Myth and folktales

33
story of the bullock that was responsible for these fecund years. On the seventh 
year, the villagers gathered, all dressed in their Sunday best. They drove the 
bullock around the village, cavorting and making merry. The Lord and St. 
Peter indeed returned on that day. To everybody gathered around the bullock, 
the Lord said: “Such years shall never return. Remember them, especially 
on this day.” They left the village, leading the bullock away. When they were 
outside the village, the Lord bade St. Peter: “Take his rope off!” As soon as 
St. Peter did this, the bullock changed back into a man. He knelt down in 
front of the Lord, meekly asking for forgiveness. The Lord absolved him of 
his wrongdoings. Kurent then set off to an unknown place far across the sea, 
where he lived humbly until his death.
And the people started to observe that day with merrymaking, which has 
been preserved to this day.
17
Since Kurent celebrates his name day on Earth on Shrove Tuesday in some places 
he is perceived as a saint: St. Kurent.
18
 During this time, people dress up as the kurenti, 
plow around their houses, and jump up and down to induce bountiful crops.
17 
Freuensfeld 1884: 299; Kelemina 1930: 64–66, no. 14. 
18 
Kuret 1965: 18–20. 
Kurent in the moon, Matjaž Schmidt, 2001, Slovenska knjiga

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34
the Central slaviC Myth
PERUN AND VELES
Many religious beliefs contain the motif of a cosmic snake, the opponent of the 
sun as the source of life. In Ancient Egypt, for instance, the sun god Ra is repeat-
edly attacked by the snake Apofis, but Ra always wins the duel. In Vedic mythology, 
Vritra endangers Indra. For the ancient Greeks, Zeus managed to defeat Tifon, the 
hundred-headed monster, only after a hard fight, and the Hittite weather god Taru 
had to fight the dragon Ilujankas; the heavenly deity Perkunas battled the chthonic 
god Velnias from Baltic mythology. Like the Germanic Thor, the Scandinavian Odin, 
and the Baltic Perkunas, Perun was the Slavic god of the heavens, and therefore 
Veles’s opponent.
A fight with a dragon or a snake is the basic myth and a repetition of crea-
tion, the counterpoint between two opposing forces representing the central act of 
cosmogonic and fertility myth.
19
 This is why numerous mythological heroes – and 
later the heroes in fairy-tales – fight a dragon in the course of their lives.
20
 In Slavic 
mythology, Veles was said to assume various images, and was – akin to the Baltic 
Velnias – able to transform himself into a dragon or a snake.
21
 
Perun, in Slovenia also called Gromovnik (the Thunder God), St. Elias or Trot, was 
the Slavic god of thunder and lightning, the supreme god and the creator. Slovenian 
folk tradition contains the memory of the fight between Perun and Veles
 
– the 
fight between the heavenly deity and the chthonic god. Like Thor with his mjolnir 
(hammer), Perun uses his golden axe or his hammer – a symbol of thunder – to 
strike at the hostile snake. 
Veles or Volos was a Slavic god of the underworld, of cattle and war, and was 
the opponent to Perkunas. Since he represented the underground world, people 
built him temples in valleys. Temples dedicated to Perun, in contrast, were erected 
on hills because Perun was the god of the heavens. The remnants of cult altars in 
Macedonia still evoke the memory of Perkun and Veles (Čausidis 1994: 428–434). 
In folk tradition, Veles was also called Trdoglav, Črt, Potoglav or Velikan Vouvel 
(Vouvel the Giant). Wishing to increase his wealth by kidnapping the bride or a flock 
of sheep from his opponent Perun, Veles hides them in his barren castle made of 
19 
V. V. Ivanov and V. N. Toporov wrote exhaustive studies on this subject; see: Ivanov & Toporov 
1974 and: Ivanov 1992. See also: Katičić 1987; Belaj 1998; Šmitek 1998: 93–118. 
20 
A fight with a dragon has been ritually connected also with boys’ initiation. For more on this see: 
Propp 1949,. 358–362.
21 
For more on Veles see: Jakobson 1969. 

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35
rocks, sometimes also called the golden castle. According to folktales, Vouvel hides 
treasures in a mountain. The only way of obtaining these treasures is by picking 
the vouvelica, the grass that (like the fern) blooms only on Midsummer Eve from 
midnight to one a.m.:
In a deep mountain, Vouvel keeps a large herd of cattle. A blacksmith notices 
that Vouvel has left his home. He goes and strikes his hammer against Vouvel’s 
door. A white lady answers from within: “Whoever you may be, you cannot 
open this door. You must find the vouvelica grass and say: ‘Whoa, cow, return 
to Krsnik, the earth needs rain!’ The door shall open quickly then.” As soon 
as the man hears this, he leaves to look for the vouvelica grass. But his long 
search is not successful. Then he sees a black cloud in the midst of which Vouvel 
the Giant is riding home. Frightened, the blacksmith runs away so that the 
giant cannot catch him.
22
Even though Veles endangered cattle or the riches of the land, or sometimes 
herded cattle into his underwater domain, he watched over cattle herds in the win-
tertime. People worshipped him as the protector of cattle. This role of the protector 
of sheep and cattle, as well as Veles’s healing abilities, are reflected in the super-
natural being the wolf shepherd. (For more on this, see the chapter “Jarnik, the Wolf 
Shepherd”). 
KRESNIK
The summer solstice – in Slovenia: kresni dan – is connected with a number of 
customs and beliefs that are similar throughout Europe. In Slovenia, a characteristic 
supernatural being that makes an appearance during this period is Kresnik (Krsnik, 
Krstnik, Šentjanževec). Kresnik’s attributes are the sun and fire (in Slovene, kresati 
denotes to kindle fire by striking). Judging by these attributes and narrative tradition, 
Jakob Kelemina connected Perun and Kresnik (Kelemina 1930: 10). Later, Russian 
philologist Naikolai Mikhailov linked Kresnik with fire, lightning, with golden colour, 
thus with atmospheric phenomena that belong to Perun (Mikhailov 1998: 117–235). 
Like Perun, Kresnik had defeated the dragon, or Veles, god of the Underworld and 
of earthly riches. 
22 
Published by Davorin Terstenjak (under the psevdonym Fr. Pohorski) 1858; see also: Kelemina 
1930, no. 179.

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