Slavic dragon

The Chudo-Yudo (or Chudo-iudo, чудо-юдо; pl. Chuda-Yuda) is a multi-headed dragon that appears in some wondertale variants, usually considered to be water-dwelling.[7][8] Some legends portray him as the brother of Koshchey the Deathless, and thus the offspring of the witch Baba Yaga; others present him as a personification of the witch in her foulest form.[9] A Chudo Yudo is one of the guardians of the Water of Life and Death, and his name traditionally was invoked in times of drought.[9] He can apparently assume human-like forms and is able to speak and to ride a horse. He has the ability to regenerate any decapitated heads.[10][11]

The term Chudo-Yudo may not be a name for a specific type of dragon at all, but rather a fanciful term for a generic "monster". According to this explanation, the term is to be understood as a poetic form of chudovishche (чудовище) meaning "monster", with a -iudo ending appended simply for the rhyme.[12][13] Chudo in modern Russian means "a wonder", and once also had the meaning of "a giant"; "yudo" may relate to Iuda, the Russian form of the personal name "Judas", with connotations of uncleanness and the demonic.[14]

Three- and six-headed zmei, slain by the titular hero in "Ivan Popyalov" (Иван Попялов, "Ivan Cinders", Afanasyev's tale #135)[15] appear as six-, nine-, and twelve-headed Chuda-Iuda in the cognate tale #137 "Ivan Bykovich" (Иван Быкович). The inference is that Chudo-Yudo must also be a dragon, even though the word "serpent" (zmei) does not appear explicitly in the latter tale.[16][17] The six-, nine-, and twelve-headed Chuda-Yuda that appear out of the Black Sea are explicitly described as zmei in yet another cognate tale, #136 "Storm-Bogatyr, Ivan the Cow's Son" (Буря-богатырь Иван коровий сын). The Storm-Bogatyr possesses a magic sword (sword Kladenets), but uses his battle club (or mace) to attack them.[18][19][11]

A Chudo-Yudo's heads have a remarkable healing property: even if severed, he can pick them up and re-attach them with a stroke of his fiery finger, according to one of these tales,[10] comparable to the regenerative power of the Lernaean hydra that grows its head back.[20]

Folktales often depict Chuda-yuda as living beyond the River Smorodina (the name may suggest "Stench River")—that is, in the realm of the dead, reached by crossing over the Kalinov Bridge ("White-hot Bridge").

The folklore that an ancient snake grows into a dragon is fairly widespread in Slavic regions. This is also paralleled by similar lore in China.[lower-alpha 1]

In Bulgaria is a similar folk belief that the smok ("Aesculapian snake"[21]) begins its life-cycle as a non-venomous snake but later grows into a zmei dragon after living 40 years.[22][23][24] Or, if the body of a decapitated snake (zmiya) is joined to an ox or buffalo horn, it grows into a lamia after just 40 days, according to Bulgarian folk tradition published by Racho Slaveykov in the 19th century.[25]

There are also among the East Slavic folk the tradition that a viper transforms into a dragon.[26] In Ukrainian folklore the viper needs 7 years to metamorphosize into a dragon, while in Belarusian folklore the requisite time is 100 years, according to one comparison.[26]

The weather-making dragon, ismeju (or zmeu[27]), of Romanian Scholomance folklore is also locally believed to grow out of a snake which has lived for 9 years (belief found at "Hatzeger Thal" or Hațeg).[28]

Locally in Ukraine, around Lutsk, the rainbow is called tsmok ("sucker") which is said to be a tube that guzzles water from the sea and rivers and carries the moisture up into the clouds.[31][32]

There is the notion (thought to be inspired by the tornado) of a Slavic dragon that dips its tail into a river or lake and siphons up the water, ready to cause floods.[33]

In Romanian folklore, dragons are ridden by weather-controlling wizards called the Solomonari. The type of dragon they ride may be the zmeu[lower-alpha 2][27] or the balaur, depending on the source.[34][35]

The lamia and the hala (explained further below) are also generally perceived as weather dragons or demons.

A favorite topic of folk songs was the male zmey-lover who may marry a woman and carry her to the underworld, or a female zmeitsa (zmeitza) who falls in love with a shepherd.[38][39] When a zmei falls in love with a woman, she may "pine, languish, become pale, neglect herself.. and generally act strangely", and the victim stricken with the condition could only be cured by bathing in infusions of certain herbs, according to superstition.[39]

In Serbia, there is the example of the epic song Carica Milica i zmaj od Jastrepca (Serbian: Царица Милица и змај од Јастрепца) and its folktale version translated as "The Tsarina Militza and the Zmay of Yastrebatz".[40][41]

Zmey of Macedonian fairy tales

In most Macedonian tales and folk songs they are described as extremely intelligent, having hypnotizing eyes. However, sometimes Zmey's could be men who would astrally project into the sky when there is a storm to battle the Lamia, a female evil version that wants to destroy the wheat. They were also known as guardians of the territory, and would even protect the people in it. Hostile behaviour was shown if another zmey comes into his territory. They could change their appearance in the form of a smoke, strong spark, fire bird, snake, cloud but almost afterwards he would gain the form of a handsome man and enter the chambers of a young maiden. They fell in love with women who were conceived on the same night as them, or born in the same day as them. He usually guards the girl from a small age and his love lasts forever. Some girls get sick by loving a zmey, and symptoms include paleness, shyness, antisocial behaviour, watery eyes, quietness and hallucinations. They didn't live a long life, because it resulted in suicide. Zmeys would kidnap girls and lead them into their mountain caves where she would serve him.

There is a pan-Balkan notion that the zmei (known by various cognates) is a sort of "guardian-spirit dragon" against the "evil" types of dragon, given below.[42][43] One explanation is that the Balkan zmej symbolized the patriotic dragon fighting the Turkish dragon, a way to vent the local population's frustration at not being able to overthrow the long-time Turkish rule.[44]

Serbian tale "A Pavilion Neither in the Sky nor on the Earth".

—Painting by William Sewell

The zmaj dragon in Serbian fairy tales nevertheless have sinister roles in a number of instances. In the well-known tale[45] "A Pavilion Neither in the Sky nor on the Earth" the youngest prince succeeds in killing the dragon (zmaj) that guards the three princesses held captive.[lower-alpha 4][47]

Vuk Karadžić's collection of folktales have other examples. In "The Golden Apple-tree and the Nine Peahens", the dragon carries away the peahen maiden who is the hero's lover.[48][47] In "Baš Čelik" the hero must contend with a dragon-king.[49][50]

The lamia or lamya (Bulgarian: ламя), derived from the Greek lamia,[51] is also seen as a dragon-like creature in Bulgarian ethnic population, currently inhabiting Bulgaria, with equivalents in Macedonia (lamja, lamna; ламја), and South-East Serbian areas (lamnia ламња).[52]

The Bulgarian lamia is described as reptile- or lizard-like and covered with scales, with 3–9 heads which are like dog's heads with sharp teeth.[53][26] It may also have sharp claws, webbed wings, and the scales may be yellow color.[26]

The Bulgarian lamia dwells in the bottoms of the seas and lakes, or sometimes mountainous caverns,[26] or tree holes[lower-alpha 5][54] and can stop the supply of water to the human population, demanding sacrificial offerings to undo its deed.[26][53] The lamia, bringer of drought, was considered the adversary of St. Ilya (Elijah) or a benevolent zmei.[53]

In the Bulgarian version of Saint George and the Dragon, the dragon was a lamia.[53] Bulgarian legends tell of how a hero (actually a double of St. George, denoted as "George of the Flowers", Cveten Gǝorgi, Bulgarian: цветен Гьорги[55]) cuts off the heads of the three- or multi-headed Lamia, and when the hero accomplishes its destruction and sever all its heads, "rivers of fertility" are said to flow.[53][56][55] This song about St. George's fight with the lamia occurs in ritual spiritual verse supposed to be sung around St. George's day.[lower-alpha 6][58]

One of the versions collected by ethnologist Dimitar Marinov begins: "Тръгнал ми е цветен Гьорги/Да обиди нивен сънор/На път среща сура ламя.. (George of the Flowers fared out / Going around his congregation /On the road he met the fallow lamia..)".[59][lower-alpha 7] Another version collected by Marinov substitutes "Yuda-Samodiva" in the place of the lamia.[55] Three rivers gush out of the dragons head-stumps: typically one of corn, one of red wine, and one of milk and honey. These benefitted the crop-growers, vineyard growers (winemakers), and the beekeepers and shepherds, respectively.[59][56][55] .

There is some overlap or conflation of the lamia and the hala (or halla), although the latter is usually conceived of as a "whirlwind".[26][61] Or it might be described as regional differences. The lamia in Eastern Bulgaria is the adversary of the benevolent zmei,[62] and the hala or ala takes its place in Western Bulgaria.[52][42]

This motif of hero against the evil dragon (lamia, ala/hala, or aždaja) is found more generally throughout the Balkan Slavic region.[63] Sometimes this hero is a saint (usually St. George).[63] And after the hero severs all its (three) heads, "three rivers of wheat, milk, and wine" flow out of the stumps.[63][lower-alpha 8]

The demon or creature known as hala (or ala), whose name derived from the Greek word for "hail" took the appearance of a dense mist or fog, or a black cloud.[53][26] Hala was believed to be the cause of strong winds and whirlwind in Eastern Bulgaria,[53] whereas the lamya was blamed as the perpetrator in Southwestern Bulgarian lore.[64] In Western Bulgarian tradition, the halla itself was regarded as the whirlwind, which guarded clouds and contained the rain,[65] but was also regarded as a type of dragon,[52][42] alongside the folklore that the smok (roughly equated with "grass snake" but actually the Aesculapian snake[lower-alpha 9][21]) was a crag-dwelling whirlwind.[65]

These hala were also known in East and Central Serbia.[52] Similar lore occur in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro.

The demon hala was also called by other names regionally, in some parts of Bulgaria they were known as aždarha (Bulgarian: аждарха) or ažder (аждер), in Macedonian as aždaja or ažder (аждаја, аждер), in Bosnian and Serbian as aždaja (аждаја).[lower-alpha 10][52][42]

The word aždaja or aždaha is borrowed from Persian azdahā (اژدها),[66] and has its origins in the Indo-Iranian mythology surrounding the dragon azidahā.[63] As an example, in some local Serbian icons, St. George is represented as slaying the aždaja and not a zmaj.[67]

A pozoj is a dragon of legends in Croatia.[lower-alpha 11] In Međimurje County, the Čakovec pozoj was said to dwell beneath the city, with its head under the church and tail under the town square, or vice versa, and it could only be gotten rid of by a grabancijaš (a "wandering scholar", glossed as a "black [magic] student").[69]

The pozoj is also known in Slovenia, and according to legend there is one living underneath Zagreb, causing an earthquake whenever it shrugs.[70] Poet Matija Valjavec (1866) has published some tales concerning the pozoj in the Slovenski glasnik magazine, which also connected the creature to the črne škole dijak ("black school student"),[71] which other Slovene sources call črnošolec ("sorcerer's apprentice"),[72] and which some equate with a grabancijaš dijak[73]

Dragons in Slovenia are generally negative in nature, and usually appear in relation with St. George.[74] The Slovene god-hero Kresnik is known as a dragonslayer.[75]

• Ilya Muromets (1956 film), Zmey Gorynych, or as 'Zuma the Fire Dragon' in the English version.
• Dobrynya Nikitich& (1965 animation, Soyuzmultfilm)
• Čardak ni na nebu ni na zemlji ("A Pavilion Neither in the Sky nor on the Earth", 1978 animation)