Kresnik (or rarely Kersnik and Krsnik) is a Slavic god associated with

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

, the

summer solstice The summer solstice, also called the estival solstice or midsummer, occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer ...

, and storms. His mythical home, a sacred mountain at the top of the world, represents the

axis mundi In astronomy, axis mundi is the Latin term for the axis of Earth between the celestial poles. In a geocentric coordinate system, this is the axis of rotation of the celestial sphere. Consequently, in ancient Greco-Roman astronomy, the '' ...

. Kresnik was worshiped among the Slavic population of the eastern

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

. He is probably the same deity as Svarožič, son of the Slavic sun god,

Svarog Svarog is a Slavic god of fire and blacksmithing, who was once interpreted as a sky god on the basis of an etymology rejected by modern scholarship. He is mentioned in only one source, the ''Primary Chronicle'', which is problematic in interpre ...

, described as having golden hair and golden hands.Copeland, F. S. (1931): 405-446. He gradually evolved into a Slovenian national hero who lives on a golden mountain, sometimes as a deer with golden antlers, associated with the summer solstice. He became known as a mythical king with strong magic, yet still a farmer.Copeland, F. S. (1949): 279.

Etymology

The name of Kresnik has no clear etymology. Connections with Russian

Khors Khors, Хорсъ is a Slavic god of uncertain functions mentioned since the 12th century. Generally interpreted as a sun god, sometimes as a moon god. The meaning of the theonym is also unknown: most often his name has been combined with th ...

or Xors and Indian

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

have been proposed in the past. The name could be connected with old Nordic ''hress'' with the meaning »fresh, fiery, alive, vivid« (by Jeza, F.), but also with IE *''ker-''/''kre-'' with the meaning »to grow, to feed« (by Gluhak, A.), perhaps with the Iranian root *''krs-''/''kars-'', and also with Slavic *''krst''- »cross« (by Bošković-Stulli and Merku). As Mikhailov has shown, the name of Kresnik could be derived from Balto-Slavic linguistic heritage: festival of ''Kresze'' is known among

Balts The Balts or Baltic peoples ( lt, baltai, lv, balti) are an ethno-linguistic group of peoples who speak the Baltic languages of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. One of the features of Baltic languages is the number ...

and an old Slavic word *''krěsδ'' has the meaning of »fire«. For Mikhailov there are three possible connections with the root *''krês'':

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

Solstice A solstice is an event that occurs when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around June 21 and December 21. In many countr ...

or blow. ''Kres'' is the Slovenian word for ''bonfire''.

Life and spiritual functions

Kresnik is the son of the great creator deity, ruler of heaven, who has been identified in various sources as

Perun In Slavic mythology, Perun (Cyrillic: Перýн) is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, iris, eagle, firmam ...

.Kropej, M. (1998): 162. He lives in a fantastical country, sometimes called the "Land of the Rising Sun", "Eastern Land", or the "Ninth Country", and rules on the "world mountain", which is frequently described as being golden, crystal, or glass. Kresnik is described as having golden hair and golden hands or arms.Kropej, M. (1998): 161. He was born either with horse earlaps, horse hooves, or a birthmark shaped like hooves, and he frequently is said to be able to take the form of a horse. Connected to sun and fire, he travels the sky on his golden chariot, armed with thunderbolt, axe, hammer, club, or sword. Like

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

, Kresnik performed twelve great deeds. Sometimes he is helped by his brother Trot or his four-eyed dog. His chthonic opponent steals his property, cattle, or wife-sister, but Kresnik defeats him. Rain or wheat falls from the sky after such combat. In most tales, his wife is his sister, a goddess of spring named Alenčica, Marjetica, Vesina, or any number of variations.Copeland, F. S. (1949): 280. In some versions, Kresnik also has a lover who is the daughter of a chthonic snake deity, his perpetual enemy, and Kresnik is eventually killed due to either his wife or lover's jealousy.Kropej, M. (1998): 163.

Comparative mythology

The comparative

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

showed that this demigod perhaps originated from the Iranian god

Yima Yima may refer to: * Jamshid in Aryan mythology * Yima, Henan (), city under administration of Sanmenxia, China * (), town in Qingcheng County, Gansu, China * (), town in Panshi Panshi () is a city of south-central Jilin province of Northeast C ...

and his double, the Indian

Yama Yama (Devanagari: यम) or Yamarāja (यमराज), is a deity of death, dharma, the south direction, and the underworld who predominantly features in Hindu and Buddhist religion, belonging to an early stratum of Rigvedic Hindu deities ...

, with whom they share many common characteristics. On the other side, Kresnik is a storm god and so shares many common features with the Slavic god

. Some characteristics even connect him with Slavic hero

Yarilo Jarylo (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Jarilo, Јарило; be, Ярыла), alternatively Yaryla, Iarilo, Juraj, Jurij, or Gerovit, is a East and South Slavic god of vegetation, fertility and springtime. Etymology The Proto-Slavic root ''*jarъ'' (jar), fr ...

/Jarovit. Many correlations with

Mithra Mithra ( ae, ''Miθra'', peo, 𐎷𐎰𐎼 ''Miça'') commonly known as Mehr, is the Iranian deity of covenant, light, oath, justice and the sun. In addition to being the divinity of contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing ...

and

Indra Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...

exist, too. Kresnik is a very diverse deity with many different faces depending on the location of the

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

Historical development

Kresnik gradually evolved into a Slovenian national hero who lives on a golden mountain, sometimes as a deer with golden antlers. As a human, he is a great king skilled with magic, but who interests himself in farming.Mikhailov, N. (2002): 60-70. In some tales he even fights off the "dog-headed"

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

as a peasant youth. Kresnik appeared in legend as a heroic prince of

Vurberk Vurberk () is a settlement in the Municipality of Duplek in northeastern Slovenia. It lies on the left bank of the Drava River on the southwestern edge of the Slovene Hills ( sl, Slovenske gorice), southeast of Maribor. The area is part of the tra ...

, although its 19th-century account, by

Davorin Trstenjak Davorin Trstenjak (8 November 1817 – 2 February 1890) was a Slovene writer, historian and Roman Catholic priest. Life Trstenjak was born in the village of Kraljevci near Sveti Jurij ob Ščavnici, in what was then the Austrian Duchy of Sty ...

, may have been embellished in language and style. In that legend, the prince fights a dragon attacking Vurberk castle to save the princess, his sister, and marries her. This incestuous plot element is likely a remnant from Kresnik's mythological cycle, where as the god of summer, he married his sister, the goddess of spring. In an alternative version, the prince fights a white snake attacking Vurberk castle, and marries a squire's daughter, who is not his sister. In either case, Vurberk castle's coat of arms, which has displayed a dragon or snake since at least 1204 A.D., supports the idea that the legend predates its 19th-century appearance in anthropological research. With the rise of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, Kresnik was replaced with

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

. A pre-Christian water holiday was probably preserved by association with John the Baptist.Šmitek, Z. (1998): 113. Kresnik's association with midsummer, fire, and rain are tied to St. John's Eve, when in parts of Slovenia, fires are lit and water poured over the people around them. The washing of sin parallels Kresnik, who creates rain by vanquishing the serpent of evil. On St. John's Day, many customs retain memories of the Kresnik mythology, like the lighting of fires, rolling of sun-shaped wooden wheels, and young girls called "Kresnice" singing harvest songs. The Slovenian translation for "Baptist" is »Krstnik«, a similar word.

Controversies

Kresnik as a deity and Kresnik/Krsnik as magical vampire hunter seem to represent two quite different mythological traditions. A hypothesis was proposed by Damjan J. Ovsec based on research by E. Gasparini that Kresnik was a pagan lunar entity, and only in the later development were some solar attributes added. The lunar hypothesis is still rejected by a majority of researchers, as some Slovenian customs connected with Midsummer Eve, like lighting and jumping over bonfires, and rolling fiery wheels, are undoubtedly connected with the worship of the Sun. Kresnik is most commonly understood to be the Slovenian name for the common Slavic god

. Monika Kropej claims that Kresnik is at the same time Perun's son and also a seasonal aspect of Perun. Perun is incarnated during the winter as Božič, in the spring as Yarilo, in the summer as Kresnik and in the autumn as Zlatorog, a deer with golden antlers. However, Kresnik's brother Trot is also connected to Perun,Šmitek, Z. (2004): 160. so no clear answer could be given on that matter.

References

Sources

* Copeland, F. S. (1931): ''Slovene Folklore.'' In: ''Folklore'' Vol. 42, Issue 4: pg 405–446. * Copeland, F. S. (1949): ''Some Aspects of Slovene Folklore.'' In: ''Folklore'' Vol. 6, Issue 2: pg 277–286. * Kropej, Monika(2005): ''Bajeslovje: Verski in predstavni svet ljudi, ki temelji na mitih.'' In: Bogataj, Janez ''et al.'' (2005): ''Narodna kulturna dediščina''. Ljubljana, Zavod za varstvo kulturne dediščine. * Kropej, Monika (2003). “Cosmology and Deities in Slovene Folk Narrative and Song Tradition" ozmologija in boštva V Slovenskem Ljudskem Pripovednem in pesniškem izročilu. In: ''

Studia Mythologica Slavica ''Studia mythologica Slavica'' is a Slovene academic journal dedicated to ethnology, history, archaeology, linguistics, religious studies, literary history and philosophy in the context of Slavic mythology. Published since 1998 by the Instit ...

'' 6 (May). Ljubljana, Slovenija, 126-130. https://doi.org/10.3986/sms.v6i0.1780. * Kropej, Monika(1998): ''The Horse as the Cosmological Creature in the Slovene Mythopoetic Heritage''. In: ''

'' I, 1998, Pages 153–167. Ljubljana, Založba ZRC. * Mikhailov Nikolai (2002): ''Mythologica slovenica: Poskus rekonstrukcije slovenskega poganskega izročila.'' Trst, Mladika. * Ovsec, Damjan J. (1991): ''Slovanska mitologija in verovanje''. Ljubljana, Domus * Šmitek, Zmago (2004): ''Mitološko izročilo Slovencev: Svetinje preteklosti''. Ljubljana, Študentska založba. * Šmitek, Zmago (1998): ''Kresnik: An Attempt at Mythological Reconstruction''. In: ''

,'' Vol 1, 93-118.

External links

A description of petroglyphs of Kresnik (Perun) in a subterranean Early Slavic shrine in Slovenia
{{Slavic mythology Slavic gods Fire gods Slovene mythology