[3] As Mikhailov has shown, the name of Kresnik could be derived from Balto-Slavic linguistic heritage: festival of Kresze is known among Balts and an old Slavic word *krěsδ has the meaning of »fire«.

[11][12] Connected to sun and fire, he travels the sky on his golden chariot, armed with thunderbolt, axe, hammer, club, or sword.

[14][15] The comparative mythology showed that this demigod perhaps originated from the Iranian god Yima and his double, the Indian Yama, with whom they share many common characteristics.

[1] Kresnik appeared in legend as a heroic prince of Vurberk, although its 19th-century account, by Davorin Trstenjak, may have been embellished in language and style.

This incestuous plot element is likely a remnant from Kresnik's mythological cycle, where as the god of summer, he married his sister, the goddess of spring.

In an alternative version, the prince fights a white snake attacking Vurberk castle, and marries a squire's daughter, who is not his sister.

In either case, Vurberk castle's coat of arms, which has displayed a dragon or snake since at least 1204 A.D., supports the idea that the legend predates its 19th-century appearance in anthropological research.

On St. John's Day, many customs retain memories of the Kresnik mythology, like the lighting of fires, rolling of sun-shaped wooden wheels, and young girls called "Kresnice" singing harvest songs.

[19][23] A hypothesis was proposed by Damjan J. Ovsec based on research by E. Gasparini that Kresnik was a pagan lunar entity, and only in the later development were some solar attributes added.

Perun is incarnated during the winter as Božič, in the spring as Yarilo, in the summer as Kresnik and in the autumn as Zlatorog, a deer with golden antlers.