Myth and folktales

181
WanderinG souls
The soul, which is in Slovenian folklore often a person’s double, frequently 
roams the world by itself. Such wandering souls can appear in various forms. People 
imagined it as a haze or a breath of air that leaves the sleeping, or the dying person 
through their mouth; hence the word izdihniti (to give up the breath, the spirit; to 
expire). The souls may also dash across the night sky in the form of a mysterious light, 
or dances over the fields and through the woods. The souls can manifest in a form of 
an animal, for example a bird, frog, mouse, dormouse, butterfly, hornet, fly, moth, 
snake, dog, wolf, cat, goat, horse, bull, deer, or bear. But the soul may also appear in 
human form, especially as an evil old woman or man. 
These concepts were not widespread only in Slovenia. One such example is 
the story, which is widespread throughout Europe and in parts of Asia, about the 
human soul in the form of a hornet that leaves the human body in the middle 
of sleep and returns after some time. Its earliest record was found in the book 
“Historia Langobardorum” (Volume 3, Ch. 34), which was written by historian 
Paul the Deacon at the end of the 8
th
 century. It refers to border areas between 
Slovenia and Italy (Šmitek 2003: 5), which are the very areas in which the lore was 
preserved almost to this day about the so-called zduhač such as the vedomec, the 
banandant, and the kresnik. 
The soul can leave the body of a living human only during sleep or in a state of 
ecstasy. People often recounted how they travelled through unknown places while 
asleep. If the human is linked to an impure force the soul, upon leaving the body, 
performs evil deeds. The body of a witch, for example, ceases to breathe while her 
soul, disguised in many forms, steals crops or milk from cows, causes disease, and 
otherwise harms people.
The souls of those whose soul escapes during sleep are frequently embodied as 
insects such as flies, bees, hornets, and butterflies, but also as mice and other ani-
mals. The soul roams the world alone and afterwards returns to its body, but only if 
nothing stops it along the way. It cannot find its way back and return to its body if 
the sleeping person is moved during sleep. If, for example, the kresnik, the wizard, or 
the witch whose body the soul had left during sleep and flew through their mouth as 
a fly is moved, the soul will not find its way back and will circle the body in different 
forms for a long time (Šmitek 2003).
People firmly believed that people’s souls could leave their bodies. The 
European Inquisition testimonies from the 16
th
 and 17
th
 centuries mention souls 
in the form of butterflies and mice. In Friuli, such documents contain interesting 
information on the bandanants convicted of witchcraft. Some were accused of 

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leaving their body during sleep to fight witches and wizards, while others were 
believed that their spirit climbed through their mouth in the form of a mouse 
while they were fast asleep.
137
 
The soul, which in time of death separates from the body and leaves it in the form 
of wind, vapour, smoke, butterfly, moth, etc., was sometimes imagined as a small 
human with a transparent body or as a winged child. In antiquity, people believed 
that the soul has the form of a mouse, snake, or dolphin, and such beliefs have been 
preserved to this day. According to Ljubinko Radenković (1996), the soul of the 
deceased appears as the snake in the summer and as the wolf in winter. 
When a person died, his or her family opened windows and doors so the soul 
could leave the house. Believing that for forty days after death the soul visited familiar 
places and the grave where its body is buried, people usually set food on the grave. The 
most difficult obstacle for the soul of the deceased was allegedly water. According to 
a widespread belief primarily in the East Slavic popular tradition, St. Nicholas ferries 
souls to the after world (Mencej 1997).
In Slavic languages, the term nav used to denote the deceased or the after world. 
Hence, the Slovenian word navček, the death knell. On Christmas Eve, people some-
times prepared dinner that was to be consumed together with the souls of their ances-
tors called navi (deceased). The food had to be grain-based so it could be consumed 
by the souls that came as birds. It was also believed that afterwards, the souls of the 
deceased continue to appear until Ash Wednesday.
In Slovenian tradition, the term nav has also been preserved in the sense of the 
souls of the deceased, the navje. Many souls cannot find peace after death and return 
to the world of the living to which they are bound by a pledge, debt, unredeemed sin, 
murder, and the like. Among the souls that return to this world are also those that 
had not yet received their sacraments, were not buried in consecrated soil, remained 
unburied, or were cursed at the moment of their death. 
A cursed soul was also called a betrayed soul, sinful soul, plagued soul, unre-
deemed soul, poor soul or believer’s soul. Such haunted souls were imagined as per-
sonified, or materialized, deceased, or as headless spirits. A cursed soul could also 
appear as a burning hand, glowing light, or blue flame soaring high in the sky. Those 
who have died a violent death were believed to haunt their murderers.
Plagued souls allegedly appear also in a funeral procession as a group of headless 
people who come to night mass, particularly around All Saints Day and All Souls’ 
Day. Since on that day souls from purgatory return to their homes or roam around 
cemeteries and churches people should remain home. Many of these souls also attend 
night-time masses for the spirits. The plagued souls allegedly appear also as a shepherd 
in the middle of his glowing herd or as the nocturnal wild hunt. 
137 
More about this see: Mencej 1997.

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