Myth and folktales

42
Kretzenbacher assumed, the Kresnik and his opposition the False Kresnik were sup-
posedly two poles of one and the same figure (Kretzenbacher 1941: 21–22). According 
to the narrative tradition, it seems that Kresnik had his double or his twin brother, 
who represented his opposite pole. 
Kresnik gradually lost his mythical character. While he was initially in the 
function of a god, he later became Prince Kresnik, or a kind of wizard, fighting the 
False Kresnik to ensure good crops for his lands; he thus assumed the role of clan 
protector, shaman, or sorcerer, the “ecstatic Kresnik”, as Zmago Šmitek named him 
(Šmitek 2004: 145). The lore about the so-called ecstatic Kresnik shares its roots 
with the Hungarian taltos, Italian benandant, Greek kallikantzaros and South Slavic 
mogut. All of them acquired the characteristics of sorcerers or shamans. The “ecstatic 
Kresnik” differs from the “mythological Kresnik” in that he appears in the role of a 
“village shaman” fighting for the benefit of his local community.
It was believed that the person who was to become kresnik was born with a mark 
upon his body, either still wrapped in the placenta or with eyebrows grown together, 
with teeth, a small tail, extra fingers or toes. Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor 
wrote about Kresniks and their adventures, mentioning that the vedavces fight the 
šentjanževces (Valvasor 1689, vol. XI: 282). It was also believed that Kresnik fought 
disguised as animals, for instance as a red ox fighting a black one, as a bull battling 
with an ox (Pajek 1882: 578; Pajek 1884: 77), as a white and a black dog, or as a pig 
with horse hooves (Pajek 1884: 82). For their weapons, he used horns (which are 
associated with lightning), axes, sheaves, and beanpole ends (which remain in the 
field after harvest) as in the tale from Primorska: 
Slovenes living near Gorica believe that on St. John’s Eve witches fight with the 
Kresniki. They also believe that Kresnik is the twelfth brother, which means that 
if a family has twelve sons begot by one father, the twelfth brother is a kerstnik. 
On Midsummer Day, the kerstniki find themselves in grave danger. They are 
attacked by witches using beanpoles and stakes. Actually, they use what has 
been left of those beanpoles and stakes, which are the parts that break off and 
remain in the soil after beanpoles have been collected and taken home in the 
fall. So in order to prevent witches from seizing such weapons, farmers carefully 
uproot all such pieces (Kociančić 1854: 157; Kropej, Dapit 2006: 26, no. 13).
Kresnik can be helped by his servant, or by people watching the fight:
The Kresnik of Vurberg once said: “A terrible storm and downpour with wind 
shall come to pass today. Two wild boars shall try to kill each other in the field. 
One of them will be slender and scrawny, the other fat. You are not to help the 

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43
fat one since he is already stronger.” And this came to pass, just as Kresnik 
had said. People saw the two boars fight and bite at one another. A farmer 
in a field thrice struck the thin one with a switch, and right away the fat one 
started to win the fight. When the scales were tipped to the disadvantage of 
the slim boar, another farmer jumped near, thrusting a pitchfork from behind 
in the portly boar’s testicles. Immediately an abundance of wheat started to 
rain on the field, and the farmers had ample quantities of it. The slender boar 
turned out to be the Kresnik of Vurberg. Later, he showed the first farmer his 
back marked by the three strikes of the switch, saying sulkily: “See how strongly 
you have hit me?” (Pajek 1882: 581).
At night, Kresniks or balavantars were believed to meet at crossroads, under trees, 
particularly walnut trees, like in the recently recorded legend from Slavia Veneta: 
The Balavantarji were such people who, when it was that time of night, assem-
bled together. They themselves had no idea where they were going. They just 
went to a crossroads. None of them later knew that they had met, neither 
the first one nor the second nor the third… There were so many. For it is said 
that on the way to St Martin there are four paths that make a real crossroads.
Once they started to fight there. One of them had a wooden leg. It happened 
that they could not find his leg, so they made him one from an elder tree.
24
 
Descriptions of such fights suggest that the Kresnik’s soul left his body to travel 
through the world. These belief legends about the human soul in the form of an 
insect such as a hornet, that leaves its human body during sleep, and later returns, 
are known throughout Europe and also in a part of Asia. The earliest reference can 
be found in a book written at the end of the 8
th
 century by the historian Paul the 
Deacon.
25
 The text refers to border areas between Slovenia and Italy, which is the 
territory where the lore about the so-called zduhači (people with escaping souls), for 
example the Vedomci, the Banandanti, and the Kresniki, had been preserved almost 
to the present (Šmitek 2003, p. 5). 
Souls in the shape of butterflies or mice are mentioned in Inquisition records 
from 16
th
 and 17
th
 century Europe. In Slavia Veneta in Italy,  such records contain 
interesting data on the banandanti who were accused of witchcraft, stating that 
during sleep they were leaving their body and setting off to fight witches or wizards; 
there are also notes on the banandanti whose souls had climbed from the mouth of 
a person fast asleep in the form of a mouse.
24 
Recorded by: Roberto Dapit, 1996; published: Kropej, Dapit 2008: 22, no 12.
25 
Historia Langobardorum, vol. 3, chap. 34.

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