ACTA HISTRIAE
30, 2022, 3
UDK/UDC 94(05) ISSN 1318-0185ACTA HISTRIAE 30, 2022, 3, pp. 565-756
UDK/UDC 94(05) 
Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko - Koper
Società storica del Litorale - Capodistria
ACTA HISTRIAE
30, 2022, 3
KOPER 2022
ISSN 1318-0185
e-ISSN 2591-1767
ACTA HISTRIAE • 30 • 2022 • 3
ISSN 1318-0185                UDK/UDC 94(05)             Letnik 30, leto 2022, številka 3
e-ISSN 2591-1767
Darko Darovec
Gorazd Bajc, Furio Bianco (IT), Stuart Carroll (UK), Angel Casals Martinez (ES), 
Alessandro Casellato (IT), Flavij Bonin, Dragica Čeč, Lovorka Čoralić (HR), 
Darko Darovec, Lucien Faggion (FR), Marco Fincardi (IT), Darko Friš, Aleš 
Maver, Borut Klabjan, John Martin (USA), Robert Matijašić (HR), Darja Mihelič, 
Edward Muir (USA), Žiga Oman, Jože Pirjevec, Egon Pelikan, Luciano Pezzolo (IT), 
Claudio Povolo (IT), Marijan Premović (MNE), Luca Rossetto (IT), Vida Rožac 
Darovec, Andrej Studen, Marta Verginella, Salvator Žitko
Urška Lampe, Gorazd Bajc, Lara Petra Skela, Marjan Horvat, Žiga Oman
Polona Tratnik
Petra Berlot
Urška Lampe (angl., slo.), Gorazd Bajc (it.), Lara Petra Skela (angl., slo.)
Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko - Koper / Società storica del Litorale - Capodistria© 
/ Inštitut IRRIS za raziskave, razvoj in strategije družbe, kulture in okolja / Institute IRRIS for 
Research, Development and Strategies of Society, Culture and Environment / Istituto IRRIS 
di ricerca, sviluppo e strategie della società, cultura e ambiente©
Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Primorsko, SI-6000, Koper-Capodistria, Garibaldijeva 
18 / Via Garibaldi 18, e-mail: actahistriae@gmail.com; https://zdjp.si/
Založništvo PADRE d.o.o.
300 izvodov/copie/copies
Javna agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije / Slovenian 
Research Agency, Mestna občina Koper
Ilustracija Zvonka Čoha k pravljici Ad lintverna, izrez / Illustration by Zvonko 
Čoh for the fairy tale Ad lintverna [About the Dragon], cutout / Illustrazione di 
Zvonko Čoh per la fiaba Ad lintverna [Del drago], ritaglio. Tratar, Lojze (2007): 
Tista od lintverna: slovenska ljudska pravljica. Zapisal Matičetov,
Milko, priredila Štefan, Anja. Ciciban, 8, 6–7.
Redakcija te številke je bila zaključena 30. septembra 2022.
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ACTA HISTRIAE • 30 • 2022 • 3
Volume 30, Koper 2022, issue 3
VSEBINA / INDICE GENERALE / CONTENTS
Polona Tratnik: Formation of the Fairy Tale Matrix of a Dragon Slayer .................
Formazione della matrice fiabesca dell’uccisore di draghi
Oblikovanje pravljične matrike ubijalca zmaja
Paul Crowther: The Zlatorog Tale and Slovenian National Identity .........................
Il racconto dello Zlatorog e l’identità nazionale slovena
Pripovedka o Zlatorogu in slovenska nacionalna identiteta
Marjan Horvat: Cognitive Matrices in Folktales and Contemporary 
Practices of Deliberation: From the Utilitarian Mindset of 
Mojca Pokrajculja to the Incomprehensible Laughter of the Bean .............................
Le matrici cognitive nei racconti popolari e nelle pratiche 
contemporanee di deliberazione: dalla logica della ragione 
utilitaristica di Mojca Pokrajculja al riso incomprensibile del fagiolo
Kognitivne matrice v slovenskih ljudskih pravljicah in sodobne 
prakse deliberacije: od utilitaristične misli Mojce Pokrajculje 
do nedoumljivega fižolčkovega smeha
Cirila Toplak: Tales in Social Practices of 
Nature Worshippers of Western Slovenia ....................................................................
I racconti nelle pratiche sociali dei naturalisti 
religiosi della Slovenia occidentale
»Pravce« v družbenih praksah naravovercev 
zahodne Slovenije
Mojca Ramšak: Medicine and Fairy Tales: Pohorje Fairy Tales 
as a Source about Diseases and Health ........................................................................
La medicina e le fiabe: le fiabe del Pohorje come fonte di dati sulle malattie
Medicina in pravljice: pohorske pravljice kot vir o boleznih in zdravju
Anja Mlakar: Valuable Ancient Remnants and Superstitious 
Foolishness: Religiosity, Nationalism, and Enchantment in 
Slovenian Folklore of the 19th Century ........................................................................
Resti preziosi del passato e sciocchezze superstiziose: religiosità, 
nazionalismo e incanto nel folklore sloveno dell’Ottocento
Dragoceni ostanki preteklosti in vraževerne neumnosti: religioznost, 
nacionalizem in očaranost v slovenski folklori iz 19. stoletja.
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ACTA HISTRIAE • 30 • 2022 • 3
Članki, objavljeni v tej številki Acta Histriae, so nastali v okviru raziskovalnega 
projekta Družbene funkcije pravljic. Raziskavo je finančno podprla Javna agencija za 
raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije (ARRS, J6-1807).
Dubravka Zima: Social Functions of the Fairy Tale Collection 
Croatian Tales of Long Ago by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić ...............................................
Funzioni sociali della collezione di fiabe Racconti croati 
di un tempo lontano di Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić
Družbene funkcije zbirke pravljic Pripovedke iz davnine 
avtorice Ivane Brlić-Mažuranić
Cristina Fossaluzza: A Romantic Fairy Tale and Its Social Purpose in 
Times of War: The Woman without a Shadow by Hugo von Hofmannsthal ..............
Una fiaba romantica e il suo intento sociale in tempi di guerra: 
La donna senz’ombra di Hugo von Hofmannsthal 
Romantična pravljica in njen družbeni namen v času vojne: 
Ženska brez sence Huga von Hofmannsthala
OCENE
RECENSIONI
REVIEWS
Jakob Norberg: The Brothers Grimm and the Making of German 
Nationalism (Marjan Horvat) ....................................................................................
Panos Sophoulis: Banditry in the Medieval Balkans, 800–1500, New 
Approaches to Byzantine History and Culture (Marijan Premović) .........................
Federico Tenca Montini: La Jugoslavia e la questione di Trieste, 1945–1954 
Federico Tenca Montini: Trst ne damo! Jugoslavija i tršćansko 
pitanje 1945–1954 (Urška Lampe) .............................................................................
Zoltán Kövecses: Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory 
(Lihua Zhu & Qiu Yan) .............................................................................................
747
727
750
743
The articles published in this issue of Acta Histriae were arised from the research 
project: Social functions of fairy tales. This research was supported by Slovenian 
Research Agency (ARRS, J6-1807).
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Polona TRATNIK: FORMATION OF THE FAIRY TALE MATRIX OF A DRAGON SLAYER, 565–590
FORMATION OF THE FAIRY TALE MATRIX OF A DRAGON SLAYER
Polona TRATNIK
Institute IRRIS for Research, Development and Strategies of Society, Culture and Environment,
Čentur 1f, 6273 Marezige, Slovenia
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva cesta 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija
New University, Faculty of Slovene and International Studies, Mestni trg 23, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Alma Mater University, Faculty of Humanities, Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis
Kardeljeva ploščad 1, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
e-mail: polona.tratnik@irris.eu 
ABSTRACT
In the article the author examines how the matrix of the dragon killer appeared 
in different social contexts and its formation as a fairy tale matrix. She traces the 
genealogy of the dragon slayer matrix back to ancient mythologies, paying regard to 
Babylonian, Greek, Celtic, and Slavic mythologies, as well as to the Christian codes 
and appearances in (particularly Slovenian) folklore, and discusses the variations that 
occur with different uses of the matrix, in different historical moments and epistemes. 
Special attention is devoted to studying the social and political functions the tales about 
the dragon killer had in the contexts in which they appeared.
Keywords: fairy tale, folktale, dragon, myth, mythology, Slavic mythology, Saint George, 
Zeleni Jurij, Kresnik, tithe
FORMAZIONE DELLA MATRICE FIABESCA DELL’UCCISORE DI DRAGHI
SINTESI
Il contributo esamina la comparsa della matrice dell’uccisore di draghi in diversi 
contesti sociali e il suo sviluppo in una matrice fiabesca, facendone risalire la genealogia 
alle mitologie antiche. Nel percorso si sofferma sulle mitologie babilonese, greca, celtica 
e slava, nonché su codici cristiani e le manifestazioni della matrice dell’uccisore di 
draghi nel folclore (in particolare quello sloveno), indagando le variazioni che nascono 
dai suoi vari usi, nei diversi momenti della storia ed epistemi. Particolare attenzione è 
rivolta allo studio delle funzioni sociali e politiche che le varianti rivestivano nei diversi 
contesti in cui si manifestavano.
Parole chiave: fiaba, racconto popolare, drago, mito, mitologia, mitologia slava, San 
Giorgio, Zeleni Jurij, Kresnik, decima
Received: 2022-09-06                            DOI 10.19233/AH.2022.24
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The genealogy of the dragon slayer matrix leads to the ancient Indo-European my-
thologies. Mythological imagination was complex and did not picture the dragon slayer 
and the dragon in a black and white fashion. However, a matrix gradually developed in 
which the dragon begins to represent the absolute otherness of man and the good, thus 
becoming what must be eliminated in order to establish proper order in society.
GENEOLOGY AND ONTOLOGY OF THE DRAGON1
The etymological origin of the term dragon and its synonyms in the European tradi-
tion show that the dragon already existed as a kind of monster in early social imagina-
tion. It is reminiscent of or related to a snake; it may be similar to a worm or insect and 
is sometimes capable of flying. Dragon (Heb. tannin is a snake, sea monster, crocodile; 
Greek drákon, Latin draco) in a broader sense denotes a supernatural being with ele-
ments of the snake, lizard, crocodile, bird and sometimes the lion. In Europe, Southwest 
and Western Asia, the dragon symbolizes evil and is the enemy of deities and people 
(Bellinger, 1997, 502–503). Etymologically, the term dragon comes from the Latin 
word draco, which was the genus of the dragon. The Latin term draconem (nominative 
draco), which meant a “huge serpent, dragon,” originated from the Greek term drákon 
(genitive drakontos) meaning a “serpent, giant seafish” (Harper, 2020–2021). Middle 
High German synonyms of Lat. draco are the terms trache, tracke and drache, dracke 
(Lexer, 1961, 229). The Old Nordic dreki, Old High German traccho, Old English draca 
appear from the eighth century onwards (Jontes, 2000, 140). Middle High German also 
used the term lint, which meant a snake (Lexer, 1961, 128), and wurm meaning worm 
or an insect and a snake (Lexer, 1961, 329). The German term Lindwurm originates 
from these two words. From this term (Lindwurm) emerged similar terms that were 
used in Slovenia.2 In the Middle Ages, lintrache and lintwurm meant a fairy animal that 
was half dragon, half snake (Lexer, 1961, 128).
The dragon’s habitat is water or a swamp. This monster is a kind of animal, but it is 
more than that, and it changes its features to some extent. In some ancient mythologi-
cal and later fairy tale versions it may have several heads. The minimum criteria for 
defining a dragon as a monster can be defined as follows: it is a monster that is a spe-
cies of aquatic animal, but not fully included in the systematization of animal species 
because it has certain attributes that go beyond the definition of a mere animal. These 
1 The visual material is used with kind permissions of National Gallery of Slovenia, Slovene Ethnographic 
Museum and Mladinska knjiga. The author thanks to these institutions. This paper is the result of research 
carried out in the research project "Social Functions of Fairy Tales" (ARRS J6-1807), in the research project 
"Political Functions of Folktales" (ARRS N6-0268) and in the research program "The Practices of Conflict 
Resolution between Customary and Statutory Law in the Area of Today’s Slovenia and Neighboring Coun-
tries" (ARRS, P6-0435), funded by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS).
2 Such as “lentuorn (Grafenauer, 1956, 316), lintuorn (Svetokriški, 1691b, 112; Svetokriški, 1707, 91); lint-
var (Pajek, 1884, 91); lintver (Pajek, 1884, 90; Pleteršnik, 1894, 519); lintvern (Pleteršnik, 1894, 519; 
Štrekelj, 1895–1898, 589); lintvert (Pajek, 1884, 89-91); lintvor (Dalmatin, 1584, 5. neoštevilčena stran; 
Megiser, 1603, 77); lintvoren (Stabej, 1997, 165); lintvorn (Svetokriški, 1691a, 62); lintvrn (Pleteršnik, 
1894, 519); lintvrt (Pleteršnik, 1894, 519)” (Makarovič, 2001, 28).
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attributes are aimed primarily at the quality of this animal, which is that it is absolutely 
dangerous to humans, meaning that it is more dangerous than any existing animal or 
living creature. Given this quality, its attributes change in different social circumstances 
and the monster either breathes fire, is incredibly fast, extremely strong, gigantic, has 
multiple heads symbolizing multiple lives, and so on. Furthermore, this monster lives 
in an environment that is inaccessible to humans as a habitat. Thus, 1.) with these 
properties the dragon primarily represents the ultimate danger to man, which the human 
community living in the same area cannot remove; 2.) the monster’s habitat is inacces-
sible to man. This reinforces its dangerous power and makes human confrontation and 
domination over it an impossible task. It has an extraordinary power beyond human 
power, and one which renders man incapable of an equal encounter or the ability to 
eventually prevail over it, this monster is man’s adversary. It belongs to another world 
than man and represents man’s opposite, his absolute otherness. This is expressed in 
characteristics that are the opposite of those desired for humans – it is ugly, disgusting, 
and horrifying to humans. The interests and actions of this monster are contrary to the 
will of the society. What’s more, its actions affect society. It is an enemy of society. It 
represents the forces that are an existential threat to society. The goal is to overcome 
these forces and destroy the power of the monster.
Fig. 1: Zvonko Čoh, illustration of the fight of the hero with the dragon accompanying 
the tale Ad Lintverna (Tratar, 2007).
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According to the ontology of the dragon, a hero who defeats the dragon must have 
two necessary attributes: 1.) he must have abilities that exceed those of an ordinary per-
son. It is characteristic of this hero that he exceeds the capacities of human action. This 
can make him divine or a demigod or a being with divine qualities. 2.) His activities 
are essentially not aimed at the realization of private, individual and particular aims. 
This hero is a representative of higher interests. This characteristic clearly shows in the 
context of national revival. 
The sketched ontology of the dragon that lives in a world inaccessible to man, 
completely foreign to humans, and which is the other of humans, which endangers 
humanity and represents the ultimate danger that must be eliminated, establishes a 
matrix in which a hero defeats the dragon. It has gradually formed over time, yet, the 
genealogy of the dragon leads to the ancient mythologies that speak of a number of 
dragon-like monsters. The Babylonian myth of the genesis of the world from about the 
third millennium BC speaks of the monster Tiamat (sea), the dragon of the chaos of 
antiquity, the personification of sea water and the ancestor of the universe and deities. 
The hero Marduk, the Babylonian god of agriculture and the spring sun, exterminates 
Tiamat and thus becomes the state god of Babylonia (Guirand, 1986, 49, 51, 53, 54; 
Bellinger, 1997, 284, 447). In the Hebrew song of creation, Tiamat is called the depth 
(Bellinger, 1997, 447). The myth of defeating the dragon played an important role in 
the religions of the Hittites and the Canaanites. The Hittites ritually recited the myth 
of the battle between the storm god and the dragon (illuyankas meant the dragon or 
a serpent), on the occasion of the New Year festival, purulli. In this myth the storm 
god, vanquished a first time, ends by triumphing not by virtue of his own heroism, but 
with the help of a human being (Eliade, 139–144). Different species of serpent dragons 
appear in ancient Greek myths. Python is a dragon who pursued the pregnant goddess 
Leto because he knew that one day her son Apollo would kill him. Python was killed by 
the god Apollo (Bellinger, 1997, 366). Typhon (Greek Typhón means smoking, Latin 
Typhon, Greek Typhoeús) is 1.) a giant monster from the underworld of Hades which 
has serpentine legs and a hundred dragon heads; is the embodiment of the destructive 
forces of nature, e.g. volcanic eruptions; is 2.) a terrifying monster with snakes for legs 
and wings that covered the sun. Hydra (Hýdra is a water snake) is a nine-headed sea 
monster from Lerna in ancient Greece which destroys everything with its poisonous 
breath. Each time her head is cut off, two new ones grow in its place, until Heracles 
burns off her cervical vertebrae with the help of his nephew. Ladon (Gr. Ládon) is 1.) 
a demonic snake-dragon with a hundred heads that guards the tree with golden apples 
until Heracles kills it. 2.) He is a river god in Arcadia and the personification of the river 
of the same name. Cetus (Greek Kéto, Ceto or Latin Cētō) is a sea monster in ancient 
Greece. The Greek hero Perseus cut off Medusa’s head and rescued Andromeda from 
the monster Cetus and took her as his wife. Kadem (Greek Kádmos, Latin Cadmus) was 
a Phoenician king who killed a dragon in Boeotia and planted its teeth in the ground, 
from which grew soldiers who helped him build the city of Thebes. A serpentine dragon 
in Colchis under the Caucasus guards the Golden Fleece, which Jason steals to take the 
usurped throne from his uncle. Then he kills a dragon in the swamp in what is today 
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the city of Ljubljana. In reference to this legend, the city of Ljubljana has the dragon in 
its heraldic arms. In Judaism, the dragon is a monster from ancient times, the embodi-
ment of chaotic forces and the anti-god power that must be eliminated. It is sometimes 
equated with the giant snake Leviathan. In the Bible, God punishes “with his sword, 
his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coil-
ing serpent” (Isaiah 27: 1). He slays the sea monster. This concept of a dangereous 
dragon-like monster that is slayed by God is inherited by Christianity. In the legends 
of the Middle Ages however the dragon slayer is a saint. In Christian eschatology, the 
dragon is a snake-like monster that appears in the biblical book of Revelation (written 
by John). He sweeps away the stars from the sky with his tail and throws them to earth. 
Like the ancient Greek Python, the dragon in scripture pursues a pregnant woman and 
wants to swallow her child when it is born. God rescues the woman by having the earth 
swallow up a river of water spewed out by the dragon. The woman’s offspring contends 
with him (Bellinger, 1997, 503).
THE DRAGON SLAYER IN THE CHRISTIAN CODEX 
AND MYTHOPOETIC HERITAGE
Jacques Le Goff interprets the Romanesque as a world of battle between virtue 
and vice, between good and evil, the righteous and the corrupt. In the Carolingian 
Renaissance (eighth to ninth century), the sublime warrior Saint Michael fought the 
dragon. He attacked the beast in the new Christian mythology of salvation, and then 
the knights, the military aristocracy in its social ascent joined the clergy in fighting 
the monster with bishops occupying a special place, thus emphasizing their symbolic 
power (Le Goff, 1980, 175). The well-known legend of Saint George appeared only in 
the twelfth century (Nebeški zavetniki, 1996, 238) or in the eleventh century accord-
ing to Le Goff (Le Goff, 1980, 175). In the thirteenth century, Jacobus de Voragine 
included it in the famous collection of hagiographies Legenda aurea. The “iconic” 
image and scene of Saint George on horseback as a warrior and fighting the dragon 
was uncommon prior to the thirteenth century, although it does appear in the twelfth 
century in the tympanum of the Cathedral of Ferrara, and on a capital at Vézelay 
(Maddocks, 1989, 29). 
George is said to be a Christian, Roman knight who was born in the fourth century 
in Cappadocia. One day, in a swamp near the town of Sylene in the Libyan province, he 
defeated the dragon which had been poisoning the locals with its breath. They gave the 
dragon sheep to keep it from coming near the people, and when they ran out of sheep, 
they began to sacrifice humans. When it was the turn of the king’s daughter, George 
came to rescue her. He stabbed the dragon and brought it to the city using the princess’s 
belt. Citizens had to convert to Christianity in exchange for George killing the monster 
(Nebeški zavetniki, 1996, 238). George rescued the girl, as well as the kingdom, that is, 
the political formation and the system. In this legend George represents feudal society 
as self-imagined, that is in the hierarchical order, analyzed by George Duby, viewed 
from the top down as follows: the Clergy, Nobility, and the Third Estate. As highlighted 
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by Duby, this feudal order was restored in the twelfth century (Duby, 1985). The func-
tion of the legend of Saint George, which appears exactly at this time, is a good fit with 
the goal of promotion of this order and the highest status being assigned to the Christian 
Church, which is also the one that legitimizes secular authority. The legend of Saint 
George therefore served religious propaganda and the consolidation of the political role 
of the Church as an institution. 
The ontological status of hagiography as such is significant, as it refers to a biogra-
phy of an allegedly real person, a martyr or a saint, who serves as a model for believers. 
André Jolles, defining the “simple”, in his explanation non-artistic verbal forms, also 
Fig. 2: Anonymous (Gorizia workshop), Saint George Slaying the Dragon, around 
1410–1420, Breg near Preddvor, succursal Church of St Leonard. Tempera, canvas, 
175 x 174 cm (NG S 1497, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana).
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analysed the form of a legend. He resorts to the Latin word imitation, commonly used 
in the Middle Ages, in order to denote the specific way in which a vita of a saint must 
be imitabile. Accordingly, the life of the saint as represented by the legend must look 
different from the way it would look in a “historical” biography. The form of a legend 
thus makes the saint (Jolles, 2017, 28–32). Jolles chose the case of Saint George as an 
example to present how the saint stands before us, worthy of imitation, inimitable – as 
Fig. 3: Saint George. Original: Friderich von Villach, 
workshop, c. 1430, fresco, Church of St Cantianus, 
Selo pri Žirovnici. Copy of the fresco, 1957 (Vladimir 
Makuc), tempera, canvas, 197 x 121 cm (NG S 1456, 
National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana).
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a figure who corresponds perfectly with the need to imitate. According to Jolles, Saint 
George, “about whose historical existence nothing is known,” made its way from antiq-
uity into the West. The Roman Emperor Constantine the Great first built him a church, 
later his relics were carried from the Orient to Paris, and at the end of the millennium 
and the beginning of the new one, his shape changes: “Saint George is no longer a 
martyr; he becomes a dragon killer and the rescuer of the virgin” (Jolles, 2017, 37–38). 
If we believe modern hagiography or Le Goff, a long time of at least seven centuries 
elapsed between the death of George and hagiography about him. Jolles himself noticed 
that as a rule some fifty years must elapse between the death of the candidate for saint-
hood and the opening of the proceedings. The process of sanctification that has been 
followed since the papacy of Urban VII takes place in the form of a court trial (Jolles, 
2017, 21). The large distance between the time when a hagiography was written and the 
life of the person it was written about is significant because evidence and witnesses fade 
away or disappear with temporal distance. In the case of Saint George, this period spans 
centuries. Beside the “classical” legend about Saint George, modern hagiography notes 
that George was more likely a martyr who was put to death at Diospolis in Palestine 
before the time of Constantine (Nebeški zavetniki, 1996, 238). Such a remark impugns 
the first statement about the life of George, yet its basic effect is not that it produces 
doubt about the existence of George as a real person, but on the contrary, it strengthens 
Fig. 4: Saint George slaying the dragon, beginning of the fifteenth century, Church 
of Saint Štefan in Zanigrad. Fresco (Wikimedia Commons).
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Fig. 5: Hans Georg Geiger von Geigerfeld, Saint George Slaying 
the Dragon, c. 1641, oil, canvas, 265 x 151,5 cm (NG S 1946, 
National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana).
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the statement that he was a real person, only the facts about his life differ somewhat 
from the legend. However, the presence of the dragon in any case partly converts the 
report on a real life into a fictional discourse or at least shifts biography to a metaphori-
cal level. In the Christian code, miracle in the legend testifies to God’s presence and 
intervention, because, as Thomas Aquinas defined it: “Things which are done by God, 
beyond causes known to us, are called miracles” (Jolles, 2017, 22). A miracle related to 
a saint in a legend therefore functions to strengthen the narrative and not the other way 
around. In the case of Saint George, the miracle in defeating the dragon, strengthens the 
hero and relates his act to God’s intervention.
In the legacy of Karel Štrekelj there are four poems about Saint George (no. 
626, no. 627, no. 628 and no. 629 in Štrekelj, 1898, 589–592) slaying a dragon to 
be found from 18413, 18454, 18385 and 18876. In three versions from Carniola, the 
3 Anonymous. Sveta Marjeta, sveti Jurij in zmaj, 1841 (Carniola no. 626. Štrekelj, 1898, 589).
4 Written by Matevž Ravnikar-Poženčan in 1845 (Carniola no. 627. Štrekelj, 1898, 589–590).
5 Written by Matevž Ravnikar-Poženčan in 1838 (Carniola no. 628. Štrekelj, 1898, 590–591).
6 Written by Ivan Šašelj in 1887 (told by Marija Skuba from Adlešiči, White Carniola, no. 629. 
Štrekelj, 1898, 591–592).
Fig. 6: Anonymous, Saint George Against the Dragon, 1923. Painted panjska 
končnica, wood (Photo: Marko Habič. Slovenian Ethnographic Museum, inv. Nr. 
EM7220). 
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scene is a white castle above the lake, inhabited by a dragon7 that demands human 
sacrifice. It is the turn of the family that inhabits the castle to offer up one of their 
own and the stepmother suggests that Marjetica be sacrificed to the dragon. In 
the title of a poem from 1841 by an anonymous poet she is called Saint Marjeta. 
The girl meets a juvenile (“pobič mlad”) (no. 626) or George the gendarme (“Juri 
orožnik”) (no. 627) or sacred George himself (no. 628), who helps her. Marjeta 
(no. 626 and no. 628) or Jurij (George) (no. 627) makes a daisy cross across the 
dragon, and then the girl throws a belt (“pasíca”) around the dragon’s neck and 
the dragon completely obeys. In two versions (no. 626 and no. 627), the castle 
then collapses or sinks (no. 627). In two songs (no. 626 and no. 628), Marjeta 
is called a witch (copernica or copernca). Jurij or George rescues Marjetica, the 
daughter of the lord of the castle, but does not take her as his wife and accepts 
the kingdom offered by the king. His mission is to convert the population to 
Christianity. In the version from White Carniola, the start of spring which George 
7 The dragon is called “the strange beast” (“čudna zvir”), “the evil serpent” (“hudi zmij”) (no. 626), “the 
evil worm, a dangerous lintvern” (“neguden červ, lintvern hud”) (no. 627), the lintvern (no. 628), the 
dragon (no. 629).
Fig. 7: Maksim Gaspari, Sveti Jurij, postcard, Družba svetega Cirila in Metoda, 1912. 
Depicted is a custom of jurjevo horse riding from Adlešiči in Bela krajina with Zeleni 
Jurij and the typical birch tree in the background (Gaspari, 2000, 137).
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brings is emphasized (silent dew, dark green, snows breaking in the mountains, 
and roses blooming on the rosehips “tihe rose, dubrave zelene, u planinah snegi 
prekopnijo, i po šipku rožice procviću”). In this version, the king has no male 
offspring, only a daughter who he must sacrifice. George meets her and promises 
her salvation if she accepts the Christian faith. The king offers him the kingdom 
and his daughter for his wife. George refuses the offer and only asks to gather 
“enough priests to celebrate masses for all souls” (“dosta duhovnikov, da mašuju 
maše za vse duše”, Štrekelj, 1898, 592).
The poem called Saint George Kills the Dragon and Rescues the King’s Daughter 
from White Carniola (Štrekelj, 1898, 591–592, no. 629) speaks of the hero from the 
Slovene or Slavic pantheon, Zeleni Jurij (the Green George or the Green Yuri). Zeleni 
Jurij is a mythological character, a rider on a green or white horse heralding the arrival 
of spring. “Jurjevanje” is a holiday that is celebrated on “Jurjevo” (Saint George’s 
Day), i.e. north of the Drava River on April 23, and south of the Drava on April 24. 
If on “jurjevo” the snow has already melted, Zeleni Jurij arrives on the green horse, 
while in case the snow still remains, he rides on a white horse. In folk rituals, Zeleni 
Jurij is personified by a young man dressed in green or wrapped in ivy. 
Fig. 8: Maksim Gaspari, Jurjevo, watercolor, gouache, 1924 (Slovene Ethno-
graphic Museum collection).
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On the meadow, he fights with the raboly, a young man dressed in straw who per-
sonifies winter. Zeleni Jurij is the patron saint of cattle and horses, who protects against 
snakes, brings fertility and defeats the enemy in a duel. Zeleni Jurij represents the power 
of the sun, which wakes up the earth and vegetation in spring (Kropej, 2007b). Monika 
Kropej established that both Zeleni Jurij and Marjetica were marked as the tenth children 
and such child is to be a deity, a demonic creature, or a witch/wizard. Zeleni Jurij is a 
deity who brings renewal and fertility in spring, while his sister Marjetica is dedicated 
to the female counterpart of this deity (Kropej, 2000, 75). The poem (Štrekelj, 1898, 
591–592, no. 629) indicates that Zeleni Jurij, heralding the arrival of spring, comes 
on horse from afar, from the land of eternal spring and the land of the dead, that is, 
from the Veles’ land called Vyrej, across the bloody sea, through a mountain to a flat 
field (Hrženjak, 1999, 99). In the poem the dragon is called the water god, indicating 
the Proto-Slavic god of the dead, Veles, who lives beyond the sea and is sometimes 
presented as “The Angry Beast” (“ljut zvijer”) (Hrženjak after R. Katičić, 1999, 100). 
In addition, Zeleni Jurij can have a brother or a half-brother who aims to kill him and 
who finally treacherously shoots him. This creature is called Jarnik. The name originates 
from “jar”, which means “angry” when used as an adjective (“ljut”), wrathful, the “Jara” 
snake, to rage (“razjariti”) (Kelemina, 1930b, 13). On Jurjevo when the most beautiful 
juvenile is chosen to be decorated with flowers so completely that they cover his clothes 
to personify Zeleni Jurij or Vesnik, he is accompanied by Rabolj, who is wrapped in 
straw or sometimes fur. They fight and Zeleni Jurij wins (Kelemina, 1930a, 51).
Fig. 9: Maksim Gasper, postcard with a motive of Zeleni Jurij (Maksim Gaspari 
collection, Slovene Ethnographic Museum).
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Zeleni Jurij is also connected to the mythological character of Kresnik, which 
is much present in the mythopoetic heritage. Zmago Šmitek explored the topology 
of the Slovenian tradition about Kresnik (Šmitek, 2009). Šmitek raised the issue 
of Kresnik’s connection with the Old Slavic pantheon, his identification with the 
thunder god, as assumed by N. Mikhailov. In doing so, he draws attention to the fact 
that in the early stages of the myth of the fight with the snake demon, the hero and 
the god of war appear as two separate persons, while in the later stages, individual 
characteristics merge (Šmitek, 1998, 133). In the Slovenian folk tales Kresnik res-
cues his sister, who has been trapped in a cave, from the dragon who is Kresnik’s 
adversary. After the rescue, Kresnik marries his own sister (Kropej, 2007a). Šmitek 
finds the difference between Jurij and Kresnik, such as the fact that Jurij has a close 
connection with water (Šmitek after Ivanov and Toporov, as well as Kelemina, 1998, 
130–131), while Kresnik is a solar hero who performs a series of important acts 
for humanity during his life, among which, as with Herakles, who is also a solar 
hero, twelve are especially important (Kelemina, 1930b, 9). However, in Kresnik’s 
“mythological” cycle, the components of the basic Indo-European myth about the 
hero’s fight with the snake demon and the myth about the annual return and wedding 
of the deity of vegetation and fertility (Zeleni Jurij) are intertwined. Jurij, whose 
name is etymologically connected with swamp and water, became contaminated with 
irej, vyrej, which meant the paradise that lies beyond the water. Kresnik is connected 
to Zeleni Jurij through the mention of the “bloody sea”, Kresnik’s incestuous mar-
riage. Three poems about Saint George from Carniola recorded by Štrekelj take place 
in the white castle above the lake, like those which appear in narrations about Kresnik 
at the castle of Deva. Deva, a Slavic deity, also called “devica”, virgin, is the king’s 
daughter, who was kidnapped by Trdoglav, who locks her in the castle. The princess’s 
name is Marjetica. Her brother is determined to rescue her and the two wish to marry, 
so she jumps out of the castle window. This jump is called “Devin skok” (Maiden’s 
jump or German Jungfernsprung). Still, Trdoglav does not want to give her up. The 
narration says that the villain turned around and destroyed half of the castle with its 
tail (“hudoba se je zasuknila, je z repom pol gradu pobila”) (Kelemina, 1930a, 53), 
indicating that Trdoglav is a dragon. “Devin skok” has, Šmitek claims, mythological 
semantics and is related to the trinity of deities: Perun – Veles – Mokoš (Šmitek, 
2002). Such a white castle above the lake as pictured in the Carniolan poems on Saint 
George can actually be found in Bled, Carniola. 
THE DRAGON IN SLAVIC MYTHOLOGY. 
THE DUEL BETWEEN PERUN AND VELES
In Slavic mythology, Perun had a primary place among the gods. He was that 
mythological person who pointed in the direction of the monotheistic development 
of the religious system, because he was clearly perceived as the main god, as a privi-
leged god who was connected with all the functional-social layers – with magical-
legal, military and natural-production. Only Perun was the hero-winner in the plot 
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of the main myth in the Slavic mythopoetic tradition. During the Christianization 
of the Russians, the idol of Perun was erased, as he represented the threat of being 
equated with the Christian God, claims a prominent scholar of Slavic mythology 
Vladimir N. Toporov (Toporov, 2002, 29). In the archaic structure of the mythical 
epic Perun the thunderer (because he personifies thunder-lightning) is presented as 
the one who strikes-kills someone, presumably his opponent. This myth shows Perun 
as warlike, terrible, and armed. Perun’s opponent is a representative of the forces 
of chaos – the devil, the evil one, Satan in the Christian code and the dragon in the 
“pagan” code. Perun’s opponent in the duel is associated with the earth, mother-earth, 
in various Indo-European mythopoetic traditions, his name is determined by words 
derived from the Indo-European roots uel, uol, ual, which all meant below. Perun’s 
opponent was Veles/Volos, whose name derives from the same root (Toporov, 2002, 
36–38). The fundamental function of Veles was the patronage of livestock, but also 
other areas of economic and productive activity with the representation of fertility 
and wealth. Goods such as fields, bread, and the home were the purview of Veles/
Volos, so people associated with him a special, inner feeling: he was “ours” (Toporov, 
2002, 40). Vel-persons have the nature of a snake (in the development of the Vedic 
mythological tradition, Varuna in the image of the world ocean embraces the earth as 
a kind of dragon/serpent, the snakes of Vela have a similar meaning), which connects 
Veles with the sea (Saint Nicholas as the Christianized successor of Veles, is the 
patron saint of sailors) (Toporov, 2002, 43).
This mythological context brings the tale of Saint George closer to other tales 
of dragons in Slovene and Slavic mythology, as well as to the Mesopotamian myth 
of the genesis of the world in which the god Marduk kills the monster Tiamat – the 
primordial goddess who personifies the sea. Veles and his transformations are as-
sociated with water. The characteristic motif of the closure of water, expressed in the 
Vedic tradition, Vela’s, or in the reconstruction, also Veles’ control of water does not 
bring anything good, as the potential of water remains unrevealed. The goal of the 
antagonist, which is Perun in the highest instance, is the liberation of the waters and 
their use for the benefit of plants, animals and people. The motif of holding back, 
closing the waters, which is essential for Veles and other Vel-persons, is connected 
by the analogy with the motif of holding back, penning up herds. After Perun’s 
victory, they were confiscated and passed to a new owner (Toporov, 2002, 44).
In Slovenian tales of dragons, the death of a dragon living in a lake or in a 
mountain next to it, killed by a mythical dragon slayer, often causes the lake to 
overflow, which means the release of water. A dragon living in a lake or a mountain 
can cause flooding. Perun confronts the serpent god, the dragon Veles, because he 
came from his world, the land of the dead that lies beyond the water, where he ac-
companies the souls of the dead into Perun’s sphere and closes the waters (Hrovatin 
summarizes Ivanov after Toporov, 2007, 110). In a variant of the Great Flood, the 
water that floods the previously happy valley seems to be God’s punishment for hu-
man corruption, as in the Bible (Genesis 6:13, 6:17). In another variant, the dragon 
that lives in the lake destroys the dam; the water rushes out, the lake dries out and 
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the dragon dies, allowing people to settle. The legend about the flowing lake speaks 
of the settlement of space, represents a version of the cosmic flood and the renewal 
of the world, and in versions with a dragon, also represents the cosmogonic myth 
of the creation of the world, the beginning of life and human settlement (Hrovatin, 
2007, 111). The function of water seems to be a boundary between those spaces 
where man can and cannot live (Hrovatin, 2007, 109).
In the matrix of the duel between Perun and Veles, Perun pursues his opponent 
and threatens to kill him. Veles hides from him, but Perun drives him out of his 
temporary refuge each time – until the villain finds his ancient place – the un-
derground (chthonic) waters. Toporov recognizes the theme of this matrix in the 
choice between life and death (Toporov, 2002, 34–35). Perun stands on the side of 
life, while Veles is the embodiment of death itself and its kingdom, where death is 
transformed into “new” life, life force, fertility, livestock, offspring, wealth. The 
fecundity of snakes and the connection of the snake with gold, money, gifts of 
nature, wealth, with self-rebirth and eternal life suggests that Veles was also char-
acterized by similar qualities. In the conception of the afterlife, Veles plays the 
role of a shepherd in a pasture where the souls of the dead graze, similar to herds 
of domestic animals, and has a similar function to a snake that controls, grazes 
and protects the herd. Toporov observes that in this myth the herd (livestock) 
sometimes belongs to Perun the Thunderer, and sometimes to Veles, and therefore 
the herd appears as a kind of exchange object. The subject of the dispute is the 
deficit that needs to be supplemented. Supplementation is the conceptual basis 
of this myth, the core around which everything revolves (Toropov, 2002, 46). In 
this point, Toporov’s definition of the matrix of the main myth is in accordance 
with Vladimir Propp’s definition of the function of the dramatic trigger related 
to the functions of dramatic personae, which is the lack of something – because 
one family member lacks or desires something, he or she aquires that (Propp, 
2009, 35). In the fairy tales which are the transformation of the main myth, To-
porov claims, the protagonist (the third brother, the younger brother, Ivan, etc.) 
and his antagonist (dragon/snake, dragon, monster, etc.) appear, as well as the 
kidnapped, hidden, imprisoned underground, well-guarded emperor’s daughter, 
who is finally rescued and freed after a duel, and who becomes the hero’s wife, 
as well as bringing the empire as a dowry. According to Toporov’s interpretation, 
the emperor’s daughter appears in the function of the herd, lost and gained after a 
duel (Toropov, 2002, 46–47). In the transformations of the main myth, motifs are 
expressed in late Slavic traditions, as well as earlier, in which characters are often 
gathered in new variants of triads. Toporov mentions three examples of heroes 
from the Russian tradition who represent such triadic schemes – Ilya Muromets, 
Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. All of them are victorious over the 
dragon (Toporov, 2002, 52–55).
The motif of a hero defeating a dragon appears in literary fiction also in the 
Old English epic poem Beowulf, which refers to a sixth-century Scandinavian 
pagan setting. 
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FAIRY-TALES: A JUVENILLE THAT RESCUES THE PRINCESS 
AND BECOMES A KING
In the poem from White Carniola discussed before (Štrekelj, 1898, 591–592, no. 629), 
Saint George is connected with the motif of the tithe. The king must “give his daugh-
ter to the dragon for a tenth, a tithe” (“dat’ zmaju za deseto”, Štrekelj, 1898, 591). 
In Slovenian folklore the motif of the tenth daughter is much more commen than the 
motif of the tenth son. The tenth daughter was called either “desetnica” or “rojenica” 
in the Carniola region, while the tenth son was named “desetnik” or “rojenik” in the 
Carniola region and “kresnik” in the Primorska region. In the Slovenian folk tradition 
one of the main characteristics of the rojenice and desetniki is prophecy or fatal 
destiny (Kropej, 2000, 79, 84, 81). Štrekelj collected the poems on the tenth daughter 
under the numbers 310–315 (Štrekelj, 1989, 352–360). Monika Kropej summarized 
the characteristics related to the tenth child in the folk tradition after Josip Pajek 
(Pajek, 1884, 17): 1. The tenth child represents the tithe and has to leave home; 2. The 
tenth child is connected with the sacred; 3. The tenth child is clairvoyant; 4. The tenth 
child is compelled to roam the world; 5. One must warmly welcome such a person, 
or they are committing a mortal sin and will be punished by thunder, lightening, or 
death (Kropej, 2000, 76). First Niko Kuret in 1956 when the German translation of 
Irish fairy-tales was published and then later Dušan Ludvik in 1960 paid attention to 
the Irish heritage about the tenth child: it denotes a tithe which should be sacrificed 
to Deachma. Dušan Ludvik ascertained that originally the tithe, which was a kind of 
sacrifice, was part of a religious ritual. Ludvik found Greek sources confirming that 
the tenth part of the booty or harvest was sacrificed to the gods, while the Slovenian 
and Irish traditions, familiar with human tithes, have a historical basis (Ludvik, 1960, 
84). The etymological origin leads to the Irish term deachma (tithe), deachmadh, 
which meant “roaming the world” or exile in the ultimate meaning of the tithe, for 
deachmadh is an ordinal number (tenth) derived from the Old Irish deich. The Irish 
term Deachma has the same meaning as the German term deheme (Ludvik, 1960, 
82–83). The poem recorded by Josip Pajek on Margetica (Pajek, 1884, 17–18, also 
no. 314 in Štrekelj, 1898, 359) shows that the tenth daughter represents death.8 Rado-
slav Katičić and Vitomir Belaj established that the character of the tenth brother was 
not imported from Ireland. Slavic traditions, Baltic and Irish parallels, as well as the 
broader European tradition, all testify to a Indo-European origin. The tenth brother 
who leaves home to roam the world, returns to his father’s (Perun’s) home, and mar-
ries his sister. The tenth brother, Jurij, is thus the son of Perun. The same story is 
only shortened and simplified in folk heritage (Kropej 2000, 84–85). As Toporov 
also mentions sacrifice to the Veles-Volos god (Toporov, 2002, 45), there are several 
aspects that establish connections between the versions of the matrix of the dragon 
slayer appearing in different contexts.
8 Cf. also Milko Matičetov’s cognition that the tenth sister is no ordinary victim of death, but she helps “the 
white lady” (Kropej, 2000, 80).
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In the Irish fairy tale Liam Donn there is a wild duck that hatched twelve ducklings 
and kicked one duckling away. Among the twelve hatched ducklings “none was left 
for the Deahma,” says the wiseman in the tale, therefore, the old duck sacrificed the 
banished duck to Deahma. The twelfth child has to be left to faith, similarly as in the 
Slovenian folk tales the tenth child is destined to wander the world without peace and 
rest (Širok, 1961, 23). In analogy to the scene with the ducklings, Liam Donn, the 
son of the King of Ireland, as one of twelve sons had to be sacrificed by his parents 
to Deahma, which in the context of the fairy tale means to go from home out into the 
world. The motif of human sacrifice to the deity is explicitly presented here as banish-
ment, exile. Liam Donn sets out to rescue the Greek king’s daughter, Deahmina Una, 
who, like him, was dedicated to Deahma by her father, who had twelve daughters. After 
a difficult journey, the young man reaches the place where Deahmina Una is chained to 
a rock, waiting to be devoured by a monster from the sea. Liam Donn fights the monster 
three times and defeats it. Finally, when the princess finds the hero through a shoe 
(Cinderella motif), she marries him. In the case of this story, the motif of the tithe and 
the hero who defeats the monster that lives in the water and saves the king’s daughter 
who has been given in sacrifice are connected, as they are in the White Carniolan poem 
about Saint George. The matrix of this fairy tale and the story of Saint George is the 
same. Liam Donn saves the land of Greece from a monster that no one else can defeat. 
The essential difference is in the outcome, which in this case does not speak about 
Christianization like the legend of Saint George. Instead, it leads to a marriage between 
an Irish prince and a Greek princess, which symbolically rounds off the whole of the 
European Christian world, as it politically connects the south-east and north-west of 
Europe, or rather connects Greek and Celtic mythology.
The Tale of the Giants, which is similar in matrix to the story of Liam Donn, is not 
about a tithe, but about a poor boy, the only son, who sets out to make his way in the 
world. He finds employment as a shepherd with a farmer. The boy violates the ban on 
entering the land of the giants, killing them (by cutting off the head from the body, 
which is connected with the belief that the head can be reattached to the body and 
come to life) and thereby obtains magical objects: “fiery a sword, a magic wand and a 
sparkling black horse to catch the spring wind” (Širok, 1961, 6) and a castle with great 
wealth. When defining the morphology of the fairy tale, Vladimir Propp established 
the magical agent that helps the hero to victory to be a typical element of the fairy tale 
(Propp, 2009, 43). In the Slovenian translation the hero is called Janez. As Janez is the 
most common Slovenian name which has even sometimes been used as a nickname for 
a typical Slovene man, the name Janez obviously suggests the hero is a Slovene. Janez 
departs to the “Eastern Land” to rescue the king’s daughter, who was intended as a 
sacrifice to a terrible monster that lives in the sea. The young man defeats the monster, 
and then someone else reaps the victory, until the boy is found through a lost shoe. The 
young man refuses the king’s offer of half the kingdom and half his property. His only 
desire is to marry the king’s daughter. The young man takes the princess to his country, 
to Ireland, where the young couple settle independently in a castle with the great wealth 
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Fig. 10: Gvido Birolla, illustration for the fairy tale Liam Donn (Širok, 1961, 31).
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the boy acquired from the giant. This fairy tale, which is also a version of the matrix 
about the hero who defeats the dragon and rescues the king’s daughter, is interesting for 
the consideration of Slovenian versions because of the motif of a poor, simple boy who 
leaves home due to existential hardship. The boy is “small, insignificant” (Širok, 1961, 
13). This motif brings this version closer to the well known Slovenian fairy tale about 
Peter Klepec, who is also a small and initially weak boy, but who is empowered with 
the help of magical objects.
In Slovenian folklore, we also find a fairy tale about a young man who defeats the 
dragon and rescues the king’s daughter (Resnik Dremelj, 2010a in 2010b), which was 
recently adapted for children (Štefan, 2019). 
This fairy tale features a poor shepherd who lives with his mother, but then leaves 
home due to existential hardship. The hermit tells the boy about a princess who is des-
tined for a lintvern, a dragon, who lives in a lake and has such power that if he swings his 
tail, he can flood the whole city. The dragon from the Bible sweeps away the stars and 
Trdoglav, Marjetica’s husband, destroys the castle with his tail, the dragon in the Slavic 
mythology is related to flooding. In the fairy tale the hermit also tells the shepherd that 
a reward has been offered for anyone who can rescue her; he will have the hand of the 
princess in marriage and rule the kingdom. The hermit introduces the boy to a magical 
Fig. 11: Illustration of the fight between the hero and the dragon accompanying the 
tale Of a Juvenile Who Defeated the Dragon adapted by Anja Štefan (Illustration 
by Zvonko Čoh. Štefan, 2019, 186–187). 
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element, salt, which he should throw at the dragon so that he can cut off the main head, the 
middle one of the nine heads, and thus kill it. The shepherd slays the dragon and cuts off 
half of each tongue, collecting them and eventually using them as proof that he has killed 
the dragon, for a villain had stolen the heads of the dragon in order to obtain the prize. 
The young man and the princess are happy to marry each other and take over the royal 
court. The obvious motif to be found here is a poor country boy who ascends from the 
lowest to the highest social-economic class. The message conveyed could be summarized 
as follows: any individual (in this case we have a male), even a poor one without any 
privilege at birth or in the social environment he originates from, can succeed at any task 
if he is clever and cautious, as well as if he listens to those who know. The magical objects 
could be understood as a means to an end which is needed to achieve a goal. In this case, 
success means that the situation at the end is diametrically opposed to the situation the 
character faces at the start of the tale. At the end of the tale, the protaganist will have a 
carefree life expressed in the form of great wealth, a spouse from the highest social strata, 
whose function is to affiliate the individual to this class, and finally, the acquisition of 
political power. No particular details about these points, such as who was the king or 
where exactly did it take place, are needed in order to understand the message. The story 
functions in the realm of fiction with no particular references to the real world, but it also 
functions in the realm of everyday reality.
Finally, the motif of a shepherd might seem culturally self-understood in a folktale 
from this region, because poverty was significant and having animals grazing in a 
pasture was common. The country children often worked as shepherds. Yet, one might 
as well keep in mind the fact that mythological characters were also shepherds. Kresnik 
was a shepherd, Veles was a shepherd, and the herd was the reason for the clash be-
tween Perun and Veles, Jesus is the Good shepherd (Gospel of John 10:11 and 10:14). 
If the fairy tale matrix of the dragon slayer is related to the mythopoetic versions of this 
matrix, this motif gains a deeper meaning. The Christian codex, in which “The Lord is 
my shepherd” (A Psalm of David, Psalm 23:1), speaks of the people as a herd and God 
or Jesus as the people’s guardian and guide. In the mythopoetic versions of the dragon 
slayer matrix, the princess has come to symbolize the herd as she is the king’s daughter 
meaning the successor of political power over the population, i.e. the “herd.” From 
this perspective, the shepherd, as our fairy tale hero initially is, is set as a guardian of 
the herd, indicating that the protagonist is the future king, that is, a political sovereign.
CONCLUSION: FROM MYTHS TO FAIRY TALES
Jakob Kelemina ascertained that modern fairy tales have their genealogical origins 
in mythologies. He differentiated between fairy tales and myths. The narrator compre-
hends fairy tales as a fictional discourse, while people believed in myths (mythos) and 
legends (German Sagen). Strictly speaking, Kelemina wrote, myths are tales that deal 
with the content of pagan religions, in which only higher beings appear. We know very 
few such “pure” myths in Slovenia. Legend has evolved from myth, with higher beings 
given human characteristics, while at the same time the mythical core has been veiled 
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(Kelemina, 1930, 5). The mythical core is even more veiled in fairy tales. It is worth 
examining Kelemina’s definition of fairy tales in order to discuss their ontological 
status. Kelemina’s differentiation of these narratives (myths, legends, and fairy tales) 
is not grounded in defining the status of the narrative in relation to reality. One could 
pose the question of whether a story could be considered as “true” in relation to reality. 
Considering this issue, the fact that the category of “truthfulness” or objectivness in 
reporting on real events has been efficiently disputed (see for instance John Fiske’s dis-
cussion on “transparency fallacy”, addressed in reference to another sort of discourse, 
but still useful as a critique of the referential function of texts in general; Fiske, 1987) 
may not be diregarded. This question could be reformulated as follows: is the text’s 
main function a referential one (using Roman Jakobson’s differentiation of linguistic 
functions, Jakobson, 1981)? This problem is quickly solved with the recognition of 
the illuctionary dimension of a literary discourse, following John L. Austin’s acknowl-
edgment that each speech act does not necessarily have a locutionary dimension, but 
has an illocutionary dimension (Austin, 1962), and the subsequent acknowledgement 
that writing or literature also consists of performing speech acts, which are actually 
illocutionary acts (Searle, 1975). The proper question is therefore not if fairy tales are 
fictional or “true” narratives in relation to reality, external to the text, but what is the 
effect of fairy tales, what do they do to people, how do they function in society. 
As previously mentioned, Kelemina did not refer only to the issue addressed above, 
but he defined fairy tales as a fictional discourse and considered the relevance of belief 
Fig. 12: Anonymous, A Hero Fighting a Dragon. Painted panjska končnica, wood 
(Photo: Blaž Verbič. Slovenian Ethnographic Museum). 
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in regard to different sorts of narratives that can use the same matrices. The question 
of whether people believe in a certain narration might be linked to the question of 
genuineness of the text in relation to the external reality addressed above. Yet this is 
a twentieth century question, it is a question of the ontological status of the media. 
Kelemina’s issue has to do with the semantics of the narrations in relation to the world 
view of the people who circulated them. In order to address this issue properly, one 
needs to understand the status of the myth in the context of mythical thought. Myth, 
as ascertained by Ernst Cassirer, “sees real identity. The ‘image’ does not represent the 
‘thing’; it is the thing; it does not merely stand for the object, but has the same actuality, 
so that it replaces the thing’s immediate presence” (Cassirer, 1955, 38). Or, in the words 
of Henri Frankfort: “The imagery of myth is therefore by no means allegory.” It is a 
cloak for abstract thought. “Myth, then, is to be taken seriously, because it reveals a sig-
nificant, if unverifiable truth—we might say a metaphysical truth” (Frankfort, 1946, 7). 
The symbol is coalescent with what it signifies (Frankfort, 1946, 12). For the mythical 
consciousness, the world “is not merely contemplated or understood but is experienced 
emotionally in a dynamic reciprocal relationship” (Frankfort, 1946, 5). Accordingly, the 
mythical consciousness does not know an inanimate world. For mythical thought, the 
distinction between subjective and objective knowledge is meaningless. Also meaning-
less is the distinction between reality and appearance. “Whatever is capable of affecting 
mind, feeling, or will has thereby established its undoubted reality” (Frankfort, 1946, 
11). The principle of mythical causality is established based on spatial and temporal 
proximity. Mythical thought does not know the impersonal, mechanical, and lawlike 
functioning of causality. It looks for the “who” and not for the “how.” Mythical thought 
“looks for a purposeful will committing the act. […] When the river does not rise, it 
has refused to rise” (Frankfort, 1946, 15). The river or gods intend to do something to 
people, therefore people give them gifts to establish a good relationship with them. 
Kelemina did not address the difference between “genres” of a myth, a legend and a 
fairy tale, but in fact noticed the effects of an epistemological shift that took place in 
Western society, which was a shift away from mythical thought and to a disenchanted 
cognition. From Kelemina’s perspective, ancient myths occupy a “privileged” position, 
as people believed in them. They explained the world and its internal laws. A legend 
comprises some fictional elements, which are likely to be understood as fictional, or 
better said, understood in a metaphorical sense. A fairy tale comprises magical elements 
by rule, however they are not meant to be believed. A fairy tale is an abstraction. It 
abstracts characters, situations, meanings, leaving room for the receiver to fill in the 
missing gaps by him- or herself. A fairy tale is, contrary to a myth, open to individual 
projections. The genre of fairy tales as we know it today is attractive for children in 
particular because of this quality. The receiver can take these abstracted versions of 
the matrixes, which might have already appeared in other contexts and have proven to 
effectively convey certain messages, and apply them to one’s own perspective of the 
world in order to better understand it.
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OBLIKOVANJE PRAVLJIČNE MATRIKE UBIJALCA ZMAJA
Polona TRATNIK
Inštitut IRRIS za raziskave, razvoj in strategije družbe, kulture in okolja,
Čentur 1f, 6273 Marezige, Slovenija
Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta, Aškerčeva cesta 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija
Nova univerza, Fakulteta za slovenske in mednarodne študije, Mestni trg 23, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija 
Univerza Alma Mater, Fakulteta za humanistični študij, Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis
Kardeljeva ploščad 1, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija
e-mail: polona.tratnik@irris.eu
POVZETEK
Genealogija matrike ubijalca zmajev vodi do starodavnih indoevropskih mito-
logij. V prispevku avtorica preiskuje zgodnje predstave o zmaju in junaku, ki ga 
premaga, ter oba lika obravnava ontološko. Mitološka domišljija je bila zapletena 
in teh dveh likov ni predstavljala črno-belo. Postopoma pa se je razvila matrika, 
v kateri je zmaj začel predstavljati absolutno drugost človeka in dobrega ter tako 
postal tisto, kar je treba odpraviti, da se v družbi vzpostavi pravi red. Matrika se 
je razširila s krščanskim kodeksom v visokem srednjem veku, zlasti z legendo o 
svetem Juriju. Avtorica se posebej posveča primerom iz mitopoetskega izročila iz 
slovenskega prostora, kjer se lik sv. Jurija prepleta z Zelenim Jurijem, Kresnikom 
in slovanskim bogom Perunom. V pravljicah se matrika pojavi v svoji najbolj 
abstraktni obliki. Avtorica razpravlja o variacijah, ki se pojavljajo pri različnih 
uporabah matrike, v različnih epistemih in njihovih družbenih funkcijah.
Ključne besede: pravljica, ljudska pravljica, zmaj, mit, mitologija, slovanska mitologija, 
sveti Jurij, Zeleni Jurij, Kresnik, desetina
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