Goldenhorn - The Steinbock of the Alps
A Slovenian Tale
The dramatic moment, when Zlatorog (the Goldenhorn) descends the Wild Hunter into the precipice, because he commited outrageous deeds, i.e. he injured God's divine nature.(Der dramatische Augenblick, in dem Goldenhorn den Wildjäger in die Tiefe stösst, da er frevelte, d.h. die Natur und die göttliche Welt verletzte.)by Dr. Jozko Šavli, KdB, FSAI, FASHeraldry, An International Journal,Torrance (Calif.), 1995excerptAmong the findings from prehistoric times there appear many steinbock- pictures, particularly those found on the beautiful situlas of the Hallstatt period (5th century B.C.), which were unearthed in Northern Italy and in Slovenia. These pictures are evidently connected to the ancient mythology , in which animals with golden horns appear, and which was wide-spread throughout the Indo-European area. The components of this mythology have been conserved in many tales until today.In these tales is the eternal struggle between light and darkness the most important action, as illustrated in scenes of the Wild Hunt, in particular shall be mentioned here the scene of the Wild Hunter, shooting at the Sunny Deer (A. Kuhn, 1869). Therefore, it could be argued that all Indo-European people once shared a myth in common, in which the God of the Night and Storm hunts and shoots the Sunny God, who is showing himself in form of a deer. In various regions we find other similar animals besides the sunny deer. For example, in the mountain areas the white Steinbock with golden horns even finds its reputation.In Rigveda, in India (1st millennium BC), a sunny horse of this kind was celebrated as a holy animal. Later on, we find further development towards the figure of the unicorn that arrived across Mesopotamia and Egypt in the Greek and Latin world. Afterwards, in the Middle Ages the unicorn became a symbol of the Blessed Virgin.In any case, the holy animal with horns, or better said, the animal with golden horns, represented light. It is God's messenger and it is hunted by the Wild Hunter (the powers of darkness).The image of a similar holy animal entered also the mythology of the classic era. Greek authors mentioned it already in their tales, meaning Pindar and Euripides in the 5th century BC and later, in the 2nd century BC, it was mentioned again by Apollodorus as well. Moreover, Callimachos reports to us in the 3rd century BC, that Artemis' coach was drawn by four hinds with golden horns.Among the Latin authors, Valerius Flaccus, in the 1st century BC, and Quintus Smirneus, in the 4th century AD, report a deer with golden horns. Anyway, in Pliny's stories appears the real deer, i.e., without golden horns, that later entered the medieval legends, especially those of St. Eustachius and St. Hubertus. These legends narrate the story of a hunter that follows a deer. At the moment, when the hunter sees the deer, it turns around and carries the host between its horns, converting him into a holy man.In popular tales all over Europe we find many animals with golden horns, belonging to the same Indo-European origin. A similar animal could be also a chamois goat (Tyrol, Albania, Bulgaria), or a ram (Macedonia, Romania, Bohemia), an ox (Finland, Estonia), or a golden goat (Walloon Belgium, Provence), and so on.To the most beautiful tale of this nature that emerged, belongs to "Goldenhorn" (Zlatorog), which originated in the Slovenian Julian Alps. It was registered and published in German by Karl Deschmann (Ljubljana 1868). Its contents could be summarized as follows:
Once upon a time there was an Alpine paradise in the northeastern part of the Julian Alps beneath the peak of Triglav. The place was inhabited by the so-called White Ladies, who were the benefactresses of the people in the valley, but they made sure that no strangers entered their mountain territory. White goats pastured on the mountain ridge that rose vertically above the valley of the Isonzo river .
In case that a stranger should try to approach them, they made rocks fall down, so that the intruders would fall into the precipice.
The white goats were lead by a white steinbock with golden horns named Zlatorog, whom the White Ladies made invulnerable to every lesion. When a hunter fired at him and caused to spoil a drop of his blood, a plant with mysterious balm, called the Triglav rose, sprang up and a leaf of this plant healed Zlatorog immediately. Moreover, his golden horns had a divine magic all of their own in sense of forgiveness and redemption. If someone succeeded in plundering one of the steinbock's golden horns, instead to punish him, he would obtain the keys to the gold and silver chamber, watched by a three-headed serpent on Mountain Bogatin.
In the suburbs of Bovec, on the junction of the rivers Isonzo and Koritnica, there used to be an inn in those days, which was frequently visited by merchants, travelling on horseback. The innkeeper's daughter was the prettiest girl in the whole valley. Many suitors wanted to marry her, but she gave her love to a young man from the Trenta Valley. He was considered to be the best hunter as far as the eye could reach, and therefore, he was called the Trenta Hunter.
It was a sunny Sunday when the young girl danced with an Italian merchant. The Trenta Hunter asked her to dance with him, but the girl replied that the Italians were much more refined gentlemen than her lover. For he, even though he knew all the treasures of the mountain, he never brought her a single Triglav rose.
The young man, deeply offended, left the inn. On his way he met the Green Hunter, who told him about the treasures guarded on Bogatin mountain. The same night, they both climbed the mountain and the next morning they met Zlatorog. The Trenta Hunter fired at him, but the buck, healed by the Triglav rose, charged them, making the Trenta hunter fall into the precipice.
The next summer, when the shepherds returned to the Alps, instead of an Alpine paradise, they found desolated rocky grounds. The White Ladies had left the mountain world and Zlatorog had ruined all the beautiful meadows in his anger. The marks of his horns can still be seen on the rocky ground today.The Zlatorog tale is filled with mythological components of Wild Hunting, that had its source in the Indo-European antiquity. Here, the role of the Wild Hunter, i.e., the tresspasser, belongs to the man (the Trenta Hunter), meanwhile, his tempter the Green Hunter, the representative of the darkness, is identified with the evil in the Central European, as well as in the Slovenian tradition.Furthermore, it seems that the motifs of the Alpine steinbock (Capra ibex ibex) and the Wonder Flower entered the Situla-arts in the Eastern Alps and Northern Italy during the 6th and 5th century BC. The ornaments on the various utensils portray animals, some of them with horns, marching in a row. Several of these animals eat flowers.Moreover, the Greek author Aristotle, in the 4th century BC, gives detailed information about the Greek steinbock (Capra aegagrus), i.e., when he is hit by a bullet he eats the wonder flower and is immediately cured in the same way as the Alpine steinbock.After Aristotle, many Greek and Latin authors cited the Dictamnon, namely the wonder flower:Theophrastus, Philostratus, Cicero, Virgil, Plutarch, Dioscurides, and so on. The antique writers, who inherited the symbol from Aristotle, had no knowledge of this plant. The prevailing opinion today is that it was identified with Origanum Dictamnus from Crete. But this flower was rare already in those times, and therefore a similar plant, named Dictamnus Albus, was used for its healing powers.The saga about "Goldenhorn" (Zlatorog) survived through the Middle Ages, and although it cannot be adapted to any Christian legend, it neither was in opposition to any. Moreover, in the 19th century AD, "Goldenhorn" arose to a mythological symbol.It was the German poet Rudolph Baumbach, a native of Thuringia, who stayed in Trieste and visited the Julian Alps at the time when the saga was published. Deeply impressed by the story he wrote the famous poem entitled Zlatorog (Leipzig 1877). The poem about "Goldenhorn" and the presumptuous hunter, who had the audacity to profane the mountain world, impressed also numerous cultural circles.So, the Zlatorog tale conquered the public of Central Europe. The story has been translated from German into Czech, Slovenian, Polish, Lusatian, Italian and Serbian. Four German and one Slovenian composers set it into an opera. "Goldenhorn" (Zlatorog) became a symbol of the spotless mountain world of Middle Europe and an admonitory against its devastation.
