By the middle of the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire’s territory stretched as far as modern-day Croatia. In 1469, Ottoman border soldiers controlled areas around Vinica in Bela Krajina. Because of Gottschee’s location near the Austro-Ottoman borderland, Ottoman raiding paths crossed through this region on their way to the heart of the Austrian Empire. The first recorded raids in Gottschee occurred in 1468. Records from 1471 and 1479 tell of devastating attacks on Kočevje, while 50 separate attacks were recorded between 1525 and 1530. Ottoman raiders camped in the vast forests around Gottschee and Snežnik.

Gottschee suffered no less from these raids than any other part of Carniola or Styria. Gottscheer oral tradition and toponyms that point to the presence of tabori are evidence of this shared experience.

Ottoman Raiding in Gottscheer Folk Songs and Tales

Memory in the form of oral tradition passes from generation to generation, even though some content may change over time. As it came down to us today, Gottscheer oral tradition (folk songs, stories, legends, etc.) illustrates the Gottscheer experience of Ottoman raiding.

Folklore moves across a geographical space, crossing local and even linguistic borders. Such is the case with folk songs, which change as different populations adopt them: place names might be substituted, characters may change, and themes may vary. As such, it is difficult to determine the exact origin of Gottscheer folk songs and legends. Nonetheless, the presence of a number of songs about the Ottoman Incursions in the folkloric opus of the Gottscheers shows that this period of history held significant cultural and historical meaning. The body of known Gottscheer oral tradition describing the Incursions is relatively small. However, the folk songs and stories available to us tell of a time of violence (both from raiding and of soldiers going to fight Ottoman forces), the shock and horror of devşirme and kidnappings, and the helplessness Gottscheers felt at the hands of Ottoman raiders. That helplessness is manifest in stories of divine intervention and miracles as well.

The Gottscheers and Ottoman Violence

The folk tale collection of Wilhelm Tschinkel contains one particular tale on the origin of the church in the village of Mozelj (German: Mösel). The tale begins: “When the Turks once again raided Gottschee and robbed and murdered from village to village, they also rode through the lovely little village of Mozelj.”

The village church in Mozej. Photo: Anja Moric.

Two folk songs collected by Adolf Hauffen in the 19th century tell of life near the Austro-Ottoman borderland. The first, appropriately titled “Vom Türkenkriege,”6 tells the story of a young soldier crossing through Gottschee on his way to fight the Ottomans in Ogulin.7 He encounters St. Barbara, who asks him where he travels. The soldier responds: “I must go to the grand army/ to the grand army, to Turkey” and tells St. Barbara that he knows he will neither return nor have a Christian burial among “Turkish guns … [and] dogs.” It is not certain whether the soldier in the song is a Gottscheer or not. However, it is clear that the wars against the Ottomans were also a Gottscheer affair, and that Gottscheers came into contact with soldiers passing through their region or fighting in wars.

The second song tells the story of the Councilor Stephen, who, riding around Koprivnik (German: Nesseltal) comes upon a well. He throws his matrimonial ring into the well: “If the ring floats,/ I shall return” (from war against the Ottomans). The ring sinks, Stephen bids his wife farewell, and rides for Ogulin, where he falls in battle. The “Turks” put his head on a spike, which they send to Koprivnik. The song ends with the Turks announcing, “Rejoice, rejoice, people of Koprivnik,/ the lord Stephen is no more!” As a result of how the Gottscheers experienced raids, the Ottomans became a symbol of violent acts in Gottscheer folk songs.

Kidnappings

Forced recruitment for the Ottoman palace guard and kidnappings by the Ottomans feature prominently in folk songs and legends around the Balkan Peninsula. Gottscheer songs are no exception. These songs focus on reported kidnappings of women and young maidens to the Ottoman Empire.

One such story features prominently in a legend in Tschinkel’s collection and in a song collected by Hauffen. In Tschinkel’s version, a beggar begs a Turkish pasha for alms. The pasha has nothing to offer; he is poor and without a wife. The beggar tells the pasha that he knows of two maidens in “beautiful Gottschee,” who sit in the church in Stara Cerkev (German: Mitterdorf) on August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption. The pasha travels to Gottschee on the holiday, where he declares to frightened pilgrims upon entering the church not to fear, for “[He has] only come for that which [he] lack[s].” The pasha grabs the beautiful Margaret by her hand and rushes back with her to Turkey before the congregation can react.

In Hauffen’s version, the pasha also directly tells the maiden that she will come with him “to the Turkish lands.” The song follows a similar story, albeit in more detail and with an ending where Margaret curses the pasha. The shock of the congregation conveyed in the first story surely reflects the shock and horror of locals when raiders kidnapped Gottscheer maidens in the 15th and 16th centuries. In both stories, the pasha arrives on one of the vital holidays of the Catholic calendar. We may assume that the Gottscheers also saw their religious life endangered by the Ottomans.

Miracles and the Divine

Miracles as well as averted catastrophes appear in Tschinkel’s collection of folk tales. In the story of Sveta Kri by Mozelj, a band of Ottoman raiders thunders into Mozelj, where their horses drop to the ground and freeze when they encounter a rosebush covered in dew made of blood. The frightened raiders retreat. The locals went on to build the chapel of the Holy Blood at that spot; ruins of the chapel can be found not far from the village church today.

In another legend, a group of villagers hides from raiders in a cave near Vrbovec (German: Tiefental). When the raiders arrive, the besieged take a flame in hand and burn their last bull, which was in hiding with them. The howls echoe so loudly that the Ottoman raiders think an entire herd of cows, and thus many men, remain in the village. The raiders lose hope and make their retreat.

Gottscheer and Regional Folklore

Folklore I have recounted here is specifically about the Gottscheers. It is notable that the structure of this folklore is similar in many respects to that of Slovenian folklore about the Ottoman Incursions. That tradition, too, contains songs and legends about Slovenian peasants hiding in caves, divine intervention connected to foritifed churches, and multiple expressions of helplessness. These similarities indicate two conclusions. First, the Ottoman Incursions were a shared experience across the Slovenian Lands, even though these accounts tend to leave out the Gottscheers. Second, taken together, these bodies of folklore demonstrate a common tradition across the Slovenian Lands; the Gottscheers and Slovenians borrowed from one another, influencing their own cultures in turn.

Ottoman incursions and toponyms

Due to the large number of abandoned Gottscheer villages in the Gottschee region, it is difficult to discern how many tabori existed in this space. However, it is possible to determine from local toponyms that the Gottscheers also constructed anti-Ottoman fortifications in their villages. We may assume that the Gottscheers fortified their churches specifically as centers of village wealth and spiritual life. One such fortification existed in Mozelj, which may have been able to shelter several hundred people (Mosbruker). Stari Tabor (German: Alttabor, Gottscheerish: Autrtawr) and Novi Tabor (German: Neutabor) are now-abandoned Gottscheer settlements in today’s municipality of Semič. Stari Tabor, according to the Local Lexicon of the Drava Banate, has its origins in an anti-Ottoman fortification. Novi Tabor shares similar origins, founded during the 16th-century period of raiding.

Remarks:

To call these raids “Turkish” would be historically inaccurate. The armed men carrying out attacks on the Slovenian Lands would most likely have been Christian converts to Islam: they were Ottoman military men. The term “Turk” reflects the name the inhabitants of what we today call Europe gave to Muslims for much of history. The term “Ottoman” would be more appropriate. The name for what would perhaps more accurately be called “Ottoman raids” or “incursions” survives in Slovenian memory under the name “Turkish.” I use the term “Ottoman Incursions” in this article.

Devşirme: The Ottoman child levy or “blood tax”, whereby the Ottomans would kidnap young boys from among their Christian subjects to be raised as soldiers (Janissaries) or bureaucrats in the Ottoman court.

Sources:

– Fister, Peter. Arhitektura Slovenskih protiturških taborov. Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1975.

– Moric, Anja (ur.). Pesemsko izročilo Kočevske: Adolf Hauffen: nemški jezikovni otok na Kočevskem. Zgodovina in narečje, življenjske razmere, šege in navade, pripovedke, pravljice in pesmi: znanstvenokritična izdaja. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC SAZU, 2024.

– “History.” Gottscheer Heritage and Genalogy Association. https://gottschee.org/history/.

– Krajevni leksikon dravske banovine. Ljubljana: Uprava Krajvnega leksikona dravske banovine, 1937.

– Mosbruker, Mojmir, “Tabori.” Turški vpadi, 2020. https://turki.splet.arnes.si/tabori/.

– Savnik, Roman, Planina, Francè, and Šifrer, Živko, Krajevni Leksikon Slovenije: repertorij z uradnimi, topografskimi, zemljepisnimi, zgodovinskimi, kulturnimi, gospodarskimi in turističnimi podatki vseh krajev Slovenije. Vol. 2, Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, 1971.

– Tschinkel, Wilhelm. Kočevarska Folklora v šegah, navadah, pravljicach, povedkah, legendah in drugih Folklornih Izročilih: Gottscheer Volkstum in Sitte, Brauch, Märchen, Sagen, Legenden Und Anderen Volkstümlichen Überlieferungen. Ljubljana: ZRC, 2004.

– Voje, Ignacij. Slovenci pod pritiskom Turškega nasilja. Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete, 1996.

Članek je nastal v okviru projekta Teža preteklosti: dediščina večkulturnega območja – primer Kočevske, ki ga sofinancira Javna agencija za znanstvenoraziskovalno in inovacijsko dejavnost Republike Slovenije, in s finančno podporo Ministrstva za kulturo Republike Slovenije.

Read in the previous post: Gottscheer recipients of Olympic medals.

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The Ballad of the Child Murderess: Comparison of Slovenian and Gottscheer Ballads

Before World War II, versions of the ballad involving a child murderess were also widespread in the Kočevsko Region. The first Gottscheer variant is very similar to the Slovenian one: instead of a shepherd, an old man appears, but otherwise it involves a similar development of the motif. In the Slovenian versions, the mother murdered two children, threw them into the water, and put one in a hollow beech tree or under a block of beech wood. In the Gottscheer version, the little child is taken to the house where the wedding is taking place by an old man, but in the Slovene version they are mostly taken by the uncle (mother’s brother). In all the variants, both Slovenian and Gottscheer, the mother bride denies giving birth, and in all of them she wears a green wreath expressing her innocence. In the Slovene versions, the wreath alters its appearance or starts to burn, while in the Gottscheer version (and in the first written Slovene version), the child murderess is carried away by the devil.

However, the second Gottscheer version is quite different. There is a dialogue between the mother and a girl, Mina, who laments to her mother that she is not feeling well, whereupon her mother advises her what to do three times. When the advice is to no avail, Mina admits that she is pregnant. She has previously given birth to nine children, two of them she concealed in a tree and she drowned the others. The girl ventures off into the forest, where she dies during labour, and her son remains in her arms. The song ends with the son studying to become a priest and save his mother, father and friends from perdition through masses, but not his grandmother, who never helped his mother.

We present the Gottscheer variant in the fragment below. There are 188 Slovenian versions of this type of song (published in Slovenian Folk Songs, Slovenska matica and Založba ZRC, 2007; SFS V/type 286):

Ballad of the Child Murderess, Hauffen 1895, No. 79: English translation (via Slovenian translation):

The Ballad of a Condemned Child Murderess Based on a True Story

Let us say a few words about a special type of ballad involving a child murderess. The ballad of a condemned child murderess belongs among the so-called family ballads. So far, 80 variants are known throughout Slovenia. This is one of the rare type of ballad that originated in an urban setting and then spread to the countryside, as can be inferred from the geographical spread of the variants recorded.

The story of the unfortunate illegitimate mother who murders her new-born child and is condemned to death was based on a real-life event. Information about it can be found in the account ledgers of the Municipal Court of Ljubljana, where payments to executioners for their activities are recorded. Thus, under the expenses in 1766, it is stated that on 23 October 1766, Martin Jakob, the executioner from Št. Vid in Carinthia, received 40 goldinars because on the previous day, he had executed with a sword Urša Mandlovka (Maldnlovka, Mandeljc?), household name Kustrovka, aged 17. She had a reputation for being the most beautiful girl under the bell of St. Peter’s Parish Church in Ljubljana and had been convicted of infanticide.

The Punishment of Urša Mandlovka

Urša was thrown into jail, i.e. the dungeon (tranča), after which one of the oldest parts of Ljubljana is named today – Ulica pod Trančo Street, as mentioned in some versions of the ballad. Ursa’s boyfriend and the child’s father is said to have been a farmhand called Jurij. She murdered the child because she feared the harsh penalties and public shame that came with illegitimate motherhood. A girl with an illegitimate child had to stand barefoot as a sinner before the gates of the (St.Peter’s) Parish Church, holding her baby in her arms and a burning candle in her right hand. Her braids were cut off and two straw plaits were pinned in their place. People who came to the church would revile her and spit on her, and whoever wanted to was allowed to strike her with a rod that lay at her feet. The crown of straw symbolised the loss of virginity, the rod a sign of punishment and the burning candle a sign of penance.

Such exposures were partly abandoned under Empress Maria Theresa’s 1769 Penal and Procedural Code (Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana), which mostly stipulated fines, escalating fines and corporal punishments instead of shameful exposure. In 1868, the civil authorities moved public executions behind the walls of the gaols, but after 1873, when the new Penal Code was published, they were no longer allowed at all.

The circumstances that led to the infanticide were not taken into account by the male judges, because the woman was not considered a person, instead being the property of men. Indeed, the ballad does not touch on these issues either and all the blame was attributed to the illegitimate sexual activity of the girls, which was strongly condemned by the ecclesiastical lords. None of the ballad variants depict the social problems, i.e. poverty and the difficult social situation of the child murderesses. Urška Mandlovka was sentenced to death as a poor girl, but the executioner fell in love with her and begged the judges to allow him to take her as his wife to save her from perdition. Urška refused this because of the very strong popular belief at the time that the executioner (hangman, headsman) was associated with the devil.

She was executed at the Ljubljana scaffold at Friškovec, where a stone cross stood in the middle of the fields. The song also mentions the “place” of execution, namely “in the middle of a field in Ljubljana”. The procession passed through the suburbs of Šentjanž along present-day Vidovdanska cesta Road towards Šmartno ob Savi.

The “Condemned Child Murderess” Ballad Path

In addition to the aforementioned, we know “The Condemned Child Murderess” ballad path, which was created so we could follow the fate of the child murderess through the stations on the streets of present-day Ljubljana as recorded in the song, which would transport us back to the 18th century when this real event took place.

The article The Folk Ballad of the Infanticide: Slovenian and Gottscheer Versions was created as part of the project The Weight of the past. Heritage of the Multicultural Area: Case Study of Gottschee , which was financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency.

Previous post: Reflection of the Aristocratic World in the Gottscheer Folk Song Tradition.

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They often reflect the setting of the nobility, which can be observed in the social position of the protagonists, their behaviour, the social norms that prevailed among the nobility, or the environment in which the stories take place. They include, for example, stories about the conscription of men for war or their homecoming, emphasising the role of the knight, the defender of the land. The song Daisy (Marjetica), published in the Hauffen collection under No. 71, proves this by mentioning pointed shoes, as pointed shoes were a distinct medieval sign of prestige. The mention of pointed or beaked shoes also indicates that the song was written before the settlers colonised the Kočevska Region.

Reflection of the Aristocratic World in the Folk Song A Girl and a Nobleman’s Son

The life of the upper classes is also evidenced in the folk songs describing the everyday life of the social groups that enabled the nobility to live their lifestyle. The folk song A Girl and a Nobleman’s Son, published in Hauffen’s collection under No. 78, directly depicts some traits that are very different from the everyday life of the Gottscheers in their new environment. The rich backgrounds of the boy and girl are evident in the song: the boy is the son of a nobleman, but the girl’s father who tries to trifle with the young nobleman is also wealthy. A number of forest and field workers work for him; the labour is differentiated between them, which shows the strength of the upper classes from which the girl comes. The song not only expresses that the main protagonists belong to the higher social strata, but it also refers to a chore that was carried out in a different way in Slovenia than in the Gottscheer folk song: i.e. in the song, the hay is raked by men, not by women, as was the general custom in Slovenia. The Slovene language does not have a term for a man who rakes hay; we only know the term for “female raker” (slv. grabljica).

Coloured Shoes

As well as the narrative folk songs, distinct prestigious goods are also included in some of the ritual folk songs, such as the song “Handsome Andrle” (Hauffen, No. 119), in which the fair from its original setting, associated with prestigious offerings, is replaced by the Ljubljana Fair. Belonging to the highest social classes is even more distinctively expressed in the ritual folk song The Bride’s Farewell (Hauffen, No. 106), with which the bride bids farewell to her family: the folk song contains, among other things, a couplet referencing part of the bride’s attire, the coloured shoes. These coloured shoes could only be brocade shoes, which expressed the highest social status.

Where does the reflection of the noble world come from?

The theme of life in the upper social circles would not otherwise have attracted attention if it had been consistent with the living conditions of the Gottscheers: i.e. they lived in modest conditions in their new surroundings and there was not a single noble country estate in the area, apart from Friedrichstein Castle and the manor house. The Poljane and Kostel Castles were located outside the environs of the Gottscheer villages. Hence, the environment in which the settlers in the Kočevska Region lived did not allow any direct observation of the life of the castle lords. The story of the forbidden love between Veronika of Desenice and Frederick II, Count of Celje, connected with the Friedrichstein Castle, did not pass into the tradition of the Gottscheers either.

The settlers in the Kočevska Region lived in a highly closed-off community. In centuries past, women did not leave their poverty-stricken hill villages and preserved their folk traditions as they offered important solace when separated from their husbands. Mainly, they preserved the traditions that the Gottscheer people brought with them. The pilgrimages that the Gottscheer people took part in were also accompanied by devotional and legendary folk songs, but not by other narrative or ritual folk songs.

Folk Song Heritage as Evidence of Immigration from Franconia and Thuringia?

The folk songs of the Gottscheers are, therefore, an expression of prosperity preserved in the remembrance of a time that helped them survive in a new environment. This finding has opened up an important aspect of the treatment of the Gottscheer tradition and the search for an explanation has led to a rethinking of the original environment of the Gottscheers and the reasons for their immigration to the Kočevska Region. This reflection has revealed new historical links with the economically and socially important environment of Franconia and Thuringia, and, with the renewed discussion of the validity of Bishop Hren’s written record, has also shed light on the reasons for the immigration of the Gottscheers to their new surroundings. These reasons underline the importance of honour and loyalty and will be included, together with extensive analysis and new insights, in one of the studies that will be brought out in the Slovenian translation of Hauffen’s opus. The book “The Folk Song Tradition of Kočevska Region” will be published in November 2024 by the ZRC Publishing House.

Sources:

• Hauffen, Adolf. 1895. Lieder . Graz: K. k. Universitäts-Buchdrückerei und Verlags-Buchhandlung ‘Styria’.
• Knific, Bojan. 2020. Obutvena dediščina na Slovenskem: O škornjih, čevljih, coklah, opankah, copatah in drugih obuvalih. Tržič: Tržiški muzej.
• Lackner-Kundegraber, Marija. 1995. Etnografske posebnosti v nekdanjem Kočevskem nemškem jezikovnem otoku. Kronika 43/3: 76–84.
• Marolt, France. 1939. Slovenske prvine v kočevski ljudski pesmi. V: Kočevski zbornik. Razprave o Kočevski in njenih ljudeh. Ljubljana: Vodstvo družbe sv. Cirila in Metoda v Ljubljani, 179–320.
• Stopar, Ivan. 1986. Gradovi na Slovenskem. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba.

Članek Odsev plemiškega sveta v kočevarskem pesemskem izročilu je nastal v okviru projekta Teža preteklosti. Dediščina večkulturnega območja: primer Kočevske , which was financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency.

Prejšnja objava: Kaj dela Micika v püngradi na Kočevskem? – Pesmi Prekmurcev na Kočevskem .

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Folk Song Material in the Archive of the Institute of Ethnomusicology of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

As part of the research project Teža preteklosti. Dediščina večkulturnega območja: primer Kočevske we also paid more attention to the material collected by colleagues of the Institute of Ethnomusicology ZRC SAZU during the 90-year history of the Institute (which is celebrating its round anniversary this year), or even older material that the Institute holds as the central institution for folk music, song and dance in Slovenia. At first, we seemed to have almost no material for the period prior to World War II, but a closer examination of the archives showed that this was not the case. The material collected specifically by the Institute’s staff is not very extensive, but thanks to cooperation with related institutions in Austria and Germany, the Institute keeps copies of material stored in other countries. Folk songs were recorded in the Kočevska region at a time when Slovenia was still part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

Recordings in the Kočevska Region

But back to the surprises. After World War II, in 1953 to be precise, the Institute started sound recordings. This means that they visited people and recorded their singing. Several of these recordings took place in the Kočevsko Region. In 1992, mag. Igor Cvetko recorded a group of singers in Kočevska Reka, who sang the following songs for him: Tam dol na ravnem polju (Down in the Level Field), Preozke so stezice (The Trails are too Narrow), Ko psi zalajajo po celi vas na glas (When the Dogs’ Loud Barking is Heard All Over the Village), Fantič pride pod okence stat (The Boy Comes to Stand Under the Window), Sijaj mi sončece (Shine On My Sunshine), Duša le pojdi zmanoj (Sweet Soul Just Go with Me), Ênglaš valcer (English Waltz) (accordion), Ta stara polka (That Old Polka) (accordion), Se spominjaš davnih časov (Do You Still Remember the Old Days) (accordion), Moje dekle je še mlado, ja, ja (My Girl is Still Young, Oh Yeah), Sinoči je pela (Last Night She Sang), En hribček bom kupil (One Little Hill I’ll Buy), Grêmo na Štajersko (Let’s Wander Off to Štajerska), Ko so fantje proti vasi šli (When the Boys Went to the Village), Moj očka ima konjička dva (My Daddy Has Two Little Horses), Moj fantič je na t(i)rolsko vandral (My Little Boy Went to the Tyrol), Al me boš kaj rada imela (Think You’ll Love Me), Ko so Adáma pokopal (When They Buried Adám), Soča voda je šumela (The Waters of the Soča Murmured), Micika v püngradi (Micika in Püngradi), Rozamunda (Rosamunda) (accordion), Ena starinska (Ye’ Old Song) (accordion).

Pesem Micika v püngradi: Folk Songs of the Prekmurje Region in Kočevska Region

Püngrad is the Prekmurje word for garden. In the folk song, Micika is in the garden picking flowers and talking to her sweetheart.

The song from the Micika v püngradi recording is sung by a woman and a man in a beautiful (authentic) Prekmurje dialect. They moved to the Kočevska region in 1954 from Prekmurje, namely from two different places. The resettlement of inhabitants of Prekmurje to villages in the Kočevska region that had been emptied during World War II is well known and documented. However, it seems that it is only when we hear this song sung in a dialect from the opposite end of Slovenia that we become aware of their presence. I presented the sound recording of this song at a panel organised as part of the above-mentioned project in Ljubljana in March 2024. It was also attended by two local women from the Kočevska area, descendants of the Gottscheers. Their reaction when they heard the first verses of the song piqued my interest, because it was completely foreign to them. Although they are well acquainted with the history of the area, are involved in the local life and actively participate in cultural associations, they were still surprised by this song. In fact, the song is a beautiful example of how fluid tradition actually is and how folk songs are transferred from one place to another. The case is also of interest to researchers working on the theory of heritage, its formation and change.

Article How Did Micika v püngradi come to the Kočevska Region? – Folk Songs of the Prekmurje Region in Kočevska Region

is part of the project Teža preteklosti. Dediščina večkulturnega območja: primer Kočevske , which was financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency.

Our previous post: Cemetery in Stari Log.

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