zlatorog (a slovene folk tale)

Zlatorog (A Slovene Folk Tale)Source: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 11, No. 33 (Apr., 1933), pp. 651-654Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4202823 .

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SLOVENE MYTHS. 65I

immediate countrymen and to lovers and students of folk-lore all the world over.

A slightly abridged English version of Dr. Kelemina's interesting Introduction, with footnotes by myself, will appear shortly in Folklore.

Mrs. Ivana Brlid-Ma?uranid's Croatian Tales of Long Ago (Allen & Unwin) give a valuable insight into mythological traditions among the Jugoslavs of the north-western part of the kingdom. Several of the Slovene ballads, notably that of Vida the Fair, have been translated into English by Mr. James Wiles.

FANNY S. COPELAND.

THE following are two of the most characteristic of Slovene Folk Tales, in so far, especially, as they deal with specifically Slovene traditions.

My translation of " Zlatorog" follows the version given by Dr. Kelemina in his Bajke in Pripovedke Slovenskega Ljudstva pretty closely, and wherever my text differs from his, it is because I have preferred to make use of local tradition, obtained from friends who are well acquainted with it.

In my version of the " Desetnica" I have combined Dr. Kele- mina's text with that of Miss Manica Kumanova, so as to embody all the most characteristic moments of that motif. I am assured, on good authority, that the " tenth brother" and " tenth sister" were compelled to leave home, and that there was originally no question of their leaving-as both Dr. Kelemina and Miss Kumanova assume-of their own accord, and because of some mysterious wander fever on their own part. The traditional temperament of the " tenth brother" was the result of the custom, not the cause of it. In my English version I have carefully avoided ambiguity on that score.

ZLATOROG (A Slovene Folk Tale)

THREE thousand feet above beautiful Lake Bohinj in Upper Carniola lies the high-level valley called Zajezerska Dolina, which means The Valley of the Lakes. The upper part of it, in especial, is a sad wilderness, all limestone rocks and boulders, like an immense untidy furrow ploughed all the way down the southem slopes of the Triglav Range. It is the track of the prehistoric Triglav glacier, and the " lakes " from which the valley takes its name are little

TT 2



652 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW.

glacier lakes, wan waters at the bottom of stony hollows. From this valley you look out over the Komna, a rolling table-land to the south- west of the Triglav Range. The name of Komna is derived from kamen =-a stone. The Komna is a great arid limestone plateau, shut in between the summits of the Triglav Range in the north and east, and a serried chain of its own peaks along its western edge. The most beautiful of these is called Bogatin (I,900 metres or about 6,500 feet), i.e. the Rich One. At the bottom of a cave in the bowels of this mountain there lies a fabulous treasure, guarded by a hundred- headed dragon. The approach to the cave is difficult and dangerous, nor can any one perceive it unless he be possessed of the sole talisman that reveals it. So the treasure is very hard to come by.

Once upon a time the Zajezerska Dolina and Komna were not barren and desolate, but an Alpine paradise of forest and pasture, the domain of the Bele Zene, the White Ladies. These White Ladies were very wise and kind. They told the men of the villages when to sow, and what crops, and where. They taught shepherds the use of the many medicinal herbs that grow on the mountains. They were good to the poor, and, above all, they were helpful to women in childbirth. And the child that was born under their auspices remained under their protection all its life.

But although the White Ladies were so kind to human beings, they resented curiosity or interference. Any overbold mortal who ventured into their realm was sure to be driven back by sudden storms or avalanches of stones.

On their Alpine pastures these White Ladies tended a herd of wild goats (chamois). They were not mousy-brown, like the pretty chamois you can see nowadays with luck almost any day in the Slovene Alps, but milk-white. The great buck chamois who was in charge of the herd was white, too, and his horns were pure gold. Therefore he was called Zlatorog, which means Goldenhorn. Now the golden horns of Zlatorog are the key that reveals the way to the treasure in Mount Bogatin, the treasure that is guarded by the hundred-headed dragon. Therefore the White Ladies thought it well to protect Zlatorog by magic arts. He was not exactly invulner- able, but from every drop of his blood that fell to the ground, if he chanced to be wounded, there grew up immediately a beautiful little flower with dark-green leaves and crimson blossoms, the Triglav Rose.' And no sooner had Zlatorog eaten of the leaves than he was whole and sound as before.

1 According to an old Slovene botanist, the " Triglav rose " is potentilla nitida, which is fairly common on Triglav.



ZLATOROG. 653

Once upon a time, long ago, there stood an inn beside the high road that runs up the Soca2 Valley to this day, and the innkeeper's daughter was the prettiest girl in all Trenta-side. She had many wooers, but had given her heart to a young hunter of the Trenta. He was the only son of a poor widow who was almost blind; but he was the best hunter and tracker far and near, and it was said that he stood under the protection of the White Ladies. Certainly he would roam all over Komna and the Triglav slopes, never losing his way or coming to any harm.

In springtime, when the traders from Venice used to go north with their wares, parties of them would sometimes put up at the inn in the Soca valley. And so it befell on one of these occasions that a wealthy Italian merchant, young and handsome, was at pains to make himself pleasant to the pretty daughter of the house and did not stint valuable gifts to go with his flattering words. The upshot of it was that the girl quarrelled with her sweetheart, the hunter, and ended by telling him that the Italian was a much finer gentleman than he, because he had given her a pearl necklace on the very first day of their acquaintance, whereas he, the hunter, who knew the way to all the treasure of the hills, had so far not given her even a paltry Triglav Rose, let alone anything more valuable.

" Well do I know how to lay hands on the key to Bogatin's treasure," retorted the hunter, angrily. " If I were to raise that, I could buy up the lot of your Italian merchants."

So he went off in a rage, and whom should he meet but the Green Hunter. Now the Green Hunter enjoyed a very evil reputation, and it was known that he hated the White Ladies and all their works. To him the young hunter of Trenta confided his troubles, and he could not have chosen a worse friend in his need. For the Green Hunter painted the treasure in Mount Bogatin in such glowing colours, and persuaded him so cunningly to possess himself of the magic key to it, that the youth agreed to join with the Green Hunter that very night, to go up the Komna and stalk Zlatorog for the sake of his golden horns-and the crimson Triglav Rose.

At dawn they sighted the great buck. The lad from Trenta fired; but Zlatorog was only wounded, and at once headed away towards the crags, with the two hunters in pursuit. Even in his haste the hunter of Trenta noticed the pretty red Triglav roses springing up between the rocks and patches of snow, and near them the velvety ocnice or planike (edelweiss), with which his mother prepared a

2 Isonzo.



654 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW.

lotion for her poor failing eyes. The sight of these flowers caused the young man to think of his mother, and he was almost resolved to desist from his evil purpose. But the Green Hunter scoffed, and egged him on, till he felt ashamed of his remorse and followed up the blood-stained track afresh. Meantime Zlatorog had nibbled the leaves of the magic rose and sped on ahead of them with redoubled strength, leaping upwards upon the rocks with gigantic bounds.

On a narrow ledge on the face of the crag the hunters caught up with their quarry-sheer cliff to the right, sheer drop to the left. Zlatorog turned to bay. The young hunter wanted to fire, but the golden horns flashed before him like fire in the morning sunshine, dazzling him so that he could not take aim. His heart failed him, his knees shook, he swayed where he stood. For a moment he clutched the air in a frantic effort to regain his balance. Then he hurtled down the precipice, down, down, ever so far.....

Early next spring, when the streams came down in spate, the Soda washed the body of the young hunter ashore beside the inn where his sweetheart was waiting for him in vain. One hand of the dead still clasped a sodden bunch of withered Triglav roses.

When the shepherds went up to the Komna and Zajezerska Dolina that summer, they found a stony wilderness in place of the former Alpine paradise. The White Ladies had quitted the land for ever, and neither they nor their herd of white chamois have ever been seen by man since then. As for Zlatorog, his wrath was so great that he ploughed up and buried every patch of blossoming pasture, and on the naked rocks you can see the traces of his great horns to this day.

NOTE.-In so far as I have not kept strictly to Dr. Kelemina's text, I have followed popular tradition obtained from M. M. Debelak, the well-known Slovene mountaineer, who has for several years past made a special study of the Komna and the Lakes Valley. He has also drawn an excellent mountaineer's and ski-runner's map (the only reliable one, so far) of that interesting part of the Julian Alps.

THE TENTH SISTER (A Slovene Folk Tale)

IF ten sons be born successively of one mother, then the tenth of these brothers must leave home to shift for himself in the world. Therefore if any one should refuse God's charity to a tenth brother he would be guilty of a great sin, because such a one is a homeless



zlatorog (a slovene folk tale)

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