Myth and folktales

214
one of the individuals accused of witchcraft in their community.
172
 As some stories tell 
us, a fixed procedure was established on how to recognize wizards. “St. Lucia’s stool” 
was known throughout all of Slovenia and elsewhere across Eastern Europe. This is 
a footstool whose construction had to begin on St. Lucia’s day (13
th
 December) and 
it had to be completed on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. It had to be constructed 
from nine, twelve, thirteen or a similar magic number of different kinds of wood; 
sometimes only from male trees and each day a new kind of wood had to be added. 
During construction other rules could also apply; for instance, the person making 
the stool had to work in silence.
People protected themselves against witches with blessed gunpowder, a priest’s 
stole, salt, holy water, clothing turned inside-out etc. As protection they stuck birch 
or linden tree branches on windows and doors, especially on the feast of Corpus 
Christi and at Pentecost, and flowers at the time of the summer solstice. They also 
protected themselves with Duhovna bramba (Spiritual Defence) or Hišna bramba 
(House Defence), booklets that protected against all misfortunes.
People often assumed that the causes of their misfortunes or illnesses were spells, 
which were actions, threats or phrases spoken against people or animals. People 
believed that a person could also be cast under a spell with an evil eye. Such a spell 
could be cast unintentionally. It could be caused by a look from a person with black 
eyebrows that met in the middle, or from curious old women, or from people who 
had a wonderstruck or astonished expression. Illnesses were treated in various ways 
by herbalists and healers. Often they would pray over the stricken and pronounce 
magic spells. Numerous charms for dealing with various sicknesses and curses are 
still known.
173
Love spells were varied. People prepared different concoctions from various 
ingredients so that the chosen person would fall in love with them. Girls would boil 
a young man’s hair in a pot so he would pay them an evening visit. Often various 
aphrodisiacs were prepared. Frequently girls predicted future love from flowers and 
believed that an elder tree helped conjure up their future husband. On the night of 
the summer solstice and during the May night, girls practiced sorcery to see their 
future husband.
Much has been written on black magic, witches and wizards,
174
 but this book 
discusses supernatural beings, while witches and wizards appear as such mainly in 
fairy tales.
172 
More about this see: Mencej 2006.
173 
More about this see: Dolenc, Makarovič 1999; Kropej 2009.
174 
See: Blecourt 1999; Ginzburg 1966; id. 1989; Pócs 1999; Mencej 2006.

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215
DICTIONARY OF SLOVENIAN 
SUPERNATURAL BEINGS
Acephalous (brezglávec), a headless demon. 
Since antiquity, people believed that demoni-
cal spirits or the souls who could not find 
peace after death, either because they had 
died a violent death or had committed a crime 
themselves but went unpunished; or were be-
headed, appear without heads. They return in 
a procession at nighttime, during a night mass, 
or accompanied by the wild hunt. Slavic lore is 
also inhabited by headless spirits of nature. In 
literature on witchcraft, the aképhalos was ven-
erated as a god to whom everything is palpable. 
Ahasuerus (Ahasver), also called The Wan-
dering Jew, The Eternal Jew, The Eternal 
Cobbler, The Forest Shoemaker, is named 
after Ahasuerus, a king of ancient Persia 
who was among those responsible for Ha-
man’s persecution of Jews. Ahasuerus first 
appeared in literature and lore through pil-
grims’ reports in the 13
th
 century. According 
to these, Jesus Christ, bearing the heavy cross 
to the hill of Golgotha, wished to stop by a 
cobbler’s house to rest but was driven away 
by the cobbler Ahasuerus. As punishment, 
Ahasuerus is forced to roam the world until 
the Final Judgement. Written in chronicles 
and enacted in folk plays, the story has been 
incorporated into literary folklore as the 
international narrative type ATU 777 (The 
Wandering Jew). It has also spread around 
the Slovenian territory and was recorded by 
Matevž Ravnikar-Poženčan in the middle of 
the 19
th
 century (see the Wild Hunter).
Lit.: F. Kotnik: Andreas Shustar Drabosnjakov Ahasver. 
Dom in svet 1922, 391; L. Kretzenbacher: Ahasver in der 
Steiermark. Festschrift für Karl Haiding zu 75 Geburtstag, 
(Hgg.: V. Hänsen, S. Waltr-Liezen), 1981, 279–289; G. 
Hasan-Rokem, A. Dundes: The Wandering Jew. Essays in 
the Interpretation of a Christian Legend. Bloomington 1986.
Ajd, hájd, ajdovska déklica (pagan girl), grk 
(Greek man), rimska déklica (Roman girl), 
lah (Italian man), oger. Giants: according 
to folklore, the exceedingly tall ajdi were 
ancient people living in mountains. The 
name ajd is derived from the German Heide 
(pagan). Prehistoric and ancient artefacts 
and tumuluses were frequently interpreted 
as the remains of pagan structures whose 
inhabitants were thought to have often been 
bewitched to remain in the ruins. According 
to some tales, the giants were destroyed by 
the pasjeglavci (the dog-headed, see: pas-
jeglavec). One of the many tales about the 
giants tells of a pagan girl who carried away 
in her apron several people and animals 
but was ordered by her father to place them 
back (ATU 701). In Bela Krajina, the giants 
were called Greeks. The lore about the giants 
was later combined with the popular notion 
about the giants. (See also giant).
Lit.: N. Županič: Ime Grk v pomenu »velikana« pri Belokran-
jcih v Dravski banovini (The Name Greek in the Sense of 
“Giant” among the People of Bela Krajina in the Drava 
Province). Etnolog 7, 1934; K. Hrobat: Ajdi z Ajdovščine 
nad Rodikom (The Giants from Ajdovščina above Rodik). 
Studia mythologica Slavica 8, 2005.
Angel (angel), an intercessor between God 
and people. Angel images were known in 
pre-Islamic Iran. In the sense of ‘messenger,’
 
the Greek and the Latin word ‘angel’ corre-
sponds to the Hebrew and the Arab ‘malak’. 
According to Islamic and in Christian beliefs, 
each person has a guardian angel believed 
to protect that person from harm. The Old 
Testament mentions different kinds of angels, 
for example the cherubim, the seraphim, 
Nathaniel, and Ariel. The highest hierarchi-
cal order of angels was composed of arch-

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