Trdina was born in Mengeš in the northern Carniola, then part of the Austrian Empire.

[2] He attended school in Ljubljana and studied history, geography, and Slavic philology in Vienna.

[3] Trdina travelled widely across the Lower Carniola, compiling notes on the life and customs of local people.

Trdina edited them in an emphasized realistic, even naturalistic manner, rejecting the Romantic vision of an idyllic countryside.

In 1882, he published these notes in a volume titled Bajke in povesti o Gorjancih (Tales and Stories of the Gorjanci Mountains).