Myth and folktales

218
birds, the souls of unbaptized children sit on 
willow trees along water, waiting to be shaken 
off their trees and thus redeemed. Bewitched 
souls may be saved by prayer, pilgrimage, fast-
ing, fulfilling their plea, providing a correct 
answer to their lament, for example “Peace 
be with you!”, etc. Also helpful are the use of 
blessed water; prayer; and settling an injustice. 
By casting a spell over them, the pope allegedly 
bewitched such ghosts into rocky masses. (See 
also: brezglavljek, movje, preklesa).
Blagodéj, a giant supernatural being that helps 
those discriminated against. Living in the 
mountains situated between Bohinj and the 
Vipava valley, he was claimed to appear in vari-
ous forms. It was believed that Blagodej 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 Blagodej. A similar legend, Kako je 
Libercun drvaril (Libercun Logging), was 
published by Fran Levstik in 1875. The lore of 
Blagodej originates from notions about super-
natural beings inhabiting nature (see giants). 
Lit.: A. von Mailly: 
Leggende del Friuli e delle Alpi Giulie. 
Edizione critica a cura di M. Matičetov, Gorizia 1989.
Blagonič, see goblin
Bog, see God 
Bóžič, see Svarog
Bóžja déklica, see washerwoman
Brbúč, a supernatural being with which 
adults in Dolenjska frightened children away 
from reservoirs, wells, and brooks to prevent 
them from drowning. In Uršna Sela and in 
Laze by Novo Mesto people used to say that 
springs and wells are the abode of the brbuč 
who can pull disobedient children into water. 
Lit.: A. Hudoklin, 
O frlinkah in Brbučih z Radohe (On the 
Water Caves and the 
Brbuči of Radoha). Bilten Jamarskega 
kluba Novo mesto 1991, 19–20.
Brézec, see devil
Brezglávec, see achephalos
Brezglávljek (head-less), in Prekmurje, this 
was the term for a deceased or stillborn child 
who had not yet been baptized. These souls 
were believed to appear as lights floating 
above the ground at nighttime or in dusk, 
generally near graveyards. Crying, they flew 
very high and sometimes extremely rapidly, 
and were headless. They could be chased 
away by cursing, but were attracted to pray-
ing people since prayer could accelerate their 
redemption (see movje).
Lit.: D. Rešek, 
Brezglavjeki (The Brezglavljeki), Ljubljana 
(Zbirka Glasovi) 1995.
Brgánt, see Kresnik
Budekić, in Resia, this was the general term 
for children who had not been baptized prior 
to their death (see movje).
Centaur, (polkonj), a supernatural being with 
the torso of a human and the lower part of 
the body of a horse. Centaurs allegedly lived 
in groups by water or in hills frequently 
flooded by water. Reports on centaurs have 
been preserved in Štajerska, Gorenjska, and 
Slavia Veneta. The Slovenian lore about these 
beings shares the same origin as the ancient 
lore on the centaurs whose name, according 
to Kretschmer, denotes “to whip water.” The 
half-horses personified the churning, froth-
ing water, and thus the wild, untamed forces 
of nature, particularly of water. According to 
the later lore from Slavia Veneta, the centaurs 
were persecuting Christians much like the 
cynocephals.
Lit.: M. Grošelj: 
Konj iz vode in ime Kentavrov (The Horse 
from the Water and the Name Centaur), Slovenski etno-
graf 5, 1952; M. Matičetov: 
Ime Kentavrov in konji v robiški 
pravljici (The Name Centaur and Horses in a Tale from 
Robedišče). Slovenski etnograf 6-7, 1953-1954.

---

219
Changeling, podmenek, premenk, obran’s 
child. A creature of unusual appearance, for 
instance with an enlarged head, black and 
screaming; with a hearty, impossible-to-
satisfy appetite. The podmenek is customar-
ily a substitute for a human child taken by 
a supernatural being, in Slovenian folklore 
customarily the devil, the wild woman, the 
škopnik, or the water sprite. The exchange can 
be caused by a curse, by incorrect behaviour 
of the godparents who were taking the baby 
to baptism, particularly if they neglected to 
cross the child at a crossroads, etc. This motif 
appears in the folk song “The Child changed 
in the Crib” (SLP I, no. 35) and in the legends 
“The Devil Takes Away St. Lawrence”. The 
latter originated from the apocryphal legend 
in which the infant St. Lawrence (sometimes 
also St. Benedict or St. Stephen) was replaced 
by the devil. According to lore, the child is 
returned to his or her parents if the change-
ling is exposed; given a cup of porridge 
and a spoon too large for the cup; or beaten 
with hazel switches until the human child 
is thrown back. Spread throughout Europe 
where the substitute is known as Wechselbalg, 
changeling,  bytting or odmenik, the lore 
about the podmenek is also known outside 
Europe. Its origins are in the belief in an evil 
spirit that settles among humans; in exor-
cism; and in folk explanations of the birth of 
handicapped children who were believed to 
be the children of supernatural beings. 
Lit.: L. Röhrich: 
Die Wechselbalg-Ballade. Festschrift 
zum 65. Geburtstag Bruno Schiers, Göttingen 1967; M. 
Matičetov: 
Il bimbo rapito dalla culla e sostituito con 
uno spurio. Demologia e folklore, Studi in memoria di 
Giuseppe Cocchiara, Palermo 1974.
Cyclops, (kiklop), in Greek mythology, the 
cyclops are one-eyed giants who are the sons 
of Uranus and Gaia. A section of Homer’s 
Odyssey, which tells of Odysseus sailing to 
Sicily where the cyclops lived, has become 
a part of folklore. A cyclops by the name of 
Polyphemus devoured six of the crew while 
the rest managed to save themselves. After 
blinding him with a red-hot pole, Odysseus 
bound each of his sailors to the underbelly 
of a sheep that was then put to pasture by 
Polyphemus, and they managed to get out of 
the cave and onto their ship safely. In Slove-
nia, the cyclops was generally equated with 
the cynocephals. The one-eyed cynocephalus 
allegedly living in a mountain near Rogatec 
had a human torso and was hairy below 
the waist. He subsisted on people until four 
out of seven travellers pushed him onto an 
open jack knife that put his eye out. As late 
as 1967, M. Matičetov wrote down in Črni 
Vrh above Idrija a story about a boy who 
went to a forest. Caught by a cyclops with 
an eye in the middle of his forehead, the boy 
was taken to a cave and fed nuts every day 
while other cynocephali kept coming by to 
see if he had gained any weight yet. The boy 
finally blinded the cyclops with a sharpened 
stake and escaped across a stream which the 
cynocephali were not able to cross.
Lit.: G. Krek: 
Polyfem v narodnej tradiciji slovanskej. Kres 2, 
Celovec 1882; M. Matičetov: 
La fiaba di Polifemo a Resia. 
Festschrift für Robert Wildhaber, Basel 1973.
Cynocephalus, see pasjeglavec
Čarostrélec, see Jarnik
Čarovnica, see witch 
Čaróvnik, see wizard 
Čas, see time
Častitka, see fairy
Čatež, a mythical creature in human form 
above the waist and as a male goat below it, 
complete with horns and beard. According 
to the tradition from east and west Slovenia, 
it lives in mountains, forests, and marshy 
areas. Able to alter its size, the čatež brings 
clear water to loggers, picks berries and cuts 
switches for shepherds, etc. Sources of drink-

---