TINTILINIĆ, A CHARACTER FROM THE STORY ’ŠUMA STRIBOROVA’ (STRIBOR’S FOREST) BY I. B. MAZURANIC

The stamps have been issued in se-tenant, in a 20-stamp sheet (10 x 2), and the First Day Cover (FDC) was also issued. The fairy world, if it is to be judged by the numerous myths and by word of mouth, has always been present among the people. Whether we refer to traditional word-of-mouth fables or legends, epic or lyric folk poems, or, on the other hand, to phraseological literary forms, proverbs or sayings, we find descriptions of fairies in a recognizable context and role. According to sources, fairies are anthropomorphic creatures, with images of young girls of exceptional beauty, always dressed in impeccable white. They have beautiful long, sometimes golden hair let down reaching to their legs. Their bodies are slim and light, eyes penetrating, and their voice is so melodious that “if you once hear the fairy sing, your heart will ache from this sweetness for the rest of your life, and you won’t be able to listen to a human voice any more”. In accordance with this, epithets mostly used to describe fairies’ qualities are: white, beautiful, ornate, dear, slim, quick, famous, noble, soft, exalted, frolicsome, but also lascivious, sinful, wicked, harmful. The last mentioned epithets indicate the ambivalent nature of the fairies, who, though mostly well-meaning and well-disposed to people, can become dangerous should people get on the wrong side of them. The ambivalent nature of the fairy becomes obvious in her bodily appearance: though she may astound one by her beauty and splendour, the lower part of her body is characterized by animal feet, mostly ass’s or goat’s. The fairies’ abode depends on the environment they live in, so we can divide them into those living on the earth, in the water or in the air.. The most numerous fairies are those living on earth. The Croatian topography abounds in fairies’ habitats and it is no rarity to find inhabited places having names with the Croatian word for fairy, vila, as part of the place name: Vilindolac, Vilište, Vilčić, Vilenjak, etc.. The well-known places for fairies to live in are mountains. Almost every mountain or mountain range in Croatia has, according to folk tradition, its fairies’ courts, and Velebit, Biokovo, Mosor, Dinara, Učka, Zagrebačka Gora, Petrova Gora, Papuk, Dilj, the Samobor and Krapina ranges, all these are just some of the examples. The meeting place of the fairies can be a particular tree or crossroads. The folk tradition tells us about the fairies’ meetings, with the fairies dancing their reels, and followed by famous fairies’ feasts. Sometimes a number of carefully chosen women and men from the human race could participate in these splendid feasts which offer delicious dishes of innumerable tastes. These people, as well as those who would have met a fairy by chance, have for centuries testified about the fairy world and its features. In the Croatian pre-Christian religious culture, these persons used to be called vilenice or vilenjaci, meaning women and men who have had contacts with fairies. They had a special status in their village communities because they had certain abilities to communicate and keep contact with fairies. This relationship was usually built in childhood or early youth, when fairies would abduct a child, a young man or girl and they would be absent from the community for a time. After their return they would manifest abilites of healing, prediction, as well as magic protection against wicked influence. Building their literary creation on traditional heritage, as well as under the influence of Greek- Roman mythological heritage, the representatives of Croatian Renaissance literature, poets Džore Držić (1461-1501), Mavro Vetranović Čavčić (1482-1576), Marin Držić (1508-1567), Nikola Nalješković (1510-1587) and others, also dealt with the world of fairy creatures. In their works they develop all kinds of relationships between fairies and people, close, even love relationships. The heroes in these works would find a fairy in a pastoral-mythological environment and would be enchanted by her beauty and often ready to be enslaved to her until their death. In the first Croatian novel (written in 1536) Planine (Mountains) by Petar Zoranić (1508-? 1543-1569), we find the description of the love of the two young men Dražnik and Novak for the fairies Jela and Mara. Zoranić also wrote a work called Vilenica (a person who had contacts with fairies). At the beginning of the 20th century, the Croatian woman writer characterized by special sensitivity, Ivana Brlić Mažuranić (1874-1938), instilled new life to this word- of-mouth traditional Proto-Slavic heritage. In her collection of stories, Priče iz davnine (Stories from the Past), she succeeded in evoking the patination and authenticity of her stories and their characters using a refined and educated linguistic-stylistic way of expression. This attracted readers of all generations to the magic world of fairy tales where her characters dwell: the world of Regoč, Palunko, Neva Nevičica, Jagor, Toporko, Potjeh, Stribor, Rutvica, Jaglenac, Bjesomar, Svarožić... Two particularly attractive characters from this chosen crowd, known to everybody, have found their place in the new series of postage stamps of the Croatian Post. They are the little fairy Kosjenka and the member of the company of little fireplace brownies, Malik Tintilinić. Even today, at the beginning of the 21st century, inspiration can still be found in fairy tale tradition. There is an undying fascination by the other-worldly, the possibility of communication across borders of different, yet connected worlds that coexist on the common planet Earth. This fascination spawned rather recent artistic creations, naturally in the contemporary media of film and spectacle. The best example of this is the film adaptation of Tolkien’s novel Lord of the Rings. By using the most contemporary film effects, the modern man has his primordial need to have an insight into mythical depths fulfilled, and his lost contact with the fairy world is thus compensated. Zoran Čiča