Mythical Creatures Series
When you think of dragons, do you imagine monstrous, serpent-like creatures that hiss and spit fire, or perhaps it’s a golden dragon who lives in a cave, guarding its treasure, or could it be wise dragon who holds the answers to the universe? Which ever one your picture, know this – dragon folklore differs greatly from one country to the next, and if you find yourself about to meet one, make sure you know exactly what you’re dealing with.
ZMEY
What is it?
In Slavic mythology, Zmey, along with Zmiy and Zmaj are used to describe a dragon, and are closely linked to the masculine word for snake. Which says a lot about how dragons were perceived, along with the bad reputation snakes have. Most European countries have one version of this dragon. Romania calls them Zmeu and has clear anthropomorphic traits – human-like arms and legs, along with the ability to create and use weapons. But slavic dragons have particular features, depending where they’re from.
East Slavic Dragons have three heads, is green, walks on hind paws and spits fire.
South Slavic Dragons have a division on what they call them, but basically they are the same creature. They are considered intelligent and wise, possess superhuman strength and are proficient in magic. Aside from breathing fire, they are also known to lust over woman with whom it can produce offspring. In Bulgarian and Serbian folklore, these dragons were seen as defenders of crops and fighting against a specific demon – Ala, whom they shoot with lightening.
Ability / Power
Their abilities vary depending on location. Some believe the east slavic dragons can re-grow their heads if chopped off. They exhale fire, which is dangerous to anyone in the way. Their enormous size makes them just as deadly.
Physical Appearance
Multi-headed dragon covered in scales, winged, and gigantic in size.
Sources:
a
For Previous Mythical Creature Posts, Click Here.
For all of you who are interested in Slav dragons,two articles about Serbian dragons(zmajevi):
Serbian Dragon Trail Awaits Discovery
Serbian mythology is teeming with dragon tales – but tourist buffs have yet to link the many sites connected to these mysterious creatures into a visitors’ trail.
Nemanja Cabric
BIRN
Belgrade
Behind the legend of the downfall of medieval Serbia, lie fairy-tales about a good dragon who failed to save his people from the hands of the malevolent Ala, or Azdaha.
Thus, the Ottoman conquest and the famous Kosovo Battle of 1389 resulted in a battle not only fought by people, but by dragons as well.
According to oral tradition, the participants of the bloody battle became semi-gods, mythical creatures whose dragon origins often appear in folk tales and epic poems.
Serbian cultural expert Sreten Petrovic, through his books, has attempted to prove the existence of a dragons “pantheon” in Serbian medieval culture, called the “Jastrebacki panteon”.
This Pantheon was crowned by the Jastrebac Dragon, Zmaj od Jastrepca, and included various heroes from Serbia’s medieval epic poetry.
Many legends and folk tales in Serbia feature these lusty and brave dragons, which defended Serbia’s skies and lands from the Ottomans, and from bad weather as well.
But, despite this rich heritage, and the many sites connected with it, a “cultural trail” has yet to be constructed, that would enable visitors to learn more about Serbia’s dragons through the form of a journey.
Myths and facts intertwined:
Various heroes, historical or fictional, mainly from the Kosovo epic cycle, were presumed to be sons of dragons.
Some of the highest in this genealogy were the Despot Stefan Lazarevic, Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk [the fiery dragon wolf], Vasa Carapic, Zmaj od Avale [the dragon of Avala], and Stojan Cupic, Zmaj od Nocaja,[the dragon of Nocaj].
Other heroes bestowed with dragon-like attributes included Milos Obilic, Banovic Strahinja, Ljutica Bogdan and King Marko.
Despot Stefan Lazarevic (1377-1427) was the son of the famous Knez, or Prince, Lazar, the man who led the Serbian army into the fateful battle with the Ottomans in 1389 at the Battle of Kosovo. However, the popular belief was that his actual origins were from the dragon of Jastrebac.
The legend of his origin morphed into an epic poem, featuring the dragon child, Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk, who kills the dragon of Jastrebac because of Vuk’s relationship with Milica, the wife of Prince Lazar.
Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk, in reality was Despot Vuk Brankovic (1471-1485), believed to be a descendant of a dragon.
As Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk lived some 50 years after the death of Stefan Lazarevic, it is evident that the folk tales frequently altered historical facts for their own agendas.
These folk tales also presented Stefan Lazarevic as a unique personality, a traveller who disguised himself as a beggar who monitored how people lived, punishing evil and rewarding righteousness.
When the Hungarian King, Sigismund, renewed an old chivalric order called the “Order of the Dragon”, the Societas Draconistrarum, Stefan was the first to sign up.
This might be one of the reasons for his mythical dragon status in the imaginations of the Serbian people.
Stefan’s battles against the Turks are described as fearsome victories, while his failure to win the final battle to drive the Ottoman’s out of Serbia was widely attributed to the withdrawal of divine help.
All his children and heirs became dragons in Serbian folklore, and copious tales about their mythical powers survive to this day, notably in Bosnia and Herzegovina and along the Adriatic coast.
Although not historically factual, these legends thus turned many locations in Serbia into dwellings of new, benign breeds of dragons. These dragons were unlike the malign dragons featured in many legends across Europe, where Christian tradition commonly identified dragons with Satan.
In Serbian folk tradition, dragons are mostly good creatures that have an obligation to help people.
On the other hand, Ala or Azdaja, was the dragons’ worst enemy. In Serbian folklore it brought storms, wind, and other bad weather that could ruin crops.
The dragon responsible for stopping Ala, or Azdaja, with his fiery beams was often imagined as a long-tailed bird that left traces of light emanating from its tail on the night sky, as it ascended to perform its mission.
Ala’s opponent was also thought to be a large fish, in some parts of Serbia. It was usually depicted as an old carp, which was never able to be seen by man, who would over the years transform into a dragon. Thus, in some parts of Serbia, the carp became honoured as a sacred beast.
The natural habitat of Serbian dragons was typically considered to be on mountaintops, such as Jastrebac near Krusevac, rivers, mountain streams, or the woods. Many of these places still bear the name “Zmajevac”
Dragons were also known for their busy love lives. Sometimes the blame for bad weather was placed onto a dragon being detained in some fair lady’s chamber.
People often demanded that these ladies end their relationships with the dragons, so they could get back to fighting against malevolent dragons and black birds.
However, love affairs between dragons and ladies were allowed and even encouraged, because of the dragon children that would subsequently be born from the affairs.
These children were called “zmajeviti”, and possessed magical attributes. During storms, according to legends, they would fall asleep and their souls would fly up in the clouds to scare off daemons.
During their trances, family or friends would gather around their sleeping bodies and wave swords over them, in the attempt to defend them from Azdaha.
They would later wake up, tired and often wounded, completely unaware of the great battle that they had fought.
Unexploited potential:
Historians note that rituals related to dragons were performed in Serbia even up until the first half of the last century.
On several occasions, villagers gathered to expel dragons from the houses of local women, after bad weather had destroyed all of their crops. This custom was then known as “mugajale”.
Despite of its rich heritage connected with dragons, Serbia has yet to design a route or trail that links all of the sites where dragons lived, fought, and had love affairs.
According to the State Institute for Monitoring Cultural Development, such a route may include castles, fortresses on the Danube and other cities mostly in eastern and southern Serbia. Churches, and other land landmarks, which still preserve these legends, would be included in the trail.
However the topic still remains largely unexplored. For now, it serves mostly as a starting topic for the study of Serbian folklore. Hopefully, in the near future, it might turn into an actual tourist reality.
Faeries, Dragons & Witch Blood
Radomir Ristić
In folk believe system of Serbian people exist very interesting myths who tell us how some people gained their unusual powers, intelligence, strength etc. Actually, by people believes almost every Serbian hero through history was dragon man. That is how people have explained their heroic acts, wisdom and powers, if they had some.
The problem is that by witches’ myths, witches explain origin of their powers and their blood lines in same manner. All people know that but no one wants to say that loudly because that is heresy. Witches can not be in same line with cult heroes. This problem could be even bigger because common name for male witches aka warlocks in Serbia is dragon men.
In Serbian mythology we can clearly see that there are at least three different kinds of Dragons. First kind would be dragons who are identified as meteors on night sky and they are considered to be a personifications of fire. Second kind are reptile dragons or serpent dragons who are very similar to those who we can find in Western Europe. By people believes they can be very dangerous. In most cases they are winged serpents but they have intelligence and they behave similar as dragon-people. Actually they share same capabilities. Third kinds are dragon people and they are kinds who interested us here. One old epic song tells us follow:
As many Serbian heroes there is,
All have been brought up by faeries,
And many have the dragons for fathers…
So by myths some of those heroes were Milos Obilic, Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk, Relja Bosnjanin, Banovic Sekula, Banovic Strahinja, Ljutica Bogdan, Kraljevic Marko…
The question is how those people had becomes dragon people? That could happen in three ways. First would be that ones mother could sleep with dragon. Second is that ones father could sleep with fairy and third is that fairy has nursed (give her breast milk) one when he was a baby.
If someone becomes dragon-man because his mother was fairy or fairy has nursed him, we can clearly see that faeries are female dragons! Actually, in Serbian traditions there are several kinds of faeries. We have, lets say “little ones”, fairies from nature, protectors of some springs, lakes, trees and Great Ones about whom we are talking here. By old myths those Great Ones are daughters of Adam and Eve whom God has cursed and they became something like semi women very similar to fallen angels from Book of Enoch. By some stories they even have animal legs which are hidden by their dresses. They have their Queen and her name is Jerisavlja. Very often people consider that queen of faeries is Forest Mother and her nick name is Forest Witch or Great Witch. We can find that in many old incantation by whom people had try to contact her. We must emphasize that those faeries are not some gentle creatures from pagan fairytales but very dangerous ones who have extreme power, magic knowledge, bad temper etc. In many stories we can see how they punish some character just because he has better voice or he has seen them. Beside that they are sexually lustful and they have manner to sleep with young boys, shepherds or warriors. However, they do not like to be in marriage and they do not like family life. Actually, by myths the only Serbian King who was in marriage with fairy was Vukasin so all of his children were dragon people.
Dragons are sexually lustful too. Even today at the east Serbia people believe that dragons had manner that at night visit beautiful girls. Very often, by people believes, those girls gave birth and their baby was to be dragon man. What nobody tells out loud is that if baby is a boy, people will call him dragon man and if baby is a girl, everybody will call her witch. What those girls and boys have in common is that both will have magic powers, knowledge and what is the most important capability to, by their own will, induct trance. Why? Because they are dragons’ and faeries’ children, so they are just a half human. Maybe they look like humans, but their souls and true beings are totally different. Usually people say that only persons with some capabilities can see how they really look like, until they are in their bodies, but everyone can see that as they leave their bodies. In most cases their souls were described as in animal shape or mythic animal shape. For instance in one old epic song Serbian duke Banovic Sekula lives his body in the shape of dragon with six wings.
From historic data we can clearly see that dragons do not chose girls perchance. Those girls are witches or they are from witch families. For instance, professor Stevan Dordjevic have founded in city archive of town Zajecar that society accused one young girl that she was sleeping with dragon in village Osljan in 1935. She was a witch and she was famous by fortune telling. Later in year 1946 there was another accusation and then people accused young daughter of famous male witch Krsta that she was sleeping with dragon. We must say that people usually had nothing against dragons and their children but they believed that it was too dangerous if dragon stayed to long in their neighborhood because he could provoke drought. The only reason why dragons stay in one region to long are girls.
The question is who those dragons are and what is their origin? With regret we must say that Serbian ethnology has failed to give us straight answer to that question. Mainly there are two theories. By first dragons are some animals, usually serpents, fishes or sheep that became dragons because they have lived too long. For instance, if some serpent lives hundred years it will become dragon in one moment, by people believes. Second theory speaks more about mysterious dragons that sleep with women. By it those dragons represents mythical ancestor or ancestors. Reason why scientists consider that those dragons could be ancestors is that because they are in too many blood lines, especially in those with “blue blood”. That tells us about why they are so important in people’s belief system. However, it doesn’t say who those ancestors are.
We have had the opportunity to speak with several authentic witches in rural regions of the country about that subject and found out what their traditions tell us about those dragons. So from several similar stories we have compiled one which we will tell here.
By witches’ myths, dragons have fallen all over the Balkan many centuries ago. They have fallen with something which looked like meteors shower. Because of that, even today witches and peasants connect dragons with meteors and that is noted in Serbian ethnology as we already see. Some of those dragons have fallen in rivers Danube, Timok and Pek and other in forests and mountains. Those who had fallen in rivers have continued to live in them under the water. They look like male mermaids, they have their middle long, big circle eyes, wide nose and long canine toots. Those who had fallen in forests inhabited big trees, mainly old beeches with holes. How they look like is hard to say because some witches claim that they are just big lights and other that they are anthropomorphic serpents with wings and that they become big light only when they start to fly. Those who have fallen in mountains inhabited caves and they look like previous dragons. As we can conclude, all of them are same dragons but after they fall in matter they take different shapes depending of their new habitation.
It is very difficult to explain how witches percept them. Most of them claim that those dragons are material but that they are more like material spirits. They are not “dough” and “firmly” like us. Let’s say that they are more etheric. Because of that only some people can see them. Most often those people are witches, shamans or some similar groups which have extraordinary capabilities. However, dragons can hide themselves even to those groups if they want to, because they are very powerful. As some of my informants have told me dragons reviled themselves only to the woman with whom they wanted to sleep, people with whom they wanted some other kind of contact or people could see them accidentally. One of my informant explained me that very plasticly and described me that if I perchance cought the woman in the moment when she is sleeping with dragon I could see only her and her legs in the air.
As we can see, after their fall dragons have started to seduce women and sleep with them. That was not hard task for them because they are shape shifters too. So when they want to seduce a woman they take appearance of a handsome man and seduce them. That was how it all stared. Children from these relationships become half human half dragons. What is the most important thing, is that by that process those children have inherited some powers and capabilities of their fathers. That means that they have some basic powers, and those powers were different from person to person but all of them would have one ultimate power, and that power was “different” souls, because of which they would have capabilities to leave their bodies when ever they wanted.
Because of that “power” all of them are capable to be in contact with hidden world and hidden forces which could be visible to them only when they leave their bodies. That contact provides them additional magic knowledge. During their night flyes they can be in contact with faeries, dragons, ancestors etc.
By witches’ myths that dragon blood line has managed to preserve itself through centuries. It is not necessary that every family has a woman who is in relationship with dragon at present; it is enough that family has a long departed dragon man or witch and that family would have dragon blood in their veins even today. Some members of that family could revile themselves as witches or dragons men but not everyone although they all do have dragon blood. Usually that happens when they are young and when they start spontaneously to fall in trance. That is the time when they get their initiations and when they discover hidden world of faeries, dragons and ancestors.
As we can see dragons could be mythic ancestor as ethnologists have sad. However, as we can see, those dragons are mythic ancestor only to some people not all. Those people who have dragons as their ancestors will have unusual powers and capabilities. They would be people with witch blood.
Moreover, it is not unusual that dragons are subject of witch cults. About one of these cults we have already talked in one my previous article (The Cauldron No128, Serbian Witchcraft, p32-33). Shortly told, in east Serbia exists a big tree in witch “Morning Star”(Lucifer) or Danica is Serbian, lives after his fall. That tree is object of cult. All local witches respect that tree or better said what is in that tree. They work with Danica, it is their source of knowledge and power but they do not worship it! What is interesting here is that Lucifer is connected with dragons because he is Star that had fallen and he lives in tree as others dragons do. Other name for meteors in Serbia is falling stars and all dragons are connected with stars. It is very clear that he is a subject of cult because he is more important then the other. So we can see some hierarchy here among dragons.
When I ask my informants where those dragons have came from, I only got one answer-sky. Because they are connected with stars we can conclude that they have come from space. It is important to say that people don’t see them as aliens but as very old creatures from ancient times. So who are they? It is very hard to say. However, all what we can conclude from all of this is that this stories are very similar to those from Book of Enoch I. We know for sure that the Book of Enoch I(it talk about watchers, fallen angels and how they slept with women and their half angelic offspring) was very important among Balkan Gnostic Bogumils and even more that the Book of Enoch II was found in Serbia in Belgrade. Stories about dragons and witch blood which we have found among Serbian witches are very similar to those from Book of Enoch although they do not talk about fallen angels but dragons.
The questions is if angels and dragons are the same? It hard to tell but we think that even if these stories are not the same they must have mutual origin. We know that stories about dragons in this region are older then Book of Enoch so our personal opinion is that angels have taken places of dragons after arrival of Christianity and Gnosticism. At the bottom line appearance of fallen angels is very similar to appearance of fallen dragons in the way they behave. It is clear that both of them represent same creatures which have fallen from the sky but that they have different names through different moments in history and through different cultures. What is more important is that those stories explain origin of blood lines of those people who have some powers. In Serbian witch stories we can find out why those people have these powers and what these powers are.
Radomir Ristic
Yikes. I wouldn’t want to bump into that creature.
Totally agree… unless of course you happen to be a dragon slayer:)
Ooh dragons! Super interesting. And I agree with Alex on their similarity to the Hydra. What a cool combo! ;0)
Thanks:)
It looks like King Ghidorah, the three-headed monster from the Godzilla films!
It does a bit;)
Dragons are awesome. I love to learn folklore about them – thanks!
Most welcome.
You know I love dragons. I can’t believe i’ve never heard of this one. Love the dragon statues. I alwaya wanted some to sit in front of my door like in the Cjinese culture or lions since they are my zodiac. But I j’dore dragons!
I know… they are pretty awesome:) Very majestic indeed…perhaps you could include a dragon of sorts in your current story…hint hint:)
I love that word Zmey! Cool pictures. What a great start to a dragon filled week. *grins*
Exactly my thoughts *winks*
I love the pictures! It’s so interesting to read about how dragons have ‘evolved’ in mythology. I am actually writing a story (going to be a trilogy) about dragons right now! While I love reading about other dragons, mine are quite different.
Dragon stories have always interested me…Now you’ve got me curious about your trilogy:)
Haven’t heard of this one. Reminds me of Medusa
It does, you’re right:)
I’m not sure why the multi-headed dragon is a dragon and not a hydra – but I LOVE that pic of a house-size dragon sculpture! What fun! I want a sculpture like that!
The hydra is specifically related to Greek mythology, while the Zmey is more focused around the Easter European, slavic countries. Basically, the Zmey and Hydra are very similar. The Greeks see it as a multi-headed reptile creature, while the Slavic myths seem them as actual dragons with multi-heads. Much for muchness, but ultimately, most mythical creatures exist in nearly all cultures under different names:)
Romanian mythology is filled with stories of “Zmei” (plural form for zmeu) being the villains. Oh, the fairy tales of my childhood!
I have to admit Romanian fairy tales are lots of fun – very dark and morbid:)
Never read the Romanian tales. I should check those out. I love the dark.
I automatically think of Eragon, although I’ve never read the book or seen the movie LOL. Very interesting on the different perceptions of them.
I guess, everyone comes up with their own version of the myth:)
When I think of dragons, I picture Harry Potter:-) Interesting post!
I loved the dragons in harry potter too… especially the Hungarian Horntail
Are they related to Hydras? Or is that a Greek creature only?
I think in essence they are very similar, just from different myths.