engleski

Hero Petar Klepac and his homeland

Numerous mythological and folkloristic research studies are dedicated to the pattern of the mythical and cultural hero, the hero’s journey, and the concept of heroism. Stories of folktales heroes are placed into a “recent past” and domestic or familiar environment. Because of their supernatural abilities, the heroes even acquired a demigod status. The narrative hero Petar Klepac is known by the inhabitants of the Čabranka-Kupa valley (in Slovenian the Upper Kolpa and Čabranka valley), the Croatian-Slovenian border area. Local oral tradition on Petar Klepac with many variants of its narrative is strongly preserved. There circulate a number of quite similar legends, in which a frail child becomes a strong man, whose supernatural powers help the needy and drive the enemies from these regions. Legends of Petar Klepac include characteristics of heroic tales, as well as fairytales. They combine realistic elements (names of places and persons, the hero’s personality traits, descriptions of historical reality, customs) and fairytale elements (magical assistants, the hero’s miraculous powers, and the fight between good and evil). There is interconnectedness of the divine, supernatural and the physical, everyday human world. The inhabitants of the valley mostly believe that once there really lived a very mighty man (Primc 1995:6). The purpose of our paper is to show the changing role and diversity of interpretations of myth in time and space. Using sites that appear in the legends and toponyms in the valley connected to life and heroic deeds of Petar Klepac (Mali Lug/Little Grove, Sveta Gora/Holy Mount, Turke – Turks, Klepčeva skala/Klepac Stairs, Klepčev kamen/Klepac Rock), we will attempt to determine spatial structure of heroic myth and recover a mythical, cyclical pattern of the hero’s quest.

folktale hero; mythical hero; oral legends; hero's Petar Klepac; hero's journey; spatial structure of heroic myth; Čabranka-Kupa valley; Gorski kotar

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