Myth and folktales

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his valuable suggestions and advice. My thanks also go to Andrej Pleterski, and 
Robert Dapit, whose contribution to this book was crucial and invaluable. I also 
wish to extend my sincere thanks to all my friends and colleagues that had provided 
help in clarifying certain problems and issues, particularly to Nikolai Mikhailov, 
Vlado Nartnik, Helena Ložar Podlogar, Zmago Šmitek, Mirjam Mencej, Ljubinko 
Radenković and Emily Lyle. I am indebted also to Marko Terseglav for his tireless 
reading of the text, corrections, and suggestions, and to Vanja Huzjan who assisted 
me in the preparation of the bibliography, and Stanka Drnovšek for her technical 
expertise and preparation of illustrations. I am also deeply dedicated to the former 
secretary Albina Štrubelj, for improving the Archives of the Institute of Slovenian 
Ethnology. My final and foremost thanks go to the Scientific Research Centre of the 
Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which enables me to conduct and publish 
my research.

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COSMOLOGY
Mythology in Slovenia, such as has been retained to the present, is the result of 
centuries of transformation and modification. Numerous migrations of various peo-
ples, and many different social and historic occurrences as well as political changes 
are preserved in the memory of Slovenian myths, which are reflected today through 
the narrative and mythopoetic tradition. 
It is possible to discern in folk tradition not only the memory of “lower” super-
natural beings but also of some old gods – mostly Slavic, Celtic, and Roman – and 
the related cosmological ideas of older beliefs. Although sometimes difficult to 
identify, various old religious concepts have been retained to the present day. By 
employing comparative, semiotic, and cognitive mythologies, they can be at least 
partially reconstructed, and certain elements of ancient religions may be discerned 
within them.
The first part of this text explores the tradition about deities and cosmological 
notions of Slovenia’s ancestors. Presented are the Old Slavic and indigenous deities 
that have been preserved as supernatural beings to this very day, so to speak. This 
study does not include those that, although historically documented, have not been 
preserved in Slovenian folk tradition in the form of records or memories. Therefore, 
it deals neither with certain Old Slavic gods such as Dažbog, Živa, and Hors, for 
example, nor with the majority of Roman and Celtic deities such as Ekvorna, Epona, 
Carna, Laburnus, Savus and Adsaluta. The starting point of this study is thus the 
Slovenian narrative and song tradition that speaks about supernatural beings and 
religious beliefs. In part, it also contains a comparison with the related customs and 
The fight between the Good and the Bad, Jože Karlovšek, 1955, Archive ISN ZRC SAZU

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rituals preserved in the Slovenian ethnic territory. The analysis takes into account 
certain available historical sources, which bear witness to the history and culture 
in Slovenia.
The names of supernatural beings, and hence the titles of individual chapters, 
have been preserved in popular form and variants. Even in cases in which a different 
name would be more suitable, such as “the master of wolves” instead of “the wolf 
shepherd”, for example, the text uses the more prevalent popular name. 

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Creation of the World
In Slovenian folk tradition, the creation of the world has been explained in 
different ways. The narratives that have been preserved to this day describe many 
cosmogonical concepts, but the credibility of these, largely literary, sources is prob-
lematic. However, since Slovene sources contain a number of motifs that may be 
compared with cosmological narrative motifs of other nations, some of the latter 
have been included in this study. 
Upon closer examination of cosmological myths, it becomes evident that water 
has a primary role in many of them. Water symbolizes the primordial matter that is 
necessary for the creation of a new world. Hindu texts state that “All was water, and 
the vast expanse of water had no banks.” The Bible declares: “The spirit of God was 
spread above the waters.” According to ancient Greek myths, Gaia the Earth (the 
firstborn child of Chaos) was the mother of the sky and the sea, namely of Uranus 
and Pontos.
The concept of primordial waters at the beginning of the world is almost 
universal. It is often in conjunction with the myth of the diving animal or deity 
that brings a grain of sand – the future world – to the surface of the waters. In 
American and Asian traditions, this animal is generally a bird or a turtle (Count 
1952, 55–62), whereas in Hindu mythology, it is a boar or the god Vishnu (Šmitek 
2004, 11–12).
Ivan Grafenauer closely studied cosmological tales in Slovenia. He compared the 
Slovenian material with related traditions of a number of peoples, not only in Europe 
but also in other continents (Grafenauer 1942, 2–43; Grafenauer 1944, 77–80). He 
drew extensively from the cultural-historical studies of Wilhelm Schmidt, author of 
the comprehensive Der Ursprung der Gottesidee (Schmidt 1926–1940). Upon compar-
ing Trdina’s tales with a large number of international sources, Grafenauer discovered 
a surprising similarity of such cosmological myths on different continents. 
Many years later, Zmago Šmitek (2004, 12–14) continued Grafenauer’s research 
and compared these myths with the Indo-European tradition. According to his stud-
ies, different ways of the creation of the world, which can be found in cosmogonic 
myths, may be classified in several groups: 1) The formation of the world without 
divine influence. In these tales, the world may rise from the sea in the form of an 
island, or else may appear after the waters of the Flood have drained. 2) Creation by 
divine intervention. God may create the world with his gaze; from chaos or from 
“nothing”, just by uttering certain words; or else God, or a waterfowl, an amphibian, 
etc. may lift the world from the seabed. In some cases, God commands Satan to dive 
into the water and bring to the surface a handful of soil.

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