Myth and folktales

185
Gorenjska, Matevž Ravnikar-Poženčan recorded a tale about the vedomci that appear 
at night as lights in marshy areas, trying to lead people astray and making them 
wander around aimlessly.
vedamec
Assuming different shapes, the vedamec usually torments and irritates people. 
It is sometimes called “the moth” (veša), and in this case in usually appears 
in numbers. People say that “that person was led around all night by moths.” 
The moth appears as a light on the marsh. Although much is known about 
the Vedamec, I did not have the chance to find out about it.
143
In Gorenjska, the navje was called vedamec or the veša (moth). The people of 
Bohinj called those who were sleepwalking the ujedanc or the vedanc. The confusion 
in naming is therefore clearly apparent. The meaning of the vedomec may be, as has 
already been mentioned, very different. Like the kresniks, some of the vedomci could 
be people whose soul occasionally escaped from their body.
In Prekmurje, the soul of an unborn child is called preklesa. Filled with sadness, 
the preklesa keeps returning to its home to weep. The term also denoted the soul of a 
deceased person who had wronged someone.
144
 Moreover, the soul of the child who 
had died before having been baptized in Prekmurje, was called brezglavljek (headless) 
or brezglavac. Such souls were believed to fly headless, high in the air, sometimes at 
high speed, weeping. At night and at dusk they looked like lights floating above the 
ground, generally appearing near cemeteries. They could be chased away by profani-
ties. They tended to come close to those who were praying as prayer could contribute 
to their redemption. In 1911, Števan Kühar published the following story:
Bräzglaväc (the headless)
In the evening, when it gets dark, and in the morning before dawn, you can 
often see a bright light akin to a candle, which is flying at high speed not high 
above the ground. This is Bräzglaväc (the Headless). They say that these are the 
souls of the deceased children who had not been baptized before their death. 
Once there was a man, Bratončar he was called, who early in the morning 
was driving in his cart to fetch a confessor. As the cart left the village numer-
ous headless souls came to the cart. Frightened, Bratončar started to pray but 
this didn’t help at all. The more he crossed himself the more of them came 
to the cart. Finally, he got angry and started to swear, and then they swiftly 
disappeared (Kühar, Novak 1988: 147, no. 46).
143 
Matevž Ravnikar-Poženčan, manuscript, NUK, MS 483, XI, no. 12.
144 
Kühar 1911: no 48; Kelemina 1930: 161–162, no. 107.

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186
The lore about the brezglavljeki (the Headless) in Prekmurje was still alive at the 
end of the 20
th
 century when Dušan Rešek recorded the following story.
Brezglavljeki (the headless souls)
Stillborn children and those who died without baptism were called the 
brezglavljeki (headless souls). They are buried outside the cemetery. People 
recounted that these children were miserable. Since they weren’t been baptized 
they could not go to heaven.
Many people who at night were passing the cemetery on their way home saw 
them, and also heard their moans (Rešek 1995: 49, no. 14).
The souls of children in Slovenian folklore appeared in many shapes, most fre-
quently as small lights floating in the darkness; as rays of light; burning candles; birds 
perching on a willow tree; black birds; moths; and, as indicated above, as headless 
shiny beings. If such a soul was redeemed, it would fly into the sky as a white dove.
Cursed souls
Due to their grievous sins, the souls of some deceased people were bewitched or 
cursed and had to roam places where they had committed their crimes as horrific 
night apparitions. In addition to these, this group includes those who had died a 
violent death, especially beheaded criminals, as well as those who had committed a 
crime during their lifetime but were never punished for it. They were often imagined 
as headless demonic beings (acéphalous), Perhaps the headlessness is associated with 
popular notions that have their source in literature on witchcraft and magic, where 
the acéphalos was worshipped as an omniscient god.
Although the cursed souls appear individually, they may also be in groups, 
attending nocturnal processions, night mass, or in the company of the wild hunt 
(see Wild Hunt).
Among the cursed souls that keep returning to this world, either due to their 
sins or because of their “impure death”, are the meraši, the džilerji (engineers), the 
brezglavci (headless), the svečniki (candle heads), the preklese (cursed), the preglavice 
(troubles), and a number of other cursed souls that may appear in human form or 
as dogs, cats, frogs, or as moths gathering around a burning candle. Similarly to 
the souls of unbaptized children, they can be often seen as wandering lights or as 
burning candles. 

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187
The meraš (the one measuring), Gvidon Birolla (Möderndorfer 1957)
In Slavia Veneta, a restless soul was depicted as a wandering light or as hovering 
fire (the fuch voladi). If a reflection of the hovering fire fell upon the laundry drying 
out at night the person who would later wear such garments would get erysipelas, 
commonly called fuch di San Antoni (St. Anthony’s fire), or pains, or would even go 
insane due to intoxication with the ergot of rye.
145
The most common crime committed by these souls before their death was the 
shifting of boundary stones and theft of land. Those who had stolen their neighbour’s 
land appear after death as spirits wheeling a wheelbarrow in which they transport 
stolen soil, or else they shift boundary stones. According to the lore, they could be 
saved if one answered their question of “Where can I place it?” with “Where you had 
taken it from.” Among supernatural beings who have to return the land they had 
stolen from their neighbours, are the meraši, the džileri, and the brezglavci. This nar-
rative motif, which is also known outside Slovenia, was borrowed by Anton Aškerc 
for his ballad Mejnik (The Boundary Stone). 
The meraš (the one measuring), also called merar or džiler (engineer), rest-
lessly wanders at night, waiting for redemption. The lore about these beings, which 
were believed to shift boundary stones at nighttime, has been preserved primarily 
145 
Mailly, Matičetov 1989: 59: no. 8.

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