![]() ![]() The chamois nibbled on a few petals and - presto! - was instantly back on his feet. ![]() The blood gushing from Zlatorog's wound melted the snow, and up sprang a magical Triglav rose. At last the young man spotted Zlatorog, took aim and fired. The young hunter, seething with jealousy, climbed the mountain in search of the chamois, figuring that if he were to get even a piece of the golden horns, the treasure of Bogatin - and his beloved - would be his. If not, he was at least to bring back a bunch of Triglav ' roses' (actually pink cinquefoils) in mid-winter to prove his fidelity - an impossible task. The girl's mother demanded that her daughter's suitor, a poor but skilled hunter, match the treasure with Zlatorog's gold hidden under Mt Bogatin and guarded by a multiheaded serpent. ![]() It seemed that an innkeeper's daughter had been given jewels by a wealthy Venetian merchant. Meanwhile, down in the Soca Valley near Trenta, a greedy plot was being hatched. Zlatorog roamed the valley (at that time a beautiful garden) with the White Ladies, good fairies who kept the mountain pastures green and helped humans whenever they found them in need. This one tells of how the chamois created the Triglav Lakes Valley, a wilderness of tumbled rock almost in the centre of Triglav National Park. The Zlatorog story first appeared in the Laibacher Zeitung (Ljubljana Gazette) in 1868 during a period of Romanticism and national awakening. But don't let Slovenes convince you that their ancient ancestors passed on the tale. The oft-told tale of Zlatorog, the mythical chamois (gams in Slovene) with the golden horns who lived on Mt Triglav and guarded its treasure, almost always involves some superhuman (or, in this case, superantelopine) feat that drastically changed the face of the mountain. ![]()
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