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THE ROLE OF LEGEND IN
CONSTRUCTING ANNUAL CYCLE
Mirjam Mencej
Abstract
The paper is based on the folklore tradition of a mythical being, the Master of
the Wolves, whose chief function was commanding or dividing up food among
the wolves. He appears in many Slavic and other European legends, and
some Southern Slavs also celebrate the so-called “wolf holidays”; a being
with the same function appears also in incantations against wolves. It turned
out that the incantations are usually connected with the first days of pasturing
in the spring and the beginning of summer, while the legends refer to the last
days of pasturing in the autumn and the beginning of winter. The legends and
incantations as well as the beliefs and customs clearly indicate the remains
of a tradition, the intention of which was to explain and to support the chang-
ing of time, the binary opposition of winter and summer, as it pertained to
the annual cycle of Slavic stockbreeders.
Key words
: Slavic folk beliefs, legends, folk customs, incantations, the mas-
ter of the animals, wolves.
In 1961 Lutz Röhrich published a paper on
Herr der Tiere
‘the Mas-
ter of the Animals’ in European folk tradition. In the paper he ar-
gues that in European folk legends and tales we can find a series of
folk beliefs about a master of animals in some form. These legends
are, according to him, one of the most ancient layers of European
legends and had come to Europe from the Mediterranean basin,
more precisely from the Cretan-Minoan cult of Artemis (Röhrich
1961: 343–347). One of the masters of animals briefly mentioned in
the paper is the master of wolves known in Slavic tradition.
The majority of Slavic peoples (and some non-Slavic ones as well)
are indeed familiar with the folk tradition of some kind of a ruler,
commander, leader, master of wolves, sometimes also called wolf
herdsman. In this paper I will try to examine the function of the
tradition connected with this mythical being, especially, but not
exclusively in the Slavic tradition. Parallels with some other Euro-
pean folklore traditions will also be considered.
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Mirjam Mencej
Folklore 32
The tradition of some kind of a master of wolves can be found in
various segments of folklore – in legends, beliefs (and proverbs).
Very different characters can appear in the role of the master of
wolves: saints, forest spirits, God, wolves and many other beings or
persons. However, if while trying to determine the characteristics
of this person we cling to the notion of wolf herdsman, which was
the collective name for these saints and other beings introduced in
specialised literature by Ji
ř
i Polivka in his study
Vl
č
í pasti
ř
(The
Wolf Herdsman, 1927), we will not get very far. This name can be
found among ethnological records of folk beliefs only one time apiece
in Croatia, in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Ukraine, and otherwise
only in Croatian legends which were (mostly) collected in the vi-
cinity of Varazhdin and published under the title
Tales of the Wolf
Herdsman
by Matija Valjavec (1890). The name “wolf herdsman” is
not found in the legends and beliefs of other Slavic peoples; instead,
the more frequently used names are “Master of Wolves”, “wolf saint”,
“leader of wolves”, “commander of wolves”, etc. There is no collec-
tive title under which we could categorise all the various names, so
we have to identify first the function of this being in both folklore
genres – legends and beliefs.
There are various legends about the Master of Wolves, but most
often one encounters variants of the legend following an identical,
typical structure: a man sitting in a tree in a forest sees the Master
of Wolves, who is giving out food to the wolves or sending them in
all directions to search for food. The last in line is the lame wolf.
Since there is no more food, the Master of Wolves says he can eat
the man watching from the tree. The wolf – either immediately or
after various twists of the plot – actually succeeds in eating the
man in the tree.
Various Slavic peoples’ legends assigned many different roles to
the Master of Wolves. However, a more detailed examination re-
veals that all these various activities can be grouped into three main
categories. We can establish that in addition to the function which
is evident in the many names such as ruler of wolves, leader of
wolves, master of wolves, etc. and the various activities which are
assigned to this person in legends (driving the wolves, giving them
assignments and orders, determining where they shall live, etc.)
i.e. the function of commanding the wolves (Function 1), and the
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The Role of Legend in Constructing Annual Cycle
function of allotting food to or feeding the wolves (Function 2) clearly
predominate. The function of allotting food or feeding is found in
one or another manner in all fifty-one Slavic legends of this type
(the Master of Wolves determines what the wolves will eat, appor-
tions food among them, sends them out after a man or into a corral
after livestock, takes care of their feeding, etc.). The same is also
found in a legend of the Gagauz in Moldavia (Moshkov 1902: 49–50)
and in an Estonian variant of the legend (Loorits 1949: 329). We are
unable to find these two functions only in a Latvian legend (see
Dolenjske novice), while the function of allotting food is not (at least
explicitly) to be found in a French legend, although it can be sensed
there (Seignolle 1960: 265–6). We also find a third function of the
Master of Wolves in the legends, and that is that he protects live-
stock and/or people from wolves: in a Croatian legend he calms some
wolves who want to tear a man apart (Valjavec 1890: 96–7, no.8); the
same holds for a Ukrainian legend (Voropai 1993;
Č
ubinski 1872:
171–2) and the same function can also be detected in a Latvian leg-
end.
The same three functions can also be found in the records of beliefs
about the Master of Wolves. Croatian folk belief says that the Mas-
ter of Wolves (wolf herdsman) is Saint George: he summons together
the wolves from all over the world and tells them which animal to
slaughter (De
ž
eli
ć
1863: 222). In Macedonia, there is St. Mrata who
usually appears in the role of the Master of Wolves: he commands
wolves and sends them wherever he wants (Rai
č
evi
ć
1935: 54). Ac-
cording to a Russian belief most often either St. George or St.
Nicholas is considered the Master of Wolves: they were supposed
to order them, tell them where and what to eat, and to be their
leader (
Č
i
č
erov 1957: 36–37). In Ukrainian beliefs, St. George or a
wood spirit (Po)lisun, who are usually considered the masters of
wolves there, send the wolves off to search for food, but also forbid
them to attack livestock (Dobrovolski 1901: 135), etc. According to
these recordings the master of wolves commands the wolves (and
sometimes all the animals) (1st function), allots food to them (2nd
function), and, in addition, protects livestock against the attacks by
wolves (forbids the wolves to attack livestock, shuts their mouths,
i.e. muzzles them, etc.) (3rd function). All three functions are closely
interrelated: it seems that the essential component of commanding
the wolves (Function 1) is actually the taking care of their feed-
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Mirjam Mencej
Folklore 32
ing – determining what they can (Function 2) and cannot eat (Func-
tion 3). Therefore it would probably be better to speak of three as-
pects of a single function than of three functions, since the second
and third functions actually imply the first: the third function is
thus simply an aspect or a logical consequence of the first function
(that he commands the wolves) and of the second, that he sends the
wolves to eat where he decides (i.e. determines which animals or
humans the wolves will eat, etc.).
Having identified the three aspects of a kind of a single function in
the legends and beliefs about the Master of Wolves, we can see that
the being/person with the same function can be identified also in
incantations against wolves, which have already been partially con-
sidered by Polivka in this regard. In these, the person to whom they
refer is not called the Master of Wolves or wolf herdsman or by any
other similar name. Incantations which refer to a person who pro-
tects livestock from danger from wolves and other wild animals
could be found preserved in the 19th and 20th century in Slovenia,
Bulgaria, among the eastern Slavs (in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine), in
Poland (among the Poles and Prussian Germans), in the Czech lands
and Hungary among German-speaking herdsmen, in Latvia, Aus-
tria, Germany, Switzerland, in northern Europe and France and
among the Ossetians in the Caucasus, while they are unknown, at
least in such form, among other southern Slavs (the same contents
can be partially detected in carols sung while walking through the
village on St. George’s day in Croatia and songs sung by carol sing-
ers in Serbia who walk from house to house from the name day of
St. Ignatius until Christmas). In this form, shepherds and peasants/
animal breeders would make appeals primarily to St. George, but
also to St Nicholas, St. Peter, St. Paul and many other saints, God,
Christ, forest spirits, wolves, etc. – that is, to those very beings or
persons who usually play the role of the Master of Wolves in leg-
ends and beliefs (for references see Mencej 2001). If we take a close
look at the actions saints or other mythical beings are asked to per-
form in the incantations, we can see that most of them can be placed
into five groups, which appear in the majority of countries in which
such forms are known. The person or being to whom they turn with
appeals for help locks the mouths of (wolves and other animals);
fences livestock in or out (to protect against wolves); sends wolves
away from livestock; (in some other way) prevents wolves from
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The Role of Legend in Constructing Annual Cycle
harming livestock; protects livestock (from wolves and other ani-
mals).
For example:
“…Saint Nicholas, take the keys of paradise,
Close the gullet of the mad dog,
The forest wolf!
So that they do not drink the blood
Or tear the flesh
Of our lambs and calves …”
(Kotula 1976: 420, but also 46, 58, 61–62, 68, 70, 72, 80, 89–90, 92).
…Make them sleep, Lord, build a railing around a rocky moun-
tain out of the stardust and new moon and righteous sun, before
the stray beasts, before the climbing adders, before the evil of man.
(From Belarus, Gomil region; Romanov 1891: 45–46, no. 168)
If we look at the activities of persons to whom the people turn to in
all of these incantations: muzzling wolves, shutting out livestock,
sending wolves away from livestock, other methods of preventing
wolves from harming livestock, it becomes clear that the chief and
only purpose of the activities performed by the person who is called
to perform them is to protect livestock from attacks by wolves and
other animals. This means that the person to whom people turn in
incantations is attributed the same function as has been attributed
to the Master of Wolves in legends and beliefs (3rd aspect). This
aspect, as we have stated, also implies the other two: that the com-
mand of the wolves is in the hands of the person who is turned to
(1st aspect), who at the same time determines which animals the
wolves can (2nd aspect) or cannot (3rd aspect) eat. This same func-
tion of the person turned to in the incantations therefore indicates
that we can recognise him as the same person as in the legends and
beliefs about the Master of Wolves, which means that we can refer
to him as the Master of Wolves himself. The incantations can there-
fore also be understood as a part of the common tradition about the
Master of Wolves.
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