Myth and folktales

68
THE MIRACULOUS FLOWER
The Fates and Zlatorog in Dežman’s legend (1868) are closely linked with medici-
nal plants, the magic garden, and the magical healing flower. 
In the 19
th
 century, the magical healing plant/miraculous flower – such as the 
flower of Triglav that heals Zlatorog was compared to somovica/haoma which has 
origins in Indo-Iranian religion and is a cognate of the Vedic soma. It grows in 
bushes on mountain ridges and slopes, but only during the waxing moon. The stag 
eats it and stays healthy. Picked in bright moonlight, the flower is made into a sacred 
beverage that in Persian lore is called the haoma, that which drives away death. This 
tradition was preserved in Slovenia by Davorin Trstenjak, who wrote about the grass 
kounertnica in Pohorje.
41
 It is evident that speculations of this kind, suggested by 
representatives of 19
th
-century mythology, may be highly questionable. However, a 
common core might possibly be found in Indo-European beliefs that were partly 
preserved also in the Old Slavic heritage.
The flower of Triglav, or the roža mogota (miraculous flower), which springs 
from drops of blood seeping from the wounded Zlatorog and heals it, thus origi-
nated in ancient times. At the beginning of the 20
th
 century, it was compared to an 
Alpine flower called the Donnenrose, Alpenkraut, rhododendron (Anton von Mailly 
1916), or edelweiss. While Joža Glonar linked the flower of Triglav with dittany 
(Dictamnum), a herb from Crete (Glonar 1910: 94), Milko Matičetov explained it as 
a flower named Potentilla nitida (Matičetov 1986: 133). Rather than in its botanical 
roots, Joža Mahnič was interested in the origin of the flower’s name in literature Rosa 
mythica or Roža mogota (Mahnič 1950; 1956/1957: 333). The name roža mogota was 
given to the flower of Triglav by Simon Rutar who acknowledged the authenticity of 
this lore in the Julian Alps:
Concerning the spiritual treasure of the common folk it has to be mentioned 
that people in the northernmost area, around Mount Triglav, recount one of 
the most beautiful fairy tales; it has been recorded on paper by poet Rudolf 
Baumbach. It is the tale about the “Zlatorog,” a snow-white buck with golden 
horns. Coveted by every hunter, these horns are believed to open up the way 
to hidden treasures. If Zlatorog is shot by a lead bullet, its sweat, upon falling 
to the ground, produces a magnificent, fragrant flower. This so-called roža 
mogota, or the flower of Triglav, heals Zlatorog and its protective powers 
41 
This tradition was preserved in Slovenia by Davorin Trstenjak (F.Pohorski) in Novice, dated 31 
March 1857: Narodne pravljice o mesecu (Folktale as about the Moon) and in Novice, 12 March 
1859 – where he writes about grass kounertnica in Pohorje; and also by Matija Valjavec in Novice, 
18 July 1857: Od žune (about the Woodpecker), reprint: Trava, ki ima tako moč, da odpre vsak zapor 
(The Herb Which Has Such a Strength That It Opens Every Lock) (Valjavec, Popit 2002: 227).

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69
destroy the impertinent hunter. While the tale was widespread on both sides 
of the Julian Alps, in the northeast of Kranjska as well as in Goriza on the 
opposite side, its true location is by the source of the Soča (Rutar 1892–3 
[1997]: 109–10).
[Simon Rutar further explains the origin of this tale]: 
The tale of Zlatorog and the treasure beneath Mount Bogatin originates in 
mythology but has a more recent historical framework as well. Certainly, it 
must have developed among our people during a lengthy period of time. Its 
mythological core with the Fates and Zlatorog, the treasure, and the flower 
of Triglav dates from the era prior to the Christianization of Slovenes. The 
imagination of the common people created out of natural phenomena in the 
mountains, which seemed very mysterious, a number of deities and spirits 
(the meadows beneath Mount Triglav became a magic garden, white mists 
above its top the Fates, and the lightning was interpreted as the reflection of 
the enraged Zlatorog’s horns). […] The belief in natural forces and ancient 
deities must have been particularly vivid among the Slovenes living along the 
upper part of the Soča, for even at the beginning of the 14
th
 century in Kobarid 
the Inquisition persecuted the worshippers of the sacred tree and the stream 
beneath it. It is certain that the core of this belief is not entirely original but 
must have roots in many aspects in the Eurasian mythological primeval com-
munity (Rutar 1892–3 [1997]: 130). 
The motif of the stag (the “monoceros” or the unicorn) curing its wounds with 
a healing plant was often used as a parable by church speakers during religious and 
moral teachings. In the region of Slovenia, such speakers in the Catholic Baroque era 
were Janez Svetokriški (Rupel 1991), Peter Pavel Glavar (Demšar 1991: 97), and father 
Rogerij. (He was strongly influenced by Filip Picinelli and his Mundus simbolicus 
1694–1730 (Glonar 1910: 48–9.) Rogerij writes the following: 
When a stag is shot it hastens to find a herb called “dittany”. The dittany 
makes the bullet fall from the wound. […] Although shot and wounded, the 
stag rises and goes to the mountains and hills, looking for this Dictamnum 
herb. After it eats the herb, its blows are cured and its wounds healed (Mahnič 
1950: 126).
The healing herb Dictamnum was known in ancient Greece and in the Roman 
world, and is presented as a healing plant by Dioscurides, Teophrastus and later also 

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