls illuminated by golden fish. 
Around the castle grew bush that had the miraculous flower of immortality.
104
 
Water sprites in Slovenian folklore are related to Poseidon of antiquity or the Roman 
Neptune, god of water and the sea, who was like Zeus and Hades the son of Cronus. 
In Slovenia and its outskirts, he was also named povodnják, jézernik, vodéni 
človek, vodnár, vodovnik, vódni mož, muk, gastrin, selémsonar, motovílec, mitál, 
váncaš and mámalić. 
Janez Majciger wrote extensively about the water sprite in 1883 in his article 
“Water and its Power in the Imagination of Slovenians in Štajerska” in which he 
gathered a large collection of folklore about water sprites living in numerous Štajerska 
waters. Various tales describe the water sprites living in the rivers Drava, Sava, 
Mura, Krka, Kolpa, Sotla, Soča, and in the streams Ižica and Rašica, springs such as 
the Obirski stream, and lakes in Bled, Bohinj, the 
Wörthersee 
and Lake Cerknica 
(Kelemina 1930: 295, no.215). It could be said that the imagination of the people 
provided stories about water sprites living in every stream and in every pond.
THE WATER SPRITE MOVES HIS LAKE
Numerous folktales describe the water sprite moving from one lake into the other, 
usually due to people behaving in a certain way, for example if they are stingy, if they 
throw stones in the lake, curse, whistle, crack whips or ring with bells. 
Thus, the Water Sprite was said to move from where the River Paka meets the 
River Savinja, the same as the Water Sprite from the pond near the church of St. John 
above Maribor, who travelled through the river Drava to Črno Jezero (Black Lake) 
at Planinka in Pohorje.
105
People used to tell also this story about the water sprite in the lake on the high-
land Pohorje:
The Water sprite from uršlja Gora in koroška Moves to Pohorje
There was once a lake on the mountain Uršlja Gora, and you can still see 
where it was. A Water Sprite lived in it. He helped people who were hard-
working and honest. […] There is a hill behind Šmohorica and through it you 
come to a cave. When a church was built on Uršlja Gora, where people from 
the Podjun Valley went on pilgrimage between Assumption and the Nativity 
104 
Vrtec 14, no. 2, (1. 2. 1884).
105 
F. P., Črno jezero na Planinki. Popotnik IV, no. 10 (25. 5. 1883), 153–155.

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of our Lady, the Water Sprite no longer wanted to live there. Thus he moved 
the lake on Pohorje with the help of his oxen. He also took some maidservant 
with him and made her his wife. When she escaped and never returned, he 
killed the child they had.
When dark clouds gather above this lake, bubbles form on its surface, as if 
the water wanted to boil. The Water Sprite is the one who is doing this.
106
 
The story published in the journal Popotnik (1885) also describes the Water Sprite 
emptying the lake and leaving the area for St. Ursula.
107
 
Some other tales explained that the Water Sprite left the cliffs of Šmohorca at 
the ridge of St. Ursula because of the noise made by the railroad and the drivers who 
cursed on their way.
108
 
The Water Sprite moved around together with the lake with the help of the 
farmer’s ox-driven wagon and left a bag of gold hanging on the ox’s horn. This motif 
appears often in the stories about the 
Water Sprite, but he often leaves dif-
ferent payment. Occasionally he fills 
an ox’s horn with gold, and more often 
pays with charcoal, nails or scales,
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which turn into gold in morning light, 
but only when people follow his instruc-
tions. Some were left empty-handed due 
to being impatient. 
CATCHING THE WATER SPRITE
People used to set food, wine and 
boots covered in resin in order to catch 
the Water Spirit. This is very similar 
to folktales about how people tried to 
catch the wild men. In one such tale, 
the Water Sprite lives in the lake on the 
Uršlja Gora hill and helps hard-working 
106 
Mir 11, no. 24, (30. 8. 1892), 103–104.
107 
Popotnik 1885, 139; compare also: Hans von der Sann, Wie der Bachersee entstanden ist. Sagen aus 
der grünen Mark. Graz 1912 (2. Ed.), 130–133.
108 
Mir 37, no. 18 (3. 5. 1918), 95–96. 
109 
Vrtec 20, no.12, 1890: 197–198.
The Water Sprite, Gvidon Birolla 
(Möderndorfer 1957)

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and honest people. One day, he is caught and kept locked for some time. When he 
finally escapes he yells to the people: “You caught a bird, but you did not know how 
to use it!” People thought that he may have been talking about the treasures hidden 
in the Uršlja Gora.
110
 
OFFERINGS FOR THE WATER SPRITE
When the water sprite becomes angry, he agitates the water from the bottom of 
the sea, lake or the river, and creates the waves that rise above the surface and create 
thunderstorms and gusts of winds that sink ships and boats. Sometimes, a water 
sprite would create a storm because a man who had done something that made him 
angry was traveling on the water; for example, this happened for Gestrin and the 
water sprite from the River Mur. If the sailors wanted to calm the water sprite, they 
had to give him an offering or throw the object of “transgression” into the water. 
The water sprits, similarly to the dwarf, could become angry also when someone 
threw a stone in the water. He would storm in on the surface and yell: “Who knocked 
the spoon from my son’s hand?” The water sprite from Pohorje who lived in the Black 
Lake in Ribnica also became upset if people threw stones into the water; as a result 
he created a terrible thunderstorm (Macun 1869: 94). In other stories, he would get 
angry if someone spat in the water.
111
KIDNAPPING CHILDREN AND YOUNG WOMEN
The motif of kidnapping children and women is found in fairy tales, folktales, 
as well as in songs (Š I: no. 81, 82). Johann Weichard Valvasor wrote about the kid-
napping of the maid Urška while dancing, in Ljubljana in 1574 (Valvasor 1689, XV: 
460–461, 685). This “incident”, was translated into the poem Povodni mož (The Water 
Sprite) by the famous Slovenian poet France Prešeren. The poem recounts the tale 
of the Water Sprite who kidnaps Urška and takes her in the humming waves of the 
Ljubljanica River.
Janez Majciger (1883) published many tales about girls and children being 
kidnapped from all over Štajerska. Such stories can also be found in almost every 
collection of folk narratives and fairy tales. 
110 
Mir 11, no. 24, 1892: 103–104.
111 
- kl -, Ribniško jezero na Pohorju. Popotnik IV, no. 18 (25. 9. 1889), 282–283.

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