MOTHER DRAVA
Translated by Špela Štefanič
Picture by Anej Mohor, 5. a
It happened in times when our great-grandfathers didn't know rye and wheat. There was a rich fisherman living by the Drava river. He became rich by working hard, fishing every day by the river. He was grateful because the river was so good to him.
One day he asked: “Mother Drava, how can I pay you back since you've blessed me with well-being?” The river said: “Go around the world. Far away you will find people who have white and rye bread. Buy one of each and bring them to me.”
The fisherman set out on his journey and arrived to beautiful and rich places. People there were eating something he hasn’t seen before – nice scented bread. He bought two loaves of bread, just like the river asked him to.
When he came back home, he threw a loaf of rye bread and a loaf of white bread into the Drava river. The river started to rise and flooded in upon both her left and right banks. But when the water withdrew, fine rye and yellow wheat started to grow there.
That's how people near the Drava river got the seeds and after that time they planted rye and wheat everywhere.
WATER – SAVER OF SWORN LORD OF THE CASTLE ON THE POHORJE PLATEAU
Translated by Eva Sevšek and Katja Žišt, 8. a
Picture by Tjaša Brglez, 5. a
On the eastern side of the green Pohorje plateau, in the Hoče parish, there are ruins of an old castle. It was once the property of a cruel lord of the castle. One morning a young shepherd pasturing sheep came to these ruins. He saw a snake on the stones and got very scared when he heard its hissing voice:
“If you had got wet by the water welling out below the hill, you would have saved me and got all the treasure hidden in the ruins. I’m the sworn lord of this castle and for two hundred years I have been guarding my riches which I gained by robbery. I will have to stay here and hide in the ruins for a long time. I will be saved only when a man as good as you are, comes here again and, without knowing about me, washes himself with spring water from below the hill. This won’t happen for a long time. The tree, from which the cradle will be carpentered for my saver, has not yet grown.”
When the big snake said this, it slowly crept away.
DRAVA, SAVA, SOČA
Translated by Eva Sevšek and Katja Žišt, 8. a
Picture by Maks Šinkar, 5. a
Rivers Drava, Sava and Soča are sisters. One day they discussed which one is going to be the first to flow into the sea on the next day. In the evening Sava and Soča fell asleep. But Drava just pretended to sleep and soon afterwards she quietly let off her waters to flow on. When Sava woke up, she saw that Drava was already rolling down to the sea and she angrily started to roll down to the sea herself. Finally Soča woke up. Seeing that both her sisters outwitted her, she violently broke through the mountains and angrily pushed through rocky gorges to the nearest sea. And so it is even nowadays: Drava is flowing quietly and slowly, Sava is wearing away, but they both flow into the Black Sea. Soča, however, is quickly booming trough narrow rock gorges to the Adriatic Sea.
CHRIST AND ST. PETER DONATE OATS
TO THE POHORJE PEOPLE
Translated by Eva Sevšek and Katja Žišt, 8. a
Picture by Špela Pahič, 5. a
In ancient times when Christ and St. Peter were still walking around our region, they climbed also the green plateau of Pohorje. There they visited the mountain village Šentjungota. They stopped by a poor hut standing alone outside the village, and asked the old woman sitting at the threshold for some gift.
“I’ve only got a piece of brown bread but I don’t know if you will want it. This year barley hasn’t been plentiful, so there is a lot of awny bran in it,” said the old woman. Then she went into the house and brought out a piece of really black and bad bread. Christ broke that bread in two pieces. One half he offered to St. Peter. The old woman went into the house again to bring the travellers some water. In the meantime St. Peter grumbled that the bread is nothing but straw. He decided that he wouldn’t eat such bad bread. He put it into his travel bag. Christ thanked the old woman and they walked away.
After a while St. Peter became very hungry and he remembered he’s got some bread in his bag. Although it was full of bran and awn, St. Peter started to reach in his bag for small pieces of it, took them out and ate them. The awny bran which got stuck between his teeth he spat out.
Christ, who was walking in front of him, bowed down and took a clod of dry Pohorje soil. He crushed it in his hands and threw it over the field as if he were sowing some grains.
“A new cereal be it – oats,” he said. “It will grow in the fields cultivated by poor farmers, cottagers and woodmen. Oats will be cereals for high mountain places where golden wheat doesn’t grow. Let oats be insensitive to cold, snow and frost, even hail should not hurt it. So be it!”
The same year new cereal started to grow in the Pohorje fields. It had no ears and no awn, but panicle full of grains wrapped in chaff. Oats gave bread to cottagers and poor farmers. Oat bread got a nickname – “The oatmeal bread is a poor man.” But it protected many poor people from hunger.
THE BUCKWHEAT SEED
Source: Dušica Kunaver: Slovene Folk Tales, 1998 (samozal.) Series English by the rainbow short cut
Picture by Denis Taks, 6. a
Once upon a time our forefathers lived in a country far to the East. Their country became too small for so many people, so they left it and set off to find another land to live in.
Before they left, the goddesss who loved them, gave them a buckwheat seed and said: »Wherever you travel, plant this seed. The place where it comes up green in three days will be your future homeland. If it does not come up in three days, dig it out and go on.«
The Goddess's seed did not come up on the shores of the Black Sea neither did it grow on the Polish plains, nor in the German mountains. But when they planted it our country, it grew green in three days.
After some weeks it was fully grown and very soon it bore marvellous grain thatbrought our ancestors food, health and happiness in their new homeland.
