Myth and folktales

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It is said that a giant named Robavs lived in Borovlje and a giant Rogovilež lived in 
Mojstrana in Gorenjska. Both of them are mentioned by Mirko Kunčič in his “Triglav 
Fairytales” (1940, 1944). Robavs was a powerful fellow with arms like iron, a heart 
like stone and a roaring voice. He also pulled teeth and was able to heal others. The 
giant Rogovilež frightened the people and thus the Fates (žark žene) set a giant snake 
on him, which killed him. His head was taken by the shepherds on the top of the 
Žolezen, where it turned into stone and it has remained there for a thousand of years. 
The tale about Krimski Mož (Man from Mt. Krim) is interesting because it blurs 
the distinction between a giant and a wild man. Povodni mož (the Water Sprite) and 
the Man from Krim are involved in a fight (Govekar 1892: 13–15; Mokriški 1918: 
60–62), similarly to the Water Sprite from Bled and the Water Sprite from Bohinj.
People in western Slovenia told stories about Blagodéj, a giant supernatural crea-
ture that helped underprivileged people. He was said to appear in various forms and 
lived in the mountains between the Bohinj, the Soča Valley and the Vipava Valley. 
The only preserved source mentions that Blagodéj is from Primorska. It was believed 
that he helped the poor who had been wronged by the rich. Loggers from Idrija, who 
had been cheated by a wealthy skinflint, received payment in wood split by Blagodéj 
with his own leg (Kelemina 1930 no. 167, Matičetov 1989 no. 3: 89–90). This folktale 
reminds us of international narrative type ATU 650A “Strong John”.
A tale about a tough fellow Tuhínc has been kept in Prekmurje:
tuhinc
A foster father from Prekmurje once wrongly obtained the millet of some 
orphans. When they were threshing this millet, a stranger came to the door 
and stood there and waited for somebody to call him to work. When the foster 
father noticed this, he ordered him to go and thresh the millet. The stranger 
was looking forward to this. He suddenly went to the machine and effort-
lessly pushed very hard. Before he arrived, four hired men could barely push 
it! When it was time for breakfast, they called for “Tuhinc” to come and join 
them. But he did not wish to and said that he wanted to wait for other people 
to be full first. While they were eating, he spun the machine with great haste. 
After their breakfast, the workers came back to the threshing floor and what 
did they see! The millet was ground and cleaned. They offered him some food. 
He needed neither a spoon nor a knife; he spread the food on his hands and 
licked it. It was then that they realized that this is the “devil”. He vanished 
in the same way as he had appeared (Kühar 1911: 144–145; Kelemina 1930). 
In Resia, and particularly in the village Stolvizza, people tell of the enormous 
Dardáj, named also Dardéj and Dardák, who lived under Indrinica, in the wilderness 

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of the mountains. The enormous Dardéj protected these people from their neighbour-
ing Biski or Bijani (the inhabitants of the village Bila), who were trying to take posses-
sion of their mountain horse pasture, by driving their horses over a rocky overhang. 
Consequently, the overhang has been named Konjski Plaz (Horse Landslide). After 
that, the war between the inhabitants of Oseaco/Bila and of Stolvizza/Solbica was 
over (Dapit, Kropej 1999: 43–44). 
POLIFEM THE CYCLOPS 
Slovene folk tradition has preserved the memory of the one-eyed giant, the 
cyclops Polifem from the Homer’s Odyssey. This ancient myth has been transferred 
into the international narrative folktale type ATU 1137 “The Blinded Ogre”. The 
story describes a young man who becomes a captive in the hands of a cruel cyclops 
Polifem, who is a sorcerer or a dog-head in Slovenian folktales.
The philologist Gregor Krek was the first to publish a Slovenian folktale from 
Štajerska about a one-eyed pesoglavec (a dog-head), who lived on a mountain near 
Rogatec. This tale narrates that the pesoglavec was hairy below the waist but had 
a human form above the waist: it fed on people, until four out of seven travellers 
pushed him on the knife which was set on the pole and blinded him (Krek 1882: 
42–52, 103–115, 155–174).
A similar story was recorded by Milko Matičetov in 1967 in Črni Vrh above 
Idrija. A boy who went into the forest was caught by the cyclops, who took him with 
him into his cave where he fed him on hazelnuts. The other dog-heads came to ask 
whether he has gained any weight. Eventually, the boy blinded the cyclops with a sharp 
stake and ran away across a stream, which the dog-heads could not pass, and was 
never again found by them (Matičetov 1967). In the 1970s in Resia, Milko Matičetov 
discovered another fairy tale “About a Great Fear” where Polifem is substituted with 
a grand sorcerer (Matičetov 1973).

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the Wild, the forest and the Mountain Men and WoMen
According the folk tradition, wild men (divji možje) and wild women (divje žene) 
lived mainly in forest and hills. They were heavily built, much more so than the fairies. 
They were also wilder and taller, and looked like savages. They were knowledgeable 
and were able to control nature and both animal and plant worlds and the weather as 
well, just like giants could. They could be benevolent to people, but also hostile and 
harmful. They were able to foretell future; the weather, the harvest, and also what 
would happen throughout the year. 
They gave advice when to sow and plant fava beans or other crops, so the harvest 
would be rich. They taught people how to make cheese, where to find medicinal herbs, 
how to grow crops, where to dig ore, etc. 
If people gave them food, they repaid them and helped them in the field, they 
brought back any lost cattle to the shepherds and game to hunters so they were able 
to hunt them down.
The wild men and women were also hostile. They could also kidnap people, 
kill them and steal their food, destroy their crops and take away their animals. The 
people tried to get rid of them, to catch or even kill them. They tricked them by using 
an object, which could be turned or curved in a wrong manner. Thus, they tried to 
catch a wild man by using a hatchet with an inverted blade or to tie him with evil 
grape vines or the Wayfaring Tree twisted in a wrong manner. 
The wild men and women were common all over Slovenia, but people named 
them in different ways. In some parts of Gorenjska and also in Resia they called 
them dujak, while they called them pogórni mož (mountain man) and pogórna žena 
(mountain woman) in other parts of Slovenia. In Velika Planina, they called them 
douji mož, in Koroška they were gózdni mož or gorni mož, around Triglav and also in 
Hostnik/forest man, Boris Kobe (Trdina 1970)

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