We know several stories about Zora, the name for her in our land is also Dogana, and the combination of these stories is a doomed love, because the goddess can’t be together with an earthly young man. Zora or Zarja is also the goddess of the morning Dawn, she is also considered to be a great warrior to whom the soldiers prayed before the battle for protection.
In one of our annual wall calendar, there is a graphic showing the three Slavic Dawns (morning, evening and midnight – daughters of the Sun) according to the East Slavic tradition. These zoryas guard Simargl – the winged dog in the constellation of the little bear. If the chains were torn, it would be the end of the world.
The month of March in the calendar was chosen for Zora because it symbolically means the supremacy of light over darkness, the days get longer again, the gates of the underworld close, the symbol that is more widely used in spring is the “auseklis” or eight-pointed star, which represents Zarja and the star Danica.
This time I am telling the story of the Slovenian land, which is known to us through the folk song “Mlada Zora“.
“The second song tells the story of young Zora, who is guarded in a high castle by two heroic brothers.
Once upon a time, Zora was standing in the window, when a young king cames under the castle and addressed her. Zora tells him to get out of here if life is dear to him; if he notices his brother standing under her window, he will have to pay for his audacity with his life.
It does not frighten him, but it affirms her love and reveals to her the desire to bring her to his home; peacefully or with force. The resourceful Zora tells the young man how this could be done:
“If the king would like to take me,
I do have an unknown root,
unknown root, magic root,
which I put under my tongue,
I get very sick in the evening,
I’m already dead in the morning. “
When they will put her in her to coffin, he must come. And Zora does so, seemingly dying. Everyone cries in the castle for her; only the castle fool hints that the young princess is not dead. The brothers are convinced of their sister’s death only by pouring molten gold into her white palm. Zorka doesn’t move! Even now, the castle fool doesn’t believe that Dawn is dead. The young king can hardly wait for the sun to set behind the mountains and the stars begin to flicker in the sky. He goes to the castle, opens the glass coffin and takes the magic root from the young woman’s tongue. Zora/Dawn comes to life and the king puts her on a horse. They quickly rush to the king’s home.
The castle fool warns Zora’s brother that his sister is leaving home. The brothers – knowing where their sister is, go towards the king’s castle. Zora greets them and gives them a hand; the younger brother deftly takes off her glove and is convinced by the sign that he looks at a lost sister in front of him. The brothers quickly put her on a horse and took her with them. The kidnapped Zora calls her husband for help. Soon a fight breaks out between the three. The brothers are stronger than the attacker:
“Her older brother stabs him in the heart,
oh older brother, unkind brother!
Zora yells, shouts,
once the horse falls, faints.
This was done by an unknown root,
unknown root, the magic root“ [3]
[3] Kelemina J., Fairy tales and tales of the Slovenian people, 1997, p.56