Myth and folktales

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perform women’s chores, bake bread, etc. 
Particularly on Saturday evenings, it was 
not advisable to venture out of the house, 
and those who disobeyed beheld screeching 
apparitions with tousled hair and aggres-
sive gazes. According to popular belief, the 
Kvatrnica came at night to houses in which 
women continued to perform their typically 
female chores and punished them by cooking 
them or else reducing them to shreds. They 
brought a thousand misfortunes to the houses 
of the young men and women who disobeyed 
the ban on working and Ember Days rules.
Kvatrnik, see Kvatra
Laber, see goblin 
Labus, see goblin 
Lada, ládarica, ládavica, ladekarica, líla, 
olálija. A girl adorned with flowers who goes 
carol-singing (gnat lado) from door to door 
on Midsummer Day (see kresnica) with other 
young women.
Largo borgo, see orko
Lesnik, see goblin 
Linčeza, see snake 
Lintvern, see dragon
Lorgo, see orko
Lucia (Lucy), Licija, Luca, Lucka. Mid-winter 
female apparition. This female supernatural 
being appears in Southeast European folklore 
on December 13, which, according to the 
Julian calendar is the beginning of winter. 
During their rounds in Štajersko, Prekmurje, 
and the Porabje, Lucias threaten children to 
put out their eyes but occasionally they also 
bring them gifts. Like Pehtra Baba, Lucia 
brings light, helping the sun to shine more 
brightly during the dark and cold winter 
months. Under the influence of Benedictine 
monasteries, the original mid-winter de-
ity was later Christianized into St. Lucia. 
The veneration of St. Lucia was particularly 
widespread during the Middle Ages and in 
the Baroque period.
Lit: L. Kretzenbacher: 
Santa Lucia und die Lutzelfrau. 
Volksglauben und Hochreligion im Spannungsfield 
Mittel- und Südosteuropass, Südeuropäische Arbeiten 
53, München 1959.
Lucifer, see Satan
Malabant, see vedomec
Malavar, molávr, molávar, baláver, a mythi-
cal animal similar to a large black lizard with 
a cock’s comb on its head and a diamond be-
neath the comb. The malavar was so poison-
ous that his breath alone could kill a human. 
In this, it resembles not only the basilisk but 
even more the mythical fiery salamander, 
which in Tyrol is called Tattermandl. The 
malavar lore has been preserved in Primor-
sko to this day.
Malič, see dwarf
Mamalič, see water sprite
Marant, Marant the Dog, an apparition in 
the shape of a dog that in the area of Pohorje 
announces the approaching death by barking 
around houses. The lore about the dog who 
announces death has also been preserved 
in Kozjak. In other places, death could be 
preceded by a dog’s howling, the barking of 
a rooster, the hooting of an owl, meowing 
sounds around a house, if a chicken crowed 
like a rooster, and so on. 
Matek, see netek
Matica, see mermaid
Matoha, see Mokoš

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Mavje, see movje
Meglenščak, see salamander
Meraš, mérar,  džíler,  džílejr,  engineer. A 
restless ghost roaming at night, waiting for 
redemption, whose lore has been preserved 
particularly in Prekmurje and Koroška. 
Sometimes holding a lantern, it appears dur-
ing night time as a large headless man. He 
measures the fields or pushes a wheelbarrow 
loaded with soil that he had stolen, trying to 
return it. He has been punished for having 
ploughed under the boundary stone in the 
field. According to popular belief, he can be 
redeemed if a person answers his question 
“Where can I place it?” with “Wherever you 
had taken it!” This motif inspired Aškerc to 
write his famed ballad Mejnik (Boundary 
Stone).
Lit.: D. Rešek: 
Brezglavjeki (The Headless) Ljubljana 1995.
Mermaid, nymph, mática, povodkinja, pov-
odnica, sirena, agane (in Friuli, age denotes 
water). An eternally beautiful maiden with 
a fishtail, or clad in green or blue, living 
in deep, clear waters. Mermaids were be-
lieved to swim to the banks on clear nights, 
dance, sing, and bathe. Sirens sing on moonlit 
nights, between eleven and twelve, to lure 
humans in water. Like some other female 
fairy beings, mermaids could marry a hu-
man (like the French Melusine) and bear 
children. When anticipating that such a child 
would turn bad later in life, the mermaid 
mother murdered her baby immediately 
after birth. Offering advice or helping with 
chores, mermaids could bring prosperity to a 
household. When offended by someone, or if 
people whistled, screamed, or cracked whips 
at night, they would leave.
Mital, see water sprite
Modras (horned viper, adder). According to 
the lore from Soča Valley and Kras, the viper 
cools down the water. Modras lives in all cold 
springs but before they climb into water they 
leave their poison on a rock, which is why 
they do not bite in water. In Bohinj and its 
vicinity, any snake was called “viper”.
Mokoš, Mokóška, Mátoha, Mátoga. A Slavic 
deity of fertility, guardian of female chores, 
particularly spinning, weaving, and launder-
ing. The root mok- denotes wet, damp, and 
mot- to wind up or to spin; motok denotes 
a spindle. Mokoška, or mlakoš, is also the 
term used for the wader. Water and spinning 
played the central role in the fertility cult and 
in the cyclic renewal of this female deity who 
might come to a house at night time to spin. 
Typologically, the deity resembles archaic 
goddesses of Iran. The memory of Mokoš 
has been preserved in mid-winter deities, for 
example the Pehtra Baba. Typical offerings 
to Mokoš included a tuft of wool, a sheaf of 
flax, and doilies. Female spinners and weav-
ers were forbidden to work on days dedicated 
to these chores, particularly on Ember Days 
and at night time. According to lore, Torka 
(Tuesday woman), Petka (Paraskeva), Kvatra 
(Ember Day woman), and after Christiani-
zation also St. Gertrude, assumed the role 
of the protectors of spinning, weaving, and 
laundering. There was a saying that a mouse 
helped St. Gertrude by biting off the thread, 
which signified the arrival of spring and the 
end of the spinning period. 
Lit.: V. V. Ivanov, V. N. Toporov, 
K rekonstrukciji Mokoši kak 
ženskogo personaža v slavjanskoj versii osnovnogo mifa. 
Balto-slavjanskie issledovanija, Moskva 1983, 175–197.
Molavar, see malavar
Monoceros, see unicorn
Mora (mare,  nightmare,  incubus), múra, 
trúta, tróta-móra, šnjáva, krípijavka, ozin, 
vuzin. An apparition in human-, animal-, or 
supernatural form. Able to change form and 
even crawl through a keyhole or a crack. It 

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