Myth and folktales

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a demonic creature, a clairvoyant or a wizard, yet simultaneously also a victim, 
a tithe destined for a certain deity. As an ordained person the tenth child is the 
one who sacrifices everything to attain the wisdom of a model initiate. In Slavic, 
especially Slovene, folksongs, the tenth daughter (the tenth brother appears only 
in one recent song
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) has to roam the world. In certain variants she is fetched 
by the White Lady, the Virgin Mary or in the case of a Serbian song, a fairy on 
horseback (Karadžić 1932: no. 732), in short, a supernatural being who decides 
upon birth and death. 
The tenth or the twelfth brother was named kresnik in the Primorska region 
of Slovenia
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. The twelfth student of the magic school, who at the end of schooling 
remains without his copy of the book (the teacher distributes only eleven books 
among his students) leaves to roam the world and to “chase the dragons” (Kelemina 
1930: 43–44, no. 4/IV). His destiny is thus similar to the destiny of Kresnik or Jurij. 
Of later origin are probably the tales in which the tenth child appears only in the 
role of a clairvoyant or a soothsayer, a human with supernatural powers who can 
also advise people in distress, which was usually expected of a priest. It is therefore 
understandable that the tenth brother in Pajek’s note calls himself mešnik (a priest). 
Since the tenth children were roaming the world, people compared them to travelling 
bards with a great talent for story-telling and singing.
Radoslav Katičić (1989: 57–97), and afterwards also Vitomir Belaj (1998), defined 
Zeleni Jurij (Green George) as the tenth child or the ninth brother in the Slavic and 
Baltic fertility rituals, and in the pre-Slavic myth about the duel between the thunder 
god and the dragon. Both have ascertained that this motif appeared in the Slavic as 
well as the Baltic tradition. A Russian ballad, for instance, speaks about the incestu-
ous relation between a sister and her ninth brother. The brother leaves home, meets 
a girl and invites her to join him on horseback. After their union they find out that 
they are brother and sister.
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 A similar fate awaits Jagoda in a Croatian song: Jagoda 
has nine brothers and Radojica, the tenth brother. She marries him, and on their 
wedding day rain starts to pour and thunder rumbles (HNP 1914: 45–46, no 20). In 
another Croatian song, Mare (a girl with nine brothers who are hunters and gold-
smiths) meets Ivo on a horseback. Ivo is the tenth brother who has returned home, 
and Mare is his sister.
60
 
57 
Recorded by V. Vodušek in Jastroblje, Tuhinjska dolina, March 25, 1957, GNI; No. 20675, tape 15-1, 
50. The song, originally a ballad, was written by A. Hribar and published in: Slovenske balade in 
romance, Celovec 1912, no. 92 – later it became a folk song.
58 
Stepan Kocijančić in: Arkiv III, Zagreb 1854: 281; published by: Navratil 1887: 106.
59 
P. V. Šejn, Velikoruss v svoih pesnjah, obrjadah, običajih, verovanjah, skazkah i legendah I, Sankt 
Peterburg 1898: 551, no. 1824.
60 
Olinko Delorko, Narodne lirske pjesme. Pet stoljeća hrvatske književnosti 23, Zagreb 1963: 188, no. 211.

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There are interesting similarities between these songs and the Irish poem about 
Owen Burke, also called Eoghan Búrcach.
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 In one of its variants, Owen Burke is a 
shepherd who finds a wild girl living in the woods. He manages to civilize her, and 
with her family’s permission marries her. It turns out that the girl is the daughter of 
his employer who had been banished from her home, in order to comply with the 
custom of sacrificing a child from a large family to Deoch Bhui (deachú, deachaoin). 
After a time, her family regret their permission for this wedding, and the girl’s broth-
ers kill Owen Burke. 
The nine sons of Perkun are mentioned also in a Latvian daina – a Latvian short 
song starts like this:
Gray daddy Perkons
Has nine sons.
Each of them knows his trade well:
One strikes, another thunders,
The third casts white lightning,
The fourth draws rain
From thick fog 
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Perkun’s children therefore appear as celestial bodies in this song.
Katičić and Belaj have established that the tenth brother has not been imported 
from Ireland. Slavic traditions, Baltic and Irish parallells, as well as the broader 
European tradition, all testify to the Indo-European origin, and the great age of the 
myth about the tenth brother who leaves home to roam the world, returns to his 
father’s (Perun’s) home, and marries his sister. The motif of the tenth brother who 
leaves to roam the world and the motif of sacred marriage (hierogamy) are thus 
closely connected in this myth. The tenth brother, Jurij, is a son of Perun, he marries 
his sister, and this hierogamy enables another cycle of renewal. In Perun’s (Jurij’s) 
myth the same story (as later in a shortened and profaned folk heritage) takes place 
in the realm of the gods.
The tenth daughter is destined to belong to the deity who is connected to destiny, 
and takes care of birth and death, like Hecate, Diana and Artemis in Antiquity, or 
the Slavic goddess Mokoš (Kuret 1997: 66–79). The tradition of the tenth daughter 
partly reminds us of the Greek myth about Iphigenia who was destined for the god-
dess Artemis. In order to take revenge upon Agamemnon for his insults, Artemis 
demanded Iphigenia’s death, but replaced her with a hind when Iphigenia was placed 
on the altar, and took her to Tauris as her priestess.
61 
Lorcán O Muireadhaigh, Amhráin Chúige Uladh (The Songs of Ulster). Dublin 1927 (reprint 1977).
62 
Biezais 1972: 115

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