Myth and folktales

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snake, but since it had wings it lifted into the air. But Krsnik, who was also a 
sorcerer, grew wings. A fierce battle took place in the air. Krsnik defeated the 
snake, threw it into the deep castle well and chained it to a rock with a strong 
chain; it has been lying there to this day. After the fight, golden wheat started 
to fall from the sky. Krsnik took Vesina for his wife, and they lived happily 
ever after (Trstenjak 1970: 21).
While this legend contains the elements of the principal myth of the Slavic 
cosmology; the third episode (about Kresnik the owner of many cows stolen by the 
dragon and locked in a crag) contains the elements of the ancient Indo-European 
stockbreeding and agricultural myth reconstructed by Bruce Lincoln. This myth 
presents the fight between the hero and the three-headed snake, because the sneak 
took away the hero’s cattle. The hero, strengthened by the inebriating drink and 
sometimes with the help of the god of war, defeats the monster and takes the prey 
away (Lincoln 1983: 103–124). Lincoln connected this myth with the socioeconomic 
circumstances of the cattle-breeding societies, where the greed for the cattle became 
the synonym for the conflicts. 
Kresnik defeats his enemy Vouvel the giant, or Babylon the snake king (Kelemina 
1930: no. 1/I, no. 179) who threatens the world. In Slovene folktales and songs, he is 
the winner of the fight with a dragon who abducts Kresnik’s sister and hides her in 
a rocky cave. The young prince saves his sister, an act which is followed by the sacred 
marriage – hierosgamos (Kropej 1998: 153–167).
 
Some folk songs, sung around St. 
John’s fire on Midsummer Eve, for instance Brat in sestra (Brother and Sister, SNP 
III, 5014) and Device tri kresujejo (Three Maidens Celebrate Midsummer Eve, SNP 
I, 297) still contain the memory of the sacred marriage:
Three maidens, celebrating St. John’s Eve,
Light a bonfire in their village midst:
“May God grant you good health, young prince!”
Their song is beautiful and fair
The beauty of it is heard far,
Far off away in the wonderland.
The young prince speaks:
“Is this the sound of blessed bells?
Is this the sound of tiny birds,
Is this the sound of maidens pure?

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Saddle a fresh horse for me,
So I may ride with him away,
To hear this sound all by myself,
To see to whom it does belong!”
The young prince to the village comes
To find the three young maidens there.
They sing with such a wondrous voice
That they entice the prince’s heart. 
He asks the oldest of them there:
“What may the sound of your voice be?”
The girl then gives him this reply:
“My voice, it sounds like church bells wide.”
He asks the middle maiden there: 
“What may the sound of your voice be?”
The girl then gives him this reply:
“My voice, it is like jingling bells.”
He asks the youngest of them there:
“What may the sound of your voice be?”
The maiden gives him this reply:
“I sing the way I know to sing.”
He asks the oldest of them there:
“What does your father do in life?”
The maiden gives him this reply:
“My father, he does naught
But measure corn throughout the day.”
He asks the middle maiden there:
“What does your father do in life?”

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The middle one answers him thus:
“My father, he does naught
But count the shiny coins of his.”
He asks the youngest of them all:
“What does your father do in life?”
The youngest gives him this reply:
“I have no mother nor a father,
I am but a poor orphan girl.”
The prince then takes the youngest one,
And off they go to wonderland.
The prince then tells the maiden young:
“Yours was the voice I heard
So far away in the wonderland.” 
23 
Since the maiden that Kresnik has chosen for his wife did not know of her parents, 
it is not impossible that Kresnik, the young prince, married his sister. According to 
Kuret the custom of the midsummer marriage, or the Pentecost couple from West 
European traditions, is similar to the tale about the marriage of the Sun with the 
Moon (Kuret 1989: 433). As the sun sets for some time, Kresnik rests and dies as well, 
but always returns to this world. While Perun remains the indisputable supreme God 
of the Heavens, Zeleni Jurij and Kresnik are susceptible to death, constantly traveling 
between this world and the other, but always returning.
While the fight between Perun and Veles took place in the sky, the fight between 
Kresnik and Vedomec, who endangers fertility and threatens to take away the harvest, 
occurred on the ground. There are numerous folktales about this fight. Even today 
some people say that when there is lightning on beautiful fall evenings, on Christmas 
or on Midsummer Day, the vedavci (vedomci) fight the šentjanževci (the kresniki). 
They may assume the image of two bulls, a red and a black one, or two dogs, one 
white and the other black. The vedomci are creatures who could – transformed into 
an animal or a half-animal – cause as eclipse of the sun, and could uproot old trees. In 
groups, or one by one, the vedomci fought others on crossroads or underneath trees.
Kresnik, also called Šentjanževec, Vedogonja, Bergant, has to fight with his 
adversary the False Kresnik or Vedomec for the benefit of his country. As Leopold 
23 
Recorded by Matija Majar in Podgorjane in Rosental in Karinthia. Printed in: Slovenska Bčela II. 
1, Celovec/Klagenfurt 1851: 187.

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