Myth and folktales

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The oldest mythology encompassed not only rudimentary religions and philosophical 
perceptions but also art. Myths were interpreted in different ways. While the Sophists 
perceived them as allegories, Plato explained them from the aspects of philosophy 
and symbolism. Aristotle spoke of myths as a fable; the Stoics saw their gods as the 
personification of their functions, and the Epicureans were convinced that myths 
were based on natural factors. Euhemerus perceived myths as history translated 
into poetry. 
In the Renaissance, interest in ancient myths increased significantly, and was 
further augmented by Enlightenment authors and Romantic writers such as Giovanni 
Batista Vico, Jean Jacques Rousseau, James Macpherson, Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, 
August and Friedrich Schlegel, and Johann Gottfried Herder. The most famous of 
them were Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, who based their research on the understand-
ing of the common Indo-European origin of most European nations. Jacob Grimm 
also made the first attempt to integrate Germanic mythology into a uniform system 
(Deutsche Mythologie, 1835). Max Müller (1823–1900), Adalbert Kuhn (1812–1881), 
and Wilhelm Schwartz (1821–1899) saw myths as an attempt to explain natural 
phenomena according to people’s beliefs. Agreeing with this concept, Alexander 
Nikolaevich Afanasyev was convinced that Slavic myths could be largely attributed 
to their connection with nature. With his theory about elements of animism and 
natural magic in folk customs and traditions, Wilhelm Mannhardt searched not for 
gods but mostly for lower mythology and demonology. The mythological school of 
the Romantic period, which recognized in the narrative and poetic traditions pre-
Christian images of gods and their connection with nature, was later followed by 
evolutionism, diffusionism, the ritual-mythological school of James George Frazer, 
and Bronislaw Malinowski’s functionalism, which was based on the idea that myth 
and social reality are connected through function. Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav 
Jung approached myth through analytical psychology. The development of mytho-
logical studies was significantly influenced by the French sociological school of Emile 
Durkheim, the structuralism of Claude Lévi Strauss and Roland Barthes, the symbolic 
theories of Ernst Cassirer, and the semiotic theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, Vladimir 
Toporov, and Vjačeslav Ivanov. The semiological studies and orientations of Paul 
Ricoeur and Mircea Eliade are currently prevalent. Some contemporary scholars 
have adopted postmodernism, and in particular the methods of comparative and 
cognitive mythology.
The study of mythology in the present is not an easy task. On the one hand, it still 
bears the label that was created by the Romantic mythological school from the begin-
ning of the 19
th
 century. On the other hand – and although the radical positivism is 
already a concept of the past – it seems that in a time of electronic media, when urban 
legends and modern stories have replaced classic fairy tales, it is entirely superfluous 

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11
to evoke the memory of something so outdated as mythology. The Western world 
has generally forgotten folktales that are recounted spontaneously, from memory, for 
social purposes, and for shortening the long evening hours by the hearth. Slovenia, 
which is a part of Central Europe, has managed to retain some survivals of folk 
mythology, primarily due to the increased awareness that tradition is valuable and 
not only has a spiritual dimension but can be used for practical purposes. People are 
becoming increasingly aware of the positive effects that are the result of the telling 
and reading of fairy tales, and interest in them is growing along with interest in the 
cultural identity of the Slovenian people.
People living in the Slovenian ethnic territory thus still come into contact with 
narrators of myths and folktales, although usually in more remote and inaccessible 
places. Interest in the spiritual tradition of one’s local environment, however, is on 
the rise almost everywhere, which can be seen in cultural events and in its applica-
tion for entertainment and commercial purposes.
This book attempts to present a comprehensive overview of Slovenian super-
natural beings and the related beings who are either connected with certain religious 
beliefs or were created in people’s imagination for different reasons and purposes. 
Folk heroes, antiheroes, and historical figures who have been mythicized are gener-
ally not included in this book. As this study focuses solely on mythical beings, folk 
heroes and historical figures shall have to be examined in other studies.
Supernatural beings are presented here according to the role that they occupy 
within spiritual tradition. They have been classified according to their characteris-
tics, typology, and the role they play in various motifs and subject matter. Since the 
principal source for the research is the folk narrative or folktale, this book includes 
stories and their textual, contextual, morphological, and semiotic analysis. The 
aim of this text is to present a comprehensive review of Slovene mythology and the 
supernatural beings that appear in it. The study includes areas across Slovenian 
borders that have a large numbers of Slovenians, and where the Slovenian minority 
still speaks Slovene. Whenever possible, the material has been examined within the 
European, and partly non-European, mythological concept. Due to the scale and 
diversity of the topic, it was not possible to problematize the topic or substantiate new 
methodological interpretations and theories; after all, there have been quite a few, 
and most of them are mentioned in this text. The book concludes with a dictionary 
of mythical beings with a brief summary of their main characteristics. Although the 
dictionary recapitulates the essential characteristics of the Slovenian folk tradition, 
it is necessary for the purpose of clarity and applicability.
I would like to thank everyone who guided me through this text and donated 
their knowledge and expertise. I am particularly grateful to Milko Matičetov, for 

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