Oblačar
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A gradobranitelj (literally "hail defender") and an oblačar was, in
Serbian Serbian may refer to: * Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular **Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans ** Serbian language ** Serbian culture **Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...
tradition, a man who protected his village from destructive weather. In Serbia, bad weather was believed to be brought by various demonic beings, including devils, creatures called '' ala'' and ''aždaja'', eagles, black-feathered birds, and the souls of drowned and hanged persons. The gradobranitelj used
magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...
to dissipate hail clouds, and to repel devils and the souls of the drowned and hanged persons, who were thought to bring the clouds. He learned this magic from another gradobranitelj. The oblačar ran to and fro beneath a hail cloud, fighting against an ''aždaja'', a serpentine demon which flew in the cloud spewing hail on the fields of the oblačar's village. The gradobranitelj is recorded in north-western Serbia, and the oblačar is recorded in the region of
Syrmia Syrmia (Ekavian sh-Latn-Cyrl, Srem, Срем, separator=" / " or Ijekavian sh-Latn-Cyrl, Srijem, Сријем, label=none, separator=" / ") is a region of the southern Pannonian Plain, which lies between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is div ...
. It was also believed in some areas that there were women who could eliminate the danger from destructive weather using sorcery. In other respects, these protectors were normal individuals who lived and worked in their communities as others did.


Bringers of bad weather

Adverse weather such as storms, hail, or torrential rains could quickly devastate fields, orchards, and vineyards, and thus jeopardize the livelihood of farmers in the affected region. They were believed to have been brought by supernatural forces. God let bad weather afflict the people of an area as a punishment for their sins.
Angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...
s and some
saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...
s could punish in the same way, and the
Devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...
was also thought of as a bringer of such afflictions.Radenković, Ljubinko (2001). "Облачари" (in Serbian). Svetlana Mikhaylovna Tolstaya, Ljubinko Radenković. eds. ''Словенска митологија: енциклопедијски речник lavic mythology: encyclopedic dictionary'.
Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
: Zepter Book World. .
Female demons named '' ala'' were prominent bringers of storm and hail clouds in central, eastern, and southern Serbia, as well as in the Banat;Radenković, Ljubinko (1996).
Митска бића српског народа: (х)ала [Mythological beings of the Serbs: (h)ala]
(in Serbian). ''Liceum'' (
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) 2. . Retrieved 2011-02-04.
the same role was sometimes played by
eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...
s and black-feathered birds.Zečević, Slobodan (1981). "Ветровњак – змајевит човек" (in Serbian). ''Митска бића српских предања ythological beings of Serbian traditions'. Belgrade: IRO „Vuk Karadžić“,
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.
In Syrmia, demons called ''aždaja'' spewed hail on crops flying through dense, terrible clouds.Tolstoy, Nikita Ilyich; Tolstaya, Svetlana Mikhaylovna (1981). "Заметки по славянскому язычеству. 5. Защита от града в Драгачеве и других сербских зонах" (in Russian). Nikita Ilyich Tolstoy. ed.
Обряд. Текст
' (PDF). Славянский и балканский фольклор. 3. Moskva: Nauka. pp. 46–8, 62, 64, 83, 102–12, 117. Retrieved 2011-02-04.
The elements could also be brought by the souls of drowned and hanged persons, or those struck by lightning. Living individuals, such as priests,
witch Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Enc ...
es, and those who had acquired certain magical skills were able to direct severe weather to the area whose people they wanted to harm. It was held in
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and
Lika Lika () is a traditional region of Croatia proper, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by t ...
that evil persons after death, or even during life, led hail to whatever field they wanted.Ardalić, Vladimir (March 1999).
Вукодлак
(in Serbian). ''Буковица: Народни живот и обичаји ukovica: folk life and customs'.
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People supplicated God and saints for protection against those calamities, but they also resorted to magic practices. There was a widespread practice of "cutting" clouds and hail by means of an axe, scythe, sickle, hoe, or knife. Noticing the approach of a hail cloud, farmers would stand in their house yard and wave toward it with one of those implements, or place it with the blade turned toward the cloud. Some chased hail away by firing from rifles or small simple mortars called ''prangija''. They also tried to propitiate the bringer of the elements, as in the custom of placing a dining table with bread and salt on it in the yard. The table could have been used for "cutting" as well, for which purpose it was placed with its legs directed skywards; the same was done with tripods. In other practices farmers used objects that had been part of annual festivities and family observances, counting on the protective influence of the sacred power with which these objects were consequently imbued. Some of the customs were performed only by women, others only by men, and still others by men and women together. The gender could depend on what object was used, e.g., the scythe was seen as a masculine tool and the sickle as a feminine one, but there were practices for which the gender was irrelevant. Most of these practices were accompanied by a loud utterance of ritual texts, which had their own
semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...
,
symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...
ism and structure. Standing in the yard and facing the cloud, farmers would address the cloud himself, or hail, prodigy, the unholy power, ''ala'', drowned or hanged persons (usually calling by name someone like that from their region), and others. People tried to deflect the horrific bringer of clouds from their fields, by scaring him off with something even more appalling that was allegedly present in their village. For example: "Back! Back, ''ala''! Here is a bigger ''ala'', beware!" or "Hey, do not go, prodigy, on prodigy! We have a huge prodigy: here a girl bore a girl, a girl of nine years old! Do not go, prodigy, on prodigy: we have a huge prodigy!" These texts often contained the idea of hail clouds as cattle, usually white: "O Sava and Nevena, turn back those white cattle! There is no pasture for them here! We only have ashes to put their eyes out!" Uttering this, they would spill the ashes of the fire on which a ''
česnica A česnica (Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: чесница, ; derived from the noun ''čest'', meaning "share"), also called Božićna pogača (Serbian Cyrillic: Божићна погача, "Christmas pogača") is the ceremonial, ro ...
'' had been baked for
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, into the wind. (Sava and Nevena were a couple who drowned themselves in the Morava River for not having been allowed to marry.) Saint John and
Saint Sava Saint Sava (, ; Old Church Slavonic: ; Glagolitic: ; ; 1169 or 1174 – 14 January 1235/6), known as the Enlightener or the Illuminator, was a Serbs, Serbian prince and Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox monk, abbot of Studenica Monastery, Studeni ...
also appeared as leaders of cattle/clouds: "Saint Sava, turn back your cattle from our village!"


Gradobranitelj

In Pocerina, the region containing Mount Cer in northwestern Serbia, protection from hail was provided by a gradobranitelj ("hail defender"), who learned the "craft" from another gradobranitelj. This type of protection included the use of magic. The gradobranitelj in the village of Lipolist was Nikola Stojković, who pursued that vocation for about forty years, until the 1950s. On the night before every bigger feast day, he collected earth and remnants of candles from graves of hanged and drowned persons, flour beneath a
millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, used for triturating, crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a s ...
, water beneath a
water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous b ...
, and dew. Nikola mixed all these ingredients into a mass, from which he made pellets the size of a hazelnut. At the same time he collected dew in a bottle. All the pellets and dew collected from Christmas to Christmas were placed in one bag and one bottle, respectively. At the onset of a thunderstorm, according to Nikola's own description, he felt a great excitement; he heard some music in the thunder, all his muscles tightened, and something made him go. He would take a sickle and a scythe, a warp beam on which a twin sister had wound warp yarns, the bag with the last-year's pellets, and the bottle with last-year's dew. With this he would run directly toward the cloud, looking neither left nor right, nor watching where he treads. Once on the field, Nikola would stick the scythe into the ground, and say a prayer for lightning to strike. Having gone away from the scythe, he would make the sign of the cross with the warp beam in the direction of the cloud, to break it into quarters. Further beneath it, he would shake the cloud apart using the pellets and dew. There he also addressed the souls of the drowned and hanged leading the cloud, praying them that the "rain like this dew" fall, and spoke various other prayers. For these protective services, Nikola had been receiving wheat and maize from his fellow villagers. He was eventually warned by the authorities to stop with these activities, branded backward superstition by them. The gradobranitelj in Bukor in the 1950s was Trivun Selenić. Perceiving that there might be hail, he would go behind the village, wave his arms toward the cloud, and speak the following (the meaning of the italicized words is unclear): "''Raviše đaviše'', ''nađuniši'' pistols, the dress on silver, the girl onto the neck! Barbarian's head smashed! I am the first
voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...
here. The dinner is not served for you here. Go there to those hills. It is served there for you. So dine there." Trivun explained that hail clouds were led by devils accompanied by souls of the drowned and hanged. By the statement "I am the first voivode here" he would proclaim that he was the principal commander of devils, who consequently had to obey his commands and proceed around his village. Trivun recognized that all this was a sin: both his declaring himself a voivode of devils, and averting hail from his village, because it would fall and make damage at some other place. Miljko Ivković from Dobrići spoke nothing, but went onto the field, took his cap off, made the
Sign of the Cross Making the sign of the cross (), also known as blessing oneself or crossing oneself, is both a prayer and a ritual blessing made by members of some branches of Christianity. It is a very significant prayer because Christians are acknowledging ...
, and put the cap back on. After that, he three times made the sign of the cross with a knife in the direction of the cloud, thus cutting it into quarters, which he then drove apart. In the end he stuck the knife's handle into the ground, the blade turned toward the cloud.


Oblačar

In the region of
Syrmia Syrmia (Ekavian sh-Latn-Cyrl, Srem, Срем, separator=" / " or Ijekavian sh-Latn-Cyrl, Srijem, Сријем, label=none, separator=" / ") is a region of the southern Pannonian Plain, which lies between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is div ...
, people believed that dragons lived on high mountains and flew high in the sky shedding many sparks. Beneath them, in dense and terrible clouds, flew gigantic winged serpentine demons called ''aždaja'', which spewed hail on fields. A special man, called an oblačar, would fight against them and their associates. This name is derived from the noun ''oblak'' ("cloud"). The oblačar would rush directly beneath the dark clouds, as soon as he noticed that they were gathering above the fields of his village. There he would run to and fro, following the movement of the ''aždaja'', at the same time waving his arms, or holding a stick raised in the direction of the cloud. He would not stop until he was completely exhausted and drenched. Sometimes he succeeded in preventing hail fall, and other times not, as was the case with an oblačar from Mirkovci. When the wind blew the clouds away from Mirkovci without a damage to its crops, this man would return from the fields and boast to the villagers of his persistence in warding off the hail bringers despite their ferocity. And when hail fell on the crops, he would humbly state that he did his best, but the adversaries flung themselves upon him with tenfold fierceness. The villagers believed and felt sorry for their oblačar, all drenched and bruised by hail. In autumn, he drove his cart from house to house in Mirkovci, receiving wheat from farmers for his struggle.


Sorceress

Some women were thought to be able to eliminate the danger from destructive weather. This was the case with Stana Tomić, a healer from Jarmenovci in the municipality of
Topola Topola ( sr-Cyrl, Топола, ) is a town and municipality located in the Šumadija District of central Serbia. It was the place where Karađorđe, a Serbian revolutionary, was chosen as the leader of the First Serbian Uprising against the Otto ...
. Her fellow villagers held her in high esteem and claimed that she saved Jarmenovci from hail many times. At the sight of hail clouds, she would place the dining table at the center of her house, before putting on it a piece of bread, salt, and the lighted candle that had been used during the celebration of the slava. She would then go out into the yard and shout: "O Radomir, hanged man, lead the ''
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'' around. Turn those white cattle back there, do not let them come here. Here is a bigger prodigy: a girl of seven years old bore a child, wrapped it in silken diapers, bound it with a silken ribbon. Do not let harm come to our
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, do not let harm come to our fruitful fields." In 1956, when this was recorded, Stana had been protecting Jarmenovci in this way for thirty years. In the regions of
Takovo Takovo ( sr-cyr, Таково) is a village in the municipality of Gornji Milanovac, Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the village has a population of 458 people.Popis stanovništva, domaćinstava i Stanova 2002. Knjiga 1: Nacionalna ili etnič ...
and
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, people claimed that some villages had never been ravaged by hail, because in each of them there was a woman that prevented it.


See also

*
Zduhać A zduhać (Cyrillic: здухаћ, ) and vetrovnjak (ветровњак, []) in Serbian tradition, and a dragon man in Bulgarians, Bulgarian, Macedonians (ethnic group), Macedonian and southern Serbian traditions, were men believed to have an in ...


References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em Serbian folklore Legendary Serbian people