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.
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-