Myth and folktales

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it, broke their arms, or led them astray. She 
could foretell the death of a person during 
the next seven-year period (see acephalos).
Preklesa, 1) the cursed soul of a woman who 
had murdered her baby, returning to her 
home sobbing; 2) the soul of a dead person 
who had wronged others and returns home 
crying, begging the living to pray for it. Such 
a soul leaves traces, for example of hands. The 
house in which crying is heard is believed to 
be suffering a misfortune very shortly. 
Premog, see dragon
Premrl, see vampire
Prilog, see vampire
Rabolj, Rebolj. A supernatural being, the 
opponent of Zeleni Jurij (Green George) and 
a representative of winter and the chthonic 
world. The lore about the Rabolj has been 
preserved in Štajersko. The customs celebrat-
ing St. George’s Day (April 23 or 24) depict 
him as a young man clad in straw or in a fur 
coat fighting the Vesnik or Zeleni Jurij, thus 
symbolizing the struggle between winter 
and spring.
Rarašek, see wind
Repoštev (Rübezahl), a gigantic creature 
that helped farmers store firewood and gave 
presents to their children. The Slovenian lore 
about Repoštev was influenced by Johannes 
Praetorious’s work “Demonologia Rubinzalii 
Silesii” from 1662. It became widespread due 
to the German “Legenden von Rübezahl” by 
Musäus (1782–1787). When these stories were 
translated to Slovenian in 1857 Rübezahl be-
came Repoštev. In his story “Kako je Libercun 
drvaril” (How Libercun Was Cutting Wood) 
Fran Levstik translated a Bohemian legend 
and published it in the journal Vrtec in 1875.
Lit.: K. de Wyl: Rübezahl-Forschungen. Breslau 1909.
Returning dead, povratnik. A deceased per-
son who appears as a demonic corpse, usually 
talking and moaning, in places he or she 
had visited when alive. They occasionally 
even kill people. Recent studies distinguish 
between: 1) those who exhibit signs of life, 
particularly of moving and speaking, soon 
after dying, for example during the wake; 
2) those who punish people who desecrated 
their graves; and 3) those who are dead but 
appear alive, manifesting themselves in or-
der to take revenge; to settle a wrong; or to 
remind the living of a missed obligation. 
Stemming from the fear of the dead, the 
belief in the departed returning to the world 
of the living is as old as the humanity itself, 
and was further enhanced by unexplainable 
clinical phenomena, such as the clinically 
dead (see vampire, vedomec, werewolf). 
Lit.: L. C. Lecouteux: Geschichte der Gespenster und 
Wiedergänger im Mittelalter, Köln, Wien 1987.
Ris, see vampire
Rogatec, see wind
Rojenica, see fate, see desetnica
Sabida, Sobota (Saturday), Sv. Sobota (St 
Sabath, St. Sabida), Šebida. A female super-
natural being; a saint who ensures that the 
day Saturday dedicated to her is properly 
observed. The origin of Sabida is presumably 
in the cult of a prominent female deity of fer-
tility, cyclical renewal, and female chores. Ac-
cording to Biasutti, the numerous churches 
dedicated to this saint in the area of Aquileia 
possibly indicate that St. Sabida succeeded 
the Celtic goddess Belastis, the companion 
of god Belinus. St. Sabida was venerated pre-
dominantly in Friuli, to a smaller extent also 
in the western part of Slovenia (comp. Sabo-
tin), and in Poljanska Dolina where a church 
consecrated to her was erected in Bukov Vrh 
by Škofja Loka. Possibly due to the influence 
of the Jewish Sabbath, St. Sobota was later 

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replaced by Sv. Nedelja (St. Domenica). Since 
its name relates to a day of the week, there 
may be parallels with Sv. Petka (St. Friday) 
and with other personified days.
Lit.: G. Biasutti: 
Sante Sábide, Udine 1956; R. Bratož: 
Krščanstvo v Ogleju in na vzhodnem vplivnem območju 
oglejske cerkve od začetkov do nastopa verske svobode 
(Christianity in Aquileia and in the Eastern Area under 
the Sway of the Aquileian Church from Its Beginnings 
to the Onset of Religious Freedom). Acta ecclesiastica 
Sloveniae 8, Ljubljana 1986.
Salamander, meglenščak, viper. An extreme-
ly poisonous mythical animal hatched by a 
snake, with a short, stout body covered in 
short brownish hair. There is no cure for its 
bite. It was believed in Kras that a salamander 
grows from a viper whose head had not been 
crushed but merely severed from its body, 
and that the viper’s head becomes similar 
to a cat’s head. When angry, the salamander 
whistles loudly to summon vipers. If it was 
enraged, it may become so wild that it could 
peel the bark from trees. Salamanders live in 
swamps overgrown with shrubbery.
Salmsonar, see water sprite
Samorog, see unicorn
Satan, Belial, Beelzebub, Lucifer. A personi-
fication of the evil principle, very distinct in 
ancient Persian beliefs (Ahriman). From there 
it was adopted by Judaism as the fallen angel 
who became the leader of evil ghosts and 
demons, or the devils in hell. In the Old Tes-
tament, the term satan denoted an adversary. 
According to the Gospel of Luke (10:18) and 
Christian tradition, Satan is an angel who due 
to his insubordination to God was plunged 
into hell by Michael the Archangel. The Bible 
presents Satan as the snake that seduced the 
first human, or as the snake whose head was 
crushed by the Virgin Mary’s heel, or as the 
dragon defeated by Michael the Archangel. 
According to popular belief, Satan was equat-
ed with personified evil and with the devil.
Sea horse (morski konj). People living in the 
vicinity of Turjak in Dolenjska believed that 
under the church of St. Ahac was a void filled 
with water. It was allegedly inhabited by sea 
horses (see centaur).
Ses, see snake
Sever, see wind
Shaman, see witch doctor 
Silvan, Silvanus, Salvan, Salvanel, Deus Sil-
vanus. The Italic god of forests. In the Roman 
province of Illyria, Sylvanus was an impor-
tant deity associated with Mars; in Istria it 
was linked to Pan. In Slavic folklore, Silvan 
has been preserved as the man of the forest, 
the wild man (see wild man). A similar tradi-
tion is still alive among the Ladin-speaking 
inhabitants of the Dolomite region in Friuli 
as well as among the Rhaeto-Romanic popu-
lation; naming it Salvan, the latter imagine 
him as a very hairy wild man, sometimes 
short and at other times tall, who is capable of 
becoming invisible. Having preserved certain 
characteristics of the god Silvanus, Silvan is 
believed to be the protector of farmers and 
their herds.
Lit.: Aleksandar Stipčevič: 
Iliri. Zagreb 1974; M. Šašel Kos: 
Pre-Roman Divinities of the Eastern Alps and Adriatic. 
Situla: dissertationes Musei nationalis Sloveniae 38, Lju-
bljana 1999.
Sirena, see mermaid
Skok, a mythical animal that rises from a 
snake whose tail has been cut off, and which 
grows four paws afterward. The skok is alleg-
edly strong enough to be able to break even 
the sturdiest door.
Skrstnik, see Kresnik
Skuberl, see goblin

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