Myth and folktales

194
named Žirovec who died in Tomišelj beneath Mt. Krim about fifty years ago. 
Žirovec was a rich and thoughtful man but he turned into a vampire after 
his death. He became the Vedomec, as the locals call such a person. As the 
deceased from Tomišelj were buried by their parish church in Ig, Žirovec 
was taken there when he died. But what happened shortly afterwards? He 
started to rise from his grave at night and went to his wife in Tomišelj and 
spent nights with her, just as he had done when he was still alive. Even to 
this day the old men who had known him are still alive. They often saw 
him sitting on a rock near his house, putting on his one and only sock. […] 
Although he never hurt his neighbours, all were afraid of him, which is 
hardly surprising. 
The parish priests of Golo and Ig decided to put an end to this werewolf’s 
behaviour. They opened his grave, drove a hawthorn stake through his heart, 
and covered the grave again. He was never seen in Tomišelj again, and his 
wife, poor soul, went insane with fear and sadness. They say that when the 
werewolf felt the stake going through his heart, he cried out: “Oh, now you 
got me caught!” And his wife gave birth to the vampire’s child (Wiesthaler 
1883: 703–704; Kelemina 1930: no 97/I). 
Three names are blended in this story: the vampire, the vedomec, and the volkod-
lak (the werewolf); people often confused them. 
Besides the description of sexual activities of the vampire, which resulted in the 
birth of his child, the story repeats the method of disabling the vampire by planting 
a hawthorn stake through his heart, as in the aforementioned example of the woman 
in Bovec who turned into a vampire. Since ancient times, hawthorn is believed to 
possess special powers against witches and vampires. Even in 1955, people told Milko 
Matičetov stories about similar sexual abuse of vampires in Novigrad in Istria, Obrov, 
and Ložan (Maily/Matičetov 1989: 187).
Vampires were believed dangerous mostly for those who were vulnerable, for 
example people living in houses that had no protection against vampires. At risk were 
also infants in cradles whose family had not made the sign of the cross over them 
before leaving the house. Equally endangered were children living on farms where 
neither a dog nor a rooster made a sound when the vampire flung a stone from the 
cemetery across the farmhouse. Such a child could have its brains and blood sucked 
out from its body.
150
 While the extinguished fire on the hearth gave the vampire 
power, his power would vanish in front of a church or a crucifix.
Fran Erjavec wrote about the premrl (the stiff) in Zemono by Notranjska Bistrica. 
At night, the creature came to the hearth and regurgitated red clay (“premrl’s blood”), 
150 
Matevž Ravnikar-Poženčan, manuscript, NUK: MS 483, XI.

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195
also called “prelog’s blood” (Erjavec 1883: 228). In Primorsko, people believed that 
the premrl could enter a house at night, regurgitate the sucked blood, and cook it 
during the night, particularly if the kettle had been left hanging in the hearth, which 
was forbidden. If the person whose blood had been sucked at night ingests premrl’s 
blood, that person would be cured.
Vampires could be disabled not only with the hawthorn pole but also by cutting 
off the corpse’s head and placing it between the feet, or by being burned. They were 
buried “on their teeth”, i.e. facing the ground, or had a nail driven through their 
body. In Bela Krajina, stepmothers were given iron coils under the tongue during 
the burial so the vidovina, or the lynx, would not rise from the grave and destroy the 
entire family (Šašelj 1906: 216; Kelemina 1930: no 97/V). 
The belief in vampires was particularly widespread in the Balkans and among 
the Slavs, but was also known in other parts of Europe and among non-European 
peoples. The stories about Count Dracula became popular in the 20
th
 century, 
especially as a literary genre and in motion pictures. Nosferatu, a character from 
a novel by Bram Stoker (1847–1912), had been inspired by the lore on vampires and 
on Count Dracula that allegedly lived in Transylvania in Hungary. Many movies 
were based on this novel, for example Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922); 
Dance of the Vampires; and Nosferatu, Phantom of the Night. In the spirit of the 
modern age, numerous computer games are being generated,
151
 and fans of Dracula 
even have their own fan clubs and organize events dedicated to him, particularly 
in the United States. 
151 
More about this see: Govednik 2007.

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196
volkodlak
Oral tradition interpreted the volkodlak in different ways, depicting it as a 
supernatural being and as a man that changes into a wolf. People envisioned the 
volkodlak (werewolf) as:
 - A being that occasionally transforms into a wolf or into of a half-man and 
half-wolf;
 - A person already marked from birth that he will periodically transform into a 
wolf. The signs pointing to this are the following: his body is covered in wolf 
fur; he has a wolf’s teeth in his mouth; the baby is born in its caul; or delivered 
by breech birth;
 - A person who has the ability to turn into a wolf at will;
 - A person who is cursed because of his sins or because his mother has cursed 
or bewitched him so the upper half of his body (or even the whole body) is that 
of a wolf. In a folktale from Dolenja Vas by Ribnica in Dolenjska, the mother 
cursed her sons by saying, as she threw them some bread: “Here you are, you 
damn werewolves!” (Levec 1883: 772; Kelemina 1930: no. 67). 
 - A man who, due to his sins, turns into a wolf forty days after his death, when an 
evil spirit inhabits and reanimates him.
The werewolf of the Slovene popular tradition has many names, for example 
okodlak, kodlak, verkodlak, and also likantrop (from ancient reports on Lycaon).
As has already been mentioned, the werewolves were often equated with vampires 
and the vedomec. Like the vampire, the werewolf sucks blood from adults but even 
more frequently from children if their mother curses them during the day. 
Sexual vampirism is another characteristic the werewolf shares with the vampire. 
In a tale from Dolenjsko, a werewolf in human form courted a girl. She bore him twins, 
one of which was white and the other furry. The werewolf killed the white one. The furry 
child grew into a werewolf that was even fiercer than the father (Kelemina 1930: no. 65).
In Friuli, people believed that the werewolves were people with wolf skin that 
sucked blood from those who were asleep or even dead at times, which is similar to 
necrophilia (Ostermann 1940).
Closer to the vedomci is the tradition of the werewolves who roll in the remains 
in the field, turn into creatures that resemble the vedomci, and then fight the kresniks 
at the crossroads or in the fields. To prevent this, over Christmas one should not leave 
manure that had not been ploughed into the soil in the field. Otherwise a werewolf 
would appear and beat the kresnik who guards the home. The werewolf can also turn 
into a wolf by rolling in the manure or over a molehill.

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