Petar Klepac

Peter Klepec, (, dial. Petər Klepəc, Pitr Kljepc) and the people of Mali Lug were recorded already by Hirc in 1898 to have considered a particular house as his birthplace; one with the year 1712 written above one of the windows and a particularly large ridge beam. The large beam was already mentioned by Zima 1828, which went unpublished until 2010, making Zima and Hirc independent witnesses.

This was contradicted in Poženčan's 1847 version, which gave Osilnica instead. Later sources tended to choose a birthplace along lines of ethnic convenience. Thus, all Croatian sources retain Mali Lug, including Hirc 1892, Hirc 1898 while introducing him as a " div" ('Croatian giant'), Bonifačić Rožin 1953, Jurković 1953, and so on. And in narratives #265 and #272, which do not give Mali Lug as his place of birth, he still moved to Mali Lug with his mother or his wife. The Klepec house in Mali Log is further mentioned in #267, #276, #277, and #278. This was matched (or repeated) by Jože Ožura, who placed the abode of Klepec with his mother on the outskirts of Osilnica, "morda tam nekje na Selih ali na Puojzu ali Potuharici" and states he later moved with his wife to Mali Lug where he built a house. As Primc summarised, in Osilnica it is generally believed he was born there but moved to Mali Lug to build a house, following the Poženčan version, Especially among younger residents, the divide became more ethnic than local, and a matter of contention between some Slovenes and Croats, to the extent of conflict over the ethnic identity of Klepec, absent from discussions between residents old enough to have been raised by generations who belonged to the same ethnicity regardless of which side of the river(s) they lived on. The issue is exacerbated by the regional popularity of Hirc's book, whether in rare old copies or the more prevalent 1993 reprint. Klepec was to duel him. Accompanied by the Turkish sultan and the Austrian emperor, Klepec and the Turk met and ate. Klepec was smaller and ate half a loaf of bread and drank a cup of wine, while the Turk ate nine loaves of bread and drank twelve goblets of wine, staring menacingly at Klepec. After the meal, the wrestling match began, and when they crossed shoulders, Klepec shook his opponent so hard he threw up the wine he had drunk. Klepec won by choking his opponent against the wall. On the Grobnik polje itself not far from Čavle there is a large stone known as Klepčev kamen or "Klepac's stone", which Hirc himself measured at 1.5 m long and 1 cent heavy, but Hirc related this to Klepec's trading activity, resting on the stone. One time when he was near Čavle he came across a cart whose wheel had broken and multiple people were trying to lift it up unsuccessfully, which Klepec did alone. laughed at, offering his own services when asked. Leš made two identical statues of Klepec, erecting one in Osilnica and one in Mirtoviči. at the entrance and exit of the municipality of Osilnica along the road. A third identical statue would be made years later. Josip Klepac, among those who claim descent from Peter Klepec, with the oikonym Osilnica. Given the form of the earliest attestations, Ossiwniz in 1365, Ossawnitz in 1456–1461, and even Ossynnitz in 1498, Snoj proposed instead a derivation from the prefix o- "-ish" (< PSl *o) + adjectival root siv "grey" (< PSl *sivъ) + suffix -nica [objective nominaliser] (< PSl *-nь + *-ica), and the toponym is indeed sometimes attested in the form Osivnica, and uncritically, But the oikonym is actually derived from the surname Turk.

According to Jemeršić, who visited Mali Lug in 1903, the street next to Peter Klepec's house bore his name. The name of this street remains unchanged, as Ulica Petra Klepca.

An apple tree in the vicinity of the house is named after Klepec. Klepec and Klepac is also a local surname, but if it was originally named for Peter and not merely for the later inhabitants of the house with the same surname, then it would be an abnormally long-lived tree. Mali Lug has a Dfb climate and exceptionally high rainfall, averaging over 900 mm/year in the vegetational period and over 2000 mm/year in total, resulting in high growth rates regionally disproportionate to its largely temperature-mediated shorter growing season, which is not conducive to long ages for hardwoods. To this can be added an average annual humidity of around 90%, which increases disease infection rates, both fungal and bacterial. Being in cultivation since the Late Neolithic or Early to Middle Bronze Age even in Europe, Malus domestica lost much of its genetic diversity and the historical focus on form and fruit traits at the expense of disease resistance outside of epidemics led to the apple being plagued with low lifespan, exacerbated by annual exposure to disease during trimming. So while one Malus sieversii individual under the favourable conditions of a BSk/Dwc was genetically dated to over 600 years old, no M. domestica trees are known to survive even from the 18th century, to which at least part of the construction of the Klepec house is dated. One of the oldest living individuals is the Dosch Yellow Bellflower Apple from 1850 with a Csb climate, since the Old Apple Tree in the same region died in 2020 at the age of 194, but in climates closer to that in Mali Lug, few trees have been estimated to be much more than 120 years old, an example being an individual of the Citronka zimna variety in Zabudišová near Bošáca. Older individuals from similar climates do exist, but special circumstances are often responsible for their longevity. Such is the case with the over 210 year old but dying Bramley Apple Tree, ungrafted and revered as the originator of the Bramley apple variety.

In phraseology

The comparative phrase "as strong as Peter Klepec" saw literary use as early as 1877, but with at least one exception it remained a largely local phrase until after the publication of Cankar's retelling in 1917, which is still read in some schools today. After the popularisation of Klepec tales beyond traditional limits, this phrase continued to be used, in addition to its expansion to new domains of phraseology.

In popular culture

There have been a number of films about Peter Klepec, in addition to fictionalised accounts in other media. In Gerovo, the local motor club, , is named after him. In Cerkno, the local preschool, Vrtec Peter Klepec, is named after him.

Selected reading

Online publication 2011-02-15. Online publication 2009-09-24. Republished as Online publication 2009-09-17.