Fantastični demonski likovi i strašno u Pričama iz davnine
Fantastic Demon Characters and Scaring in Croatian Tales of Long Ago

Summary/Abstract: In the first part of the article the author introduces the most important theoretical aspects on generic properties of fairy tales such as fantastic, marvellous and supernatural. The article is based on D. Petzold’s theory of fantastic literature that points to a parallelism between primary and secondary world in fairy tales. Croatian Tales of Long Ago are full of characters taken from old Slavic mythology and folk literature and that is why the author studies the function of charaters such as: Mokoš, vile Zatočnice, Zmaj Ognjeni, zmija-snaha, Bjesomar, bjesovi and baba Poludnica in the structure of fairy tales. In interpreting the function of negative fantastic supernatural characters, the author of the article emphasizes I. B. Mažuranić’s originality, especially in the way she mitigates potentially scary elements with her light approach and her special secondary world in which good triumphs evil. The conclusion emphasizes the fact that the author of Croatian Tales of Long Ago was unique in creating negative characters that point to traumas that children encounter in the process of growing up.

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