Slovenian Tolkien
The writer Mirko Kunčič, born in Lesce (1899) and died in Buenos Aires (1984), is the unjustly overlooked master of Slovenian myths and fables. His diverse literary output for young people makes him one of the prominent writers in the otherwise rich development of Slovenian youth literature. He wrote youth poetry, prose and drama. By 1945, he had written more than ten books for children. His imaginative landscape is Dovje and the Alpine paradise around Triglav, and his sources are older locals.
Fran Milčinski Ježek and Josip Vandot deeply appreciated Kunčič’s sense of humour. Even before Vandot’s Kekec, the character of Bedanec had already appeared in the mountain fairy tale “How the Dóvžan people captured Bédanec”.
Kunčič’s Triglav fairy tales can be experienced in the fairy land “Rajže po poteh Triglavskih pravljic” in Mojstrana.