Myth and folktales

168
accomplished and asked him how he had 
been able to dig out so much ore in such a 
short time. The miner did not respond to 
their curiosity and returned to the mine 
immediately after receiving his pay.
The little man was sitting on a big stone, 
waiting for him. The miner pushed the 
money towards him so he could divide it, 
but the little man shook his head to indicate 
that he had no wish to be the one to divide 
the pay. The miner sat down beside him and 
began to count the money himself until there 
was only one coin left. The miner put it on the 
perkomandelj’s heap saying, “You keep this 
one for you worked way more than I did!”
The little man shook his head and threw 
the coin on the miner’s pile. But the miner 
did not want to take it and kept pushing it 
towards the perkomandelj. They quarrelled 
for a long time until the miner had a bright 
idea, namely to split the coin in two. He took 
an axe in his hands and said to the little 
man, “You know what, let’s cut the coin in 
two and each can take half.”
The miner lifted the axe to carry out his plan 
but the little man suddenly spoke up: “Stop!”
The miner, curious to hear what he had to say, put the axe aside.
The little man said, “If you had said three more words when I first came, I 
would have crushed you into dust. Besides, I really like you because of your 
honesty. If you had kept the coin yourself you would never have seen your 
wife and children again. I would have torn you to pieces. But because you are 
so honest you can also take my money. Remember the spirit of the mountain 
while you live in happiness and content. You will enjoy good fortune.”
With these words he disappeared. The miner was grateful for the idea he had 
had. Without the idea, he would have taken the whole coin himself just to stop 
quarrelling with the little man. He went home and told his family and friends 
about the perkomandelj, and soon all of Idrija knew about it.
122
122 
 Zmago Eržen, Besednik 6/6 (10. 6. 1874), 59–60; Kropej, Šmitek, Dapit 2010: 79–80.
Perkomandeljc/Mountain Goblin, 
Andrejka Čufer (Kropej, Dapit 2002)

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169
In Rosental in Koroška people talked about the forest goblin named šqrat, and 
about an underground goblin named skuberl. This one has a little red hat and red pants, 
a pointy nose and a beard. Skuberl was said to live in caves in which the miners dug for 
ore. When the miners leave the cave, he starts knocking, and where he is heard knock-
ing, there is ore. He cannot stand to hear people whistle and often eats the lunch of the 
miners. Once, they set out spirits for him and he got drunk. He never knocked again 
in that mine, and the miners had to leave that cave (Šašel, Ramovš 1936-1937: 9, no. 6). 
In Mountain Peca in Koroška, a mountain goblin had allegedly been leading a 
miner along a shaft for three hundred years. They walked through the whole of Mt. 
Peca. The goblin took revenge on him because the miner gave him spirits to drink, 
and after that demanded from him to show him where the ore is located. When the 
miner returned and when he came home, his people were no longer there, for they 
had been dead for three hundred years (Mőderndorfer 1946: 84). 
In Dolenjska, a goblin was believed to live in high mountains in a cave, in which 
he sits behind a stone table with silver and gold coins on it. Folktales also mention 
that a strong spring is located under the table, and when Judgement Day comes, it 
will spill all over the country.
123
 
WATER GOBLINS
The water goblins are described mostly in folktales from eastern Slovenia and 
Notranjsko. Thus, a goblin was believed to live in the river Sotla in Mali pekel (Small 
Hell) near Mala Nedelja. He did neither harm nor good to the people, they were just 
not allowed to catch fish and crab in his waters. His biggest enemy was the Water 
Sprite, who chased him away from Veliki pekel (Big Hell), which was the original 
abode of Škrat (Majciger 1883). 
Emil Korytko mentions a goblin from Vranje Jezero/Urainer See. People told 
stories that he told to a fisherman who lived near the lake to catch as many fish as 
he wished to, except for the last one. Since the fisherman caught the last one as well, 
the goblin appeared and filled up the entire lake with earth.
124
 
TREE GOBLINS
The belief in tree goblins, the so called lesniki was very widespread in Slovenia. 
Lesniki were believed to live in trees and forbade people to cut them down. 
Johann 
123 
Fran Sreboški-Peterlin, Novice 22 (1864), no. 24, no. 25. 
124 
 Manuscript of Emil Korytko, Archive NUK: MS 455, II, 29–36. Published: Stanonik, Jež 1985: 115.

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170
Weichard Valvasor
 noted that there was a nut tree near Senožeče. What was strange 
about this tree was that it remained lifeless and without leaves until the Midsummer 
night. On St. John’s Day, it grew green and started to bloom and produce fruit that 
was as big as the walnuts on other trees were. But it was not safe to walk under this 
nut tree on that night, because such uproar was created in the branches at exactly 
midnight that it was as if a tree ghost or lesnik lived in it.
125
 
The tree goblin is also mentioned by Georg Graber, Anton von Mailly and Janez 
Trdina (Kelemina 1930: 170–172, no. 115). In the Ščavnica Valley in Štajerska, the 
shepherds are afraid of babji šentek or šotek, who is said to live in trees. If he caught 
a man, he either took his hair or merely ruffled it (Kelemina 1930: 115/V).
GOBLINS AS HOUSE SPIRITS
Folk narratives also mention goblins who are house spirits, named gospodarček 
or dedek. They were similar to the house gnomes of antiquity: Roman lares or 
Greek penats, who had alters in people’s homes. They were the guardians of the 
home.
126
 Such narratives are similar to the tradition derived from worshipping 
ancestors and house idols. Their place was often by the heart or under the doorstep, 
sometimes they were also found in saltcellar, as it is known that the salt keeps 
away the evil spirits. In the Ščavnica Valley in Štajerska, such house spirit was 
called šetek. Out of all things, šetek loved to stay in the kitchen in the saltcellar 
or in the barn with the young cattle. Whatever the people cooked or baked, he 
had to be the first one to try it or else he would play a trick on them. Of all food, 
he liked millet the most. 
A goblin, especially the one who lives near the homestead, takes revenge on a 
person who eats the food that had been set for him or if he is not given any, like the 
house sprite Blagonič, who is hatched out of a seven-year old egg of a rooster.
BLAGONIČ
According to local belief, whoever wants to have a lot of money has to choose a 
black rooster from a brood of hatched chicks and keep it under a cup for measuring 
wheat for seven years. At the end of seven years the rooster will lay an egg and out of 
that egg a being known as “Blagonič” will hatch. Blagonič must always stay hidden 
125 
 Valvasor 1689, IV, 578; Kelemina 1930: 170, no. 115/I.
126 
In Slovenian folk tradition, they frequently appeared as a white snake (ož or inčesa), in the lore of 
Serbia also as a white wolf, as noted by Ljubinko Radenković.

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