Myth and folktales

101
Half-horses, which are part of traditional folktales in
 
Slavia Veneta (Venetian 
Slovenia), had the same characteristics as dog-heads, and they also persecuted 
Christians. Ostermann wrote about how people imagined half-horses in his work 
“Life in Friuli”:
Polkonji
Polkonji the kind of centaurs, and pesoglavci (cynocephals) with a head of 
dog were bloodthirsty and chased Christians (Osterman 1940: 450).
The folktales about half-horses and dog-heads were mixed in the imagination of 
the people and blended mainly because of the half-human and half-animal appear-
ance of both of these two supernatural beings.
Although they are often compared to each other, the half-horses and dog-heads 
remain contradictory characters also in the description from Štajerska, published 
by Josip Pajek: 
Polkonji
People living between the river Mura and Drava know quite a few stories 
about Half-horses. They were human beings, with the torso of a human and 
the lower part of the body of a horse. They were bareheaded, had stupid 
noses and a long beard. Half-horses hated Pesjani and Pesogalvci (Pajek 
1884: 160).
It seems that Pajek linked his description of half-horses to the one made by 
Henrik Rešek, who heard people talking about half-horses in Žitarska Dolina, located 
between the rivers Mur and Drava and published in his article in the newspaper 
Novice in 1860. 
snake
The mythical snake appears in ancient cosmologies as the cosmic snake, the 
Creator and also as a mythical ancestor of certain nation. In the oldest cosmo-
logical myths, the cosmic snake is often seen as the carrier of the world, which 
it can also destroy with its movement. Thus, the snake appears not only at the 
beginning but also at the end of cosmogeneses as an apocalyptic, destructive 
force or as deity. 

---

102
The snake can also be replaced by a fish, which lives on the seabed. For example, 
the Slovenian lore depicts the fish Feronika, which rules over the water. Slovenian 
folk narratives and folk songs describe it as a ‘fish that carries the world’ or as a pair 
of fish. When it moves the earth shakes, there are floods, natural disasters or even 
the end of the world. (See the chapter about fish Faronika). 
In contrast, the ouroboros, the snake eating its tale symbolizes life and death 
and an eternal cycle and time without its beginning or its end.
THE WATER SNAKE
The South Slavic sea snake Aždaja (Azi Dahaka) is known in Serbian, Bulgarian 
and Macedonian lore. It is supposed to live in standing and deep water and is the 
mistress of waters. People said that it evolved from a 100-year-old snake that had, 
according to some descriptions, four legs, a long tail and wings. Aždaja is dangerous 
for both people and animals, and it wants to swallow and destroy the sun and the 
moon (Radenković 1997: 105–6). Similarly to Aždaja, a hundred-year-old snake also 
presents danger. We hear about the latter in the lore of Rož na Koroškem/Rosental in 
Koroška/Kärnten. According to these folktales, the snakes grow into giant monsters 
when they grow old, and they travel from the river Drava straight into the Black Sea 
and from there into the Tower of Babel where all animals which are over a hundred 
years old gather (Šašel, Ramovš 1936–7: 25).
The Serbian water snake Aždaja, as well as the Koroškan snake monster, which 
travels through the river to the Tower of Babel are related to dragons and are difficult 
to categorize into one or the other group of mythical animals.
THE SNAKE QUEEN OR THE SNAKE KING
As the keeper of treasures, the snake is the bestower of goods and fertility, 
which is why the snake is the attribute of every great goddess of nature and fertility. 
According to the old religious perceptions, it also gives men strength for insemination. 
In Slovenian folklore, the queen snake or the white snake often appears. She 
is the leader of all snakes and also the mistress of earthly riches, which is why 
people tried to seize its crown, the golden apple or the diamond or the žilštajn 
(the snake stone), each of which represented the key to the riches. The snake queen 
can have a diamond or a golden apple not only upon its head but also under its 
tongue or in its body. People often tried to trick the snake and steal its crown or 
its key to the riches. They, for example, lay milk for it and while the snake was 

---

103
drinking, put the crown on a white napkin. They might steal it and run away, but 
the snake always takes revenge and mercilessly punishes the thief. The snake also 
takes the crown off when it is bathing, as in the story recorded by Janez Majciger 
in 1883 in Štajerska: 
The snake Queen
Near Ptuj they talk about a giant snake with a golden crown, which is the 
queen of them all and lives in the water. On a beautiful spring day, it puts 
its crown, which is worth millions, on the riverside. Woe betide the person 
who dares to take it! She would make just one whistle and all other snakes 
would gather around her. They would run after the thief and tear him into 
tiny pieces (Majciger 1883: 601).
There are also some stories about a man who tried to trick the snake by rolling a 
wheel down the hill. While the snakes are chasing the wheel, the snake queen takes 
off her crown at the top of the hill and joins them in their chase. The man does steal 
The Snake Queen, Jože Karlovšek, 1955, Archive ISN ZRC SAZU

---

104
the crown, but the next day, when he comes back for the wheel a snake, hidden in 
the woodshed, bites him.
The crown of the snake queen is also stolen by a mythological hero (usually by 
Kresnik), who enters the snake queen’s kingdom on the back of a horse. In order to 
run away from the wrathful snake, the rider has to jump over a high wall. Even fre-
quently, the folk narratives depict a hero who has to build a long corridor thats leads 
him back home. He also has to put iron gates in it; while he is trying to run through 
the corridor away from the snake, he has to firmly close these metal doors behind 
him so the snake has to break them down if it wants to come after him. The snake 
loses its strength when it reaches the last door and is left lying there.
66
 This folktale 
from Štajerska preserves the memory of the ancient myths about Kresnik, although 
the mythological hero in this tale is replaced by the farmer.
SNAKE AS THE MYTHICAL ANCESTOR
The symbolic meaning of a snake can be found in the myths about the birth 
of certain nations. In these legends, mythical ancestors are presented by the image 
of a snake. Thus, according to the Ancient Greek lore, Cadmus and Harmonia who 
were the ancestors of the Illyrians, the founders of Thebes and the parents of Illyrius, 
moved to south Illyria in the form of two snakes (Šašel Kos 1991: 183–192). Such 
religious beliefs had later influence on numerous stories about people who were 
cursed, especially about cursed rulers, noblemen and noblewomen (Kropej 1995: 
137–138). In Slovenia the most famous such folktale is the legend about Veronika 
from Kamnik Castle.
67
SNAKE AS THE SOUL OF A DECEASED
According to ancient religious beliefs, the snake also symbolizes the soul of 
a deceased. As such, it can bring prosperity to its homestead. As the guardian of 
the house, it was believed to protect the home, similarly to the house goblin, called 
gospodarček (“little master”), which is in Russian lore named Domovoy, or as house 
spirits or gods, such as were the Roman Lares, which protected the houses and the 
fields from misfortune. Thus, snakes, which are called the ož, the vož, and also the 
inčesa in the Western Slovenia, guarded the homestead and spent time mainly at 
the fireplace. Sometimes they appeared in front of children and people, who treated 
66 
Freuensfeld 1886: 267; Kelemina 1930: 351–352, no. 246/III; Kropej, Šmitek, Dapit 2010: 36–37.
67 
Published in English in: Kropej, Šmitek, Dapit 2010: 32–33. 

---