A long, long time ago, there was a village, full of farmers who became very wealthy as the soil in the midst was very rich. Only one farmer, living at the edge of the village, who owned a very small cottage on a tiny piece of land was very poor. This farmer and his family, though poor was known to be the kindest and the most generous family in this area,  whilst the others were of very stingy and greedy nature  and were busy accumulating wealth for themselves.

Old traveller woman looking for a place to rest.
Illustrated by globalresidence.me

One day,  a lone wayfarer on a skinny and tired looking horse came to this very village, asking for food and shelter for the night. Door after door, the old traveller woman was turned away until finally she came to the very last one on the outskirts of this village.

It was the poor farmer’s house. The farmer and his family shared with her everything that they had, though they had barely enough for themselves.

The next morning as the old lady turned to leave, she told them : “Take your family far away from here and pack all your belongings onto your donkey. Only when you see a river with many dragonflies, it will be a sign that it is safe for you to stop. There will be a huge flood coming and it will drown this entire village. Hurry, for you do not have much time. Do not stop or turn back.”

Having said that, the old lady suddenly transformed into a beautiful fairy and the horse that she was riding on sprouted huge wings. Then the fairy riding on the winged horse quickly flew away.

The poor farmer was not sure what to believe but his worried wife urged him to do as the fairy had bade them to do.

As they travelled away, they heard huge gushing sound of waves and cries of help. They remembered that the fairy had warned them not to stop or turn back so they hurried on. For two to three days they travelled till they saw the river that was full of dragonflies.

Fairy riding a dragonfly, illustrated by globalresidence.me

With much relief, they stopped and settled there. Because the land that they settled in was full of rich soil, the farmer and his family soon had bountiful of whatever they planted and became very rich. The land that they settled down was named Vilin Konjic, translated literary word by word, ” Vilin” is fairy and the word ” Konjic” means horse. For it was a belief long time ago that fairies rode on dragonflies as if they were their horses.

As time goes by, the name was shortened to just one word, that is, “Konjic”. So that is how this town came to have this name.

There are many versions of how this town was named. One was that it was named after the horse which brought the farmer and his family. But I kind of prefer this version as you and I know that dragonflies are always good indicators of a healthy environment. Hope you like this version. 😉

Till today, this idyllic town is called Konjic, well known for rafting activities, fly fishing and wood carving artisans. The river that was mentioned was of course the river Netreva and the area where the flooding supposedly occurred is known currently as Boracko Jezero, now a beautiful lake in the northern part of Herzegovina.