
A zduhać (
Cyrillic
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...
: 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 inborn supernatural ability to protect their estate, village, or region against destructive weather conditions, such as
storm
A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstor ...
s,
hail
Hail is a form of solid Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailsto ...
, or torrential rains. It was believed that the souls of these men could leave their bodies in sleep, to intercept and fight with
demonic beings imagined as bringers of bad weather. Having defeated the demons and taken away the stormy clouds they brought, the protectors would return into their bodies and wake up tired.
Notions associated with the zduhać, vetrovnjak, and dragon man, respectively, are not identical. The dragon man fought against female demons called ''
ala'', which led hail clouds over fields to destroy crops, and consumed the fertility of the fields. The zduhaći (plural) of an area usually fought together against the attacking zduhaći of another area who were bringing a storm and hail clouds above their fields. The victorious zduhaći would loot the yield of all agricultural produce from the territory of their defeated foes, and take it to their own region. The vetrovnjak, recorded in parts of western Serbia, fought against a bringer of bad weather imagined as a black bird. The zduhaći are recorded in
Montenegro
, image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg
, coa_size = 80
, national_motto =
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map = Europe-Mont ...
, eastern
Herzegovina
Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical Regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia (reg ...
, part of
Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
, and the
Sandžak
Sandžak (Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) is a historical and geo-political region in the Balkans, located in the southwestern part of Serbia and the eastern part of Montenegro. The Bosnian/ Serbian term ''Sandžak'' derives from the Sanjak of Novi Paza ...
region of south-western Serbia. The dragon men are recorded in eastern Serbia,
Banat
Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...
, western Bulgaria, and
Macedonia
Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to:
* North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia
* Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity
* Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...
.
Zduhać and vjedogonja
In Montenegro, eastern Herzegovina, part of Bosnia, and the Sandžak region of south-western Serbia, a man who was thought to be able to protect his estate, village, or region from bad weather was called a zduhać or a ''stuha''. These names have a number of variants, which can be with or without ''h'', with ''v'' instead of ''h'', with or without the ending ''ć'', and with ''č'' instead of ''ć''.
[Kulišić, Petrović, & Pantelić 1970, pp. 139–41] According to philologist
Franz Miklosich
Franz Miklosich (, also known in Slovene as ; 20 November 1813 – 7 March 1891) was a Slovenian philologist and rector of the University of Vienna.
Early life
Miklosich was born in the small village of Radomerščak near the Lower Styrian town ...
, the
Serbian word ''stuhać'' is cognate with the
Old Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic subgroup of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European ...
() or () "the elements", which stem from the
Old Greek (στοιχεῖον) "
element". The latter name is the origin of the
Modern Greek
Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...
''stikhio'' (στοιχειό), denoting various kinds of spirits in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
folklore, such as those fighting for the well-being of their village or area against adverse spirits from elsewhere.
[Plotnikova 2008, para. 10] According to linguists
Petar Skok
Petar Skok (; 1 March 1881 – 3 February 1956) was a Croatian linguist and onomastics, onomastician. His central work is the four-volume etymological dictionary of Serbo-Croatian.
Biography
Skok was born to a Croatian family in the village of J ...
and
Norbert Jokl
Norbert Jokl (February 25, 1877 – probably May 1942) was an Austrian Albanologist of Jewish descent who has been called the father of Albanology.
Early life
Jokl was born in Bzenec (then Bisenz), Southern Moravia (now the Czech Republic) ...
, ''stuhać'' stems from the
Albanian "storm". In any case, the form ''zduhać'' may have resulted from
folk etymology
Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...
through association with the Serbian ''duh'' "spirit".
[Čajkanović 1994, p. 264–65]
The notion that the human being consists of body and
soul
The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...
is found in traditional
Slavic culture. There was a belief among the
South Slavs
South Slavs are Slavic people who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austria, ...
that, in some people, the soul could leave the body and again return into it.
[Radenković 1996, pp. 12–13] The zduhać belonged to such people in
Serbian tradition. It was thought that, after a zduhać fell asleep, his soul could fly out of his body, or "go into the winds", as it was said in Montenegro.
[Đorđević 1953, pp. 237–38][Rovinsky 1901, pp. 528–29] In some accounts, it exited the body in the form of a fly.
[ The zduhać's soul had the power to direct the motion of winds and clouds.][ If the body of the sleeping zduhać was rotated so that his head and feet changed places, or if he was carried away from where he fell asleep, his soul would not be able to return into his body, and the zduhać would die.][
Although zduhaći (plural) could be women and children, most were adult men.][ Their supernatural power was thought to be inborn. In many regions it was regarded that the zduhaći were born with a ]caul
A caul is a piece of membrane that can cover a newborn's head and face. Birth with a caul is rare, occurring in less than 1 in 80,000 births. The caul is harmless and is immediately removed by the attending parent, physician, or midwife upon birt ...
—white or red, depending on the regional belief. The mother would dry the caul and sew into a piece of garment always worn by the child, such as a pouch attached under the child's armpit. In the clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship
and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...
of Kuči, eastern Montenegro, the mother would preserve the caul hiding it from all eyes, and hand it to her son when he grew up. The caul was supposed to protect him when he flew as a zduhać. If the caul was destroyed, the child's supernatural power would be lost. A birthmark of a zduhać in Herzegovina could be a tuft of hair growing on his shoulder or upper arm. In Montenegrin Littoral, the caul played no role in the birth of zduhaći, who were rather born on certain Fridays at a set hour. There was also a belief in Herzegovina that male children who were conceived on the eves of great feast day
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...
s would become zduhaći.[Đorđević 1953, pp. 239–40]
A 19th-century ethnographic account from eastern Herzegovina describes a way through which a man who was not born as a zduhać could become one. Forty days after he ceased praying to God and washing his face, the man should go to some level ground, before he drew a circle on the ground and sat in its centre. Soon 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 ...
would come and ask the man whether he was willing to join his army, and what form he wanted to be transformed into. When the man stated the desired form, the Devil would turn him into that, making him a zduhać.[ In the region of ]Semberija
Semberija ( sr-Cyrl, Семберија, ) is a geographical region in north-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main city in the region is Bijeljina. Semberija is located between the Drina and Sava rivers and Majevica mountain. Most of the regi ...
, northeast Bosnia, а zduhać could pass his supernatural power on to his son.[Kajmaković 1974, p. 102]
The appearance of zduhaći was not much different from that of ordinary people, but they had some traits that set them apart. They were deep sleepers, very hard to wake up, often drowsy, pensive, thoughtful, and solemn. Their faces were often puffy, eyes shadowy. They were wise and shrewd, successful in whatever they were doing and resourceful in dealing with problems; their households were prosperous.[Đorđević 1953, pp. 241–42] In Semberija, zduhaći were said to be good scapulimantic diviners
Divination () is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic ritual or practice. Using various methods throughout history, diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a should proceed by reading signs, ...
, and to be able to communicate with domestic animals.[ The clan of Paštrovići from Montenegrin Littoral claimed that the zduhaći could hear any doings anywhere in the world; if someone stepped on a zduhać's foot, they could hear that too.][Kordić 1990, pp. 220–21] The clan of Kuči held that the zduhaći were outstanding long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...
ers.[
Adverse weather such as a storm or hail could devastate crop fields and orchards, and thus jeopardize the livelihood of farmers in the affected area. A role of zduhaći, according to folk tradition, was to lead storms and hail clouds away from their family estates, villages, or regions, to save their crops. A zduhać could take the storms and hail clouds over the territory of another zduhać to destroy its crops. The other zduhać would fly up to confront the bringer of bad weather, and there would be a fight between the zduhaći.][Đorđević 1953, pp. 242–44]
They fought alone, or in bands composed of individuals from the same area. Thus it was thought that the zduhaći from eastern Bosnia fought together against those from Herzegovina and Montenegro. The zduhaći from Sandžak fought jointly against the Albanian zduhaći. On the Adriatic
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...
coast, battles were waged between a band of zduhaći from Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and northern Albania on one side, and a band of zduhaći from Apulia
Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...
in southeast Italy on the other side.[ The latter were also called the transmarine zduhaći, as Apulia is situated across the Adriatic Sea from Montenegro.][ Each band had its leader. A man named Mato Glušac (1774–1870), from the village of Korita in Herzegovina, was reputed the supreme commander of the Herzegovinian and Montenegrin zduhaći;][Đorđević 1953, pp. 245–46] he was also a famous seer.[Đorđević 1953, pp. 249–50]
According to some accounts, zduhaći flew and fought mostly in spring when strong winds blew, and, as held in some regions, only during night.[ As recorded in Montenegro, the zduhaći "went into the winds" usually during the ]Nativity Fast
In Christianity, the Nativity Fast—or Fast of the Prophets in Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church—is a period of abstinence and penance practiced by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churc ...
(15 November – 24 December), when there was not much snow and the winds were forceful. They also flew frequently from mid-February to the end of March. In some years, they were not active at all.[
]
The zduhaći of a band would leave their bodies in sleep and gather at an appointed place, before flying into a battle.[ They used various weapons, such as spindles, beech buds, sharp splinters, leaves, stalks of straw, fluff, flakes, sand, long twigs, cornel ]stones
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
, pine cones, eggshells, and other light objects. As believed in Herzegovina, zduhaći uprooted gigantic firs and oaks and fought with them. However, the most powerful zduhać weapon was held to be a stick of ''luč'' (resin
A resin is a solid or highly viscous liquid that can be converted into a polymer. Resins may be biological or synthetic in origin, but are typically harvested from plants. Resins are mixtures of organic compounds, predominantly terpenes. Commo ...
ous wood burned to give light or used as kindling) charred at both ends, or any charred splinter of wood. A zduhać who was hit with this weapon would surely die. People therefore avoided igniting the sticks at both ends, and they took care that no splinters were left half-burned.[Rovinsky 1901, pp. 530–31]
Beside the weapons, each zduhać carried a milk bucket and a peck measure; an alternative for the latter could be a shovel or broom from a threshing floor. If a band of zduhaći succeeded to seize the peck measures from the enemy band, they would thereby transfer the crop yield from the area of their enemies to their own area. Seizing the milk buckets meant that the milk yield would be transferred. According to the clan of Kuči, zduhaći used their peck measures, milk buckets, and other containers to grab off the overall yield of the enemy territory.[
The battles of zduhaći were furious. They were accompanied by forceful gales and whirlwinds which uprooted trees and whipped up dust.][Đorđević 1953, pp. 247–48] In Montenegro, it was considered dangerous to throw stones in the wind, because that might knock out an eye of a zduhać, who would kill the culprit.[Rovinsky 1901, p. 533] A fighting zduhać was supposed to retain his peck measure and milk bucket, while trying to seize these objects from an enemy zduhać; he should hit and not get hit. The victorious band of zduhaći would loot the yield of all agricultural produce from the territory of their defeated foes. The harvest in the coming season would thus be excellent for the victors and poor for the defeated zduhaći.[
After the battle, the soul of the zduhać would return into his body, and he would wake up weak and exhausted. If he was wounded, he would be sick for some time afterwards—before he recovered, or died if his wound was mortal. There are records of seriously ill men who claimed that they were wounded in zduhać battles. It was held in Montenegrin Littoral that a mortally wounded zduhać could still recuperate if he revenged himself on his wounder before the eighth day of his wound expired.][ Pavel Rovinsky, Russian philologist and ethnographer, recorded a story told to him by a man of the clan of ]Ceklin
Ceklin ( Montenegrin/Serbian Cyrillic: Цеклин; ) is a historical tribe (''pleme'') and region in Montenegro. It is divided into two clans: Gornjaci (the Upper) and Donjaci (the Lower). The Gornjaci are descendants of Leka, who came from t ...
in southern Montenegro (Rovinsky also heard a similar story in Montenegrin Littoral):[Rovinsky 1901, pp. 531–32]
There was a Ceklin zduhać who was so beaten by other zduhaći that he had to die, and there he was, dying. Various remedies were brought to him, but he accepted none, because all was in vain. Finally he had everybody ushered out of his house, except for one of his brothers, a famous hero; all were also driven away from the door, to prevent eavesdropping. Then the dying man said to his brother: "I will surely die, if I am not substituted for; and you can do it and save me, if you will have enough strength." The brother, of course, promised that, and the sick man continued: "You will have to go tonight to Mount So-and-so, at three to four hours' walking distance from here, most of the way lying through a dense forest. You will come beneath a stair-like cliff and stop there, and a great fear will seize you. To encourage yourself, take your two pistol
A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...
s and a knife with the silver sheath." "I will also take a musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...
," added the brother, and the sick man said, "You may take that too, though only as an encouragement, as it will be of no use to you, but you must have the knife." "I can go without any weapon, with a pocket knife, if it is against a single, and with a weapon I can go against a hundred," interrupted the brother again. "Take it easy with your boldness," resumed the sick man, "and by all means take the knife. When you come beneath the cliff, the sky will be cloudless, lit, and there will be a silence in the air; then you will notice a wisp of cloud coming from the direction of Mount Rumija, and the wind will start to blow. The wisp will turn into an enormous storm cloud that will cover all the sky, and there will come a darkness such as you have never seen before; the wind will blow, whistle, roar, and shriek, as you have also never heard before; the hair will rise on your head so that it will lift your cap
A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...
, and I fear that you may go mad from horror. And if you persevere, you will see three bulls falling down from the cloud on the earth: a light-haired, a pied, and a dark-haired bull. The latter two will start to beat the former, which is the weakest, because it is already wounded. Make sure to strike the two bulls with the knife; but take care not to cut the light-haired bull; that would be the death of me, as it would be if the two bulls overcame the light-haired bull."
Having heard all of that, the brother took two pistols, poured more gunpowder, and sharpened the flints; he put the pistols into his belt, placed the knife between them, and slung a musket over his shoulder. He set forth. He passed through the dark forest; he came beneath the stair-like cliff; the moon and the stars were shining, so it was like a day; a silence all around him, pleasant; he sat down and lit his pipe. Before long a wisp of cloud showed from the direction of Mount Rumija; there came a roar and bluster, and everything happened as the sick man said. His hair rose so that three times he jammed his cap down on his head. Finally, three bulls fell down from the storm cloud and started to fight; all as it was said. He stabbed the pied bull in the neck with the knife; it staggered and fell; the light-haired bull got encouraged. Then he stabbed the dark-haired bull, and it slumped; the light-haired was finishing them off with its horns. This was not enough for him, and, fearing that the cut bulls could still rise up, he kept on striking them with the knife as long as there was a breath in their bodies. The storm cloud suddenly disappeared; together with it, the light-haired bull vanished. Again the moon and the stars shone; again a silence and blessedness. He was going back home as if flying; when he arrived he found his brother sitting by the hearth, placing logs on the fire, healthy as if he had never been sick.
An interpretation of the story about the Ceklin zduhać is given in an essay by literary theoretician Radoman Kordić. According to him, the story is a product of the symbolic scheme of the culture of Montenegrin Serbs. The story comprises a zduhać narration and a heroic narration. The former is based on the mythological beliefs in the zduhaći, which were strongest in Montenegro. The latter is based on the heroic ideology exalting death in battle, which was a predominant trait of the Montenegrin society.[Kordić 1990, pp. 184–195] The zduhać and the famous hero symbolize, respectively, two systems of the Montenegrin culture. At its beginning, the story is placed in the framework of the first system, but it is realized with the means and on the ideological plane of the second system.[Kordić 1990, pp. 136–37] The beaten zduhać, who is supposed to die, diverges from the mythological pattern, and he replaces himself with the hero.[ This results in an ]ironic
Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...
twist. The fearless hero acts in fact as a butcher of bulls which do not even fight back. The apparently happy ending degrades the zduhać into a subject without identity. Kordić argues, using mostly Lacanian psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
, that there is a third, silent narration in the story—that of the death drive
In classical psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, the death drive () is the Drive theory, drive toward destruction in the sense of breaking down complex phenomena into their constituent parts or bringing life back to its inanimate 'dead' state, often ...
—which crumbles the other two narrations.[
In a story recorded in the area of ]Cetinje
Cetinje ( cnr-Cyrl, Цетиње, ) is a List of cities and towns in Montenegro, town in Montenegro. It is the former royal capital ( cnr-Latn-Cyrl, prijestonica, приjестоница, separator=" / ") of Montenegro and is the location of sev ...
, a zduhać was mortally wounded on Mount Lovćen in a battle against the transmarine zduhaći. The dying zduhać disclosed the way in which he could be saved, and one of his relatives acted according to the instructions. He went by night to a valley where he saw horses, oxen, rams, billy goats, men, and women. He passed by them in total silence, before he saw a black ox. He struck the ox with a wooden bar, and the animal roared tremendously. When he returned home, he found the zduhać sound and healthy. As believed in the region of Birač, eastern Bosnia, a mortally wounded zduhać could get well if he burned beech buds in a milk bucket, and censed himself with the smoke, using a spindle to wave the smoke toward himself. Before performing this rite, he should have publicly confessed that he was a zduhać. Most zduhaći would reputedly rather die than do that, because afterwards they could no more fly as zduhaći.[ As thought in Herzegovina, a man who did not want to be a zduhać anymore, should have confessed to a priest and promised that he would not fly anymore.][Đorđević 1953, p. 250]
Zduhaći were regarded as a blessing for their home and village, as guardians of the prosperity and well-being of their region, and as good, honest, just, and law-obeying people.[ In the region of Birač, zduhaći were said to meet with angels "on the leaves of high and thick branches". They were sometimes thought to have a prophetic gift. However, a zduhać could ally himself with the Devil, and use his innate power in accordance with the Devil's directions. That zduhać was doomed to turn into a ]vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...
, unless he confessed and repented.[ Some influential historical persons were believed to have been zduhaći, such as warrior and writer ]Marko Miljanov
Marko Miljanov Popović ( sr-Cyrl, Марко Миљанов Поповић, ; 25 April 1833 – 2 February 1901) was a Brda chieftain and Montenegrin general and writer.
He entered the service of Danilo I, the first secular Prince of Montene ...
, and Petar I Petrović-Njegoš
Petar I Petrović-Njegoš (; 1748 – 31 October 1830) was the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro from 1784 to 1830 and Exarch (legate) of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro. He was the most popular spiritual and military leader from the Petro ...
, who was the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro from 1784 to 1830.[
Mahmud Bushatli, the Ottoman ]pasha
Pasha (; ; ) was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignitary, dignitaries, and others. ''Pasha'' was also one of the highest titles in the 20th-century Kingdom of ...
of Skadar in northern Albania, was reputed a powerful zduhać in Montenegro. It was claimed that his mother carried him for three years. Bushatli was defeated and killed by the Montenegrins under Petar I, while attempting to subdue them in 1796. Since that time, the crop yield in Montenegro and northern Albania was allegedly not as high as before. Bushatli was said to have fought for the crop yield against the transmarine zduhaći.[ Petar I was reported saying of him, "I regret his death although he was my biggest enemy."][ After Bushatli was killed, his body was burned; according to oral accounts, green flames rose from it. In South Slavic tradition, ]green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
could be associated with supernatural creatures, like witches and dragons.
An individual domestic animal could also be regarded as a zduhać, such as a shepherd dog, ox, bellwether, horse, or billy goat. If an animal habitually made vocal sounds in sleep, it was assumed to be a zduhać.[ Such an animal was cherished, and was not for sale.][ The spirit of the animal zduhać would leave its body in sleep and fight against the enemy zduhaći, to protect its own flock or herd. Only the fertility of the livestock depended on the outcome of the battles fought by the animal zduhaći; they had no bearing on the crop yield.][Đorđević 1953, p. 244] In the region of Užice
Užice ( sr-cyr, Ужице, ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative centre of the Zlatibor District in western Serbia. It is located on the banks of the river Đetinja. According to the 2022 census, the city proper has a popu ...
, western Serbia, it was believed that storms and hail clouds were led by zduhaći who flew above them in the form of big birds. A black ox and a three-year-old rooster defended their village from them—especially the rooster
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
, for which reason he was not killed for food, but kept as a home guardian. In folk spells for repelling hail clouds in Serbia, these clouds were called white cattle. This could be compared with the idea of the black ox as a defender from hail.[Tolstoy & Tolstaya 1981, p. 112]
In some regions of southern Montenegro, such as the Bay of Kotor
The Bay of Kotor ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Boka kotorska, Бока которска, separator=" / ", ), also known as the Boka ( sh-Cyrl, Бока), is a winding bay of the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Montenegro and the region of Montenegro concentrated a ...
, Grbalj, and Zagarač, and in parts of Herzegovina, a man who acted as a zduhać was called a ''vjedogonja'' or ''jedogonja''.[Đorđević 1953, p. 240][Dragović 1997, pp. 196–97] There was a rule: if a child was born with a caul, the girl would become a ''vještica'' "witch", and the boy would become a ''vjedogonja''.[ This could have been prevented by cutting the caul on a trough for feeding dogs, and throwing it away; the child would then grow up into an ordinary person.][ While the zduhaći and ''vjedogonje'' (plural) protected their community from the threats coming from the outside, the witches were the enemy within, doing harm primarily to their own relatives and friends. A correspondence between the witches and the ''vjedogonje'' can be seen in a passage from '' The Mountain Wreath'', a poetic drama by ]Petar II Petrović-Njegoš
Petar II Petrović-Njegoš ( sr-cyrl, Петар II Петровић-Његош, ; – ), commonly referred to simply as Njegoš (), was a List of rulers of Montenegro, Prince-Bishop (''vladika'') of Montenegro, poet and philosopher whose ...
, the plot of which takes place in 18th-century Montenegro:
A man named Vukota said these words to Bishop Danilo, one of the main characters of ''The Mountain Wreath'', who previously uttered a piercing vision speaking as if he was alone. The second and the third verses can be compared with an idiomatic expression whose literal sense is "to dash into a frenzied countenance", meaning "to fall into a frenzied or crazed exaltation". Vukota compared Bishop Danilo's exaltation with that of a witch or a ''vjedogonja'' when their spirit flew out of their body.[ It was thought that the witches held an assembly each year on 1 March, and the ''vjedogonje'' mostly flew during the long autumn nights, especially when strong winds blew.][ After Vukota's words, Bishop Danilo started as if from a dream.][
The ''vjedogonje'' fought in regional bands, their weapons being huge boulders or gigantic trees which they uprooted with one hand.][ The leaders among them were those who had a ]tail
The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...
and were hairy.[ A 19th-century ethnographic account describes that "when a man regarded as a ''vjedogonja'' dies, they drive hawthorn spines under his nails, and cut the tendons beneath his knees with a knife whose sheath is black, so that he could not get out of his grave (like a ]vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...
)."[Karadžić 1867]
p. 215
/ref>
Petar I Petrović-Njegoš preached among people against superstition. He strongly condemned the denunciation and persecution of women as witches. After one such incident in 1830 in south Montenegro, Petar I wrote an epistle
An epistle (; ) is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The ...
, mentioning ''vjedogonje'' in a sentence: "Nowhere have I found nor has anyone told me that witches and ''vjedogonje'' exist, except in the blind and sad Serbian people, because it is blind and believes lies rather than Christ's Gospel and Christ's teachings and commands."
In the folklore of Croats of Ravni Kotari, a region in northern Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...
, there were men called ''vidogoja''. They were believed to know past and future things. People paid them to cure the sick, which they did by saying prayers and making the sign of the cross all over the patient's body. The ''vidogoja'' were also thought to be able to inflict diseases on people, and to have evil eyes. They could not fly.
Vetrovnjak, vilovit, and oblačar
In the region of Mount Zlatibor in western Serbia, the man who protected the fields of his village from bad weather was called a ''vetrovnjak''; the name is derived from ''vetar'' "wind". At the onset of a storm, the ''vetrovnjak'' would fall into a trance-like sleep. It was thought that his soul then flew skywards to fight against some black bird which led the storm and hail clouds. After he woke up, he had to rest for some time to restore his physical strength. It was believed that a ''vetrovnjak'' could take the bad clouds over the estate of a man with whom he was in a conflict.[Zečević 1981, p. 149]
In the region of Dragačevo, western Serbia, people told of the ''vilovit'' men, who would disappear at the sight of hail clouds, reappearing bloody and with torn clothes after the storm was over. Asked where they had been to, they would only answer that they had gone to fight against those who led the hail clouds toward their village. The adjective ''vilovit'' means "having a ''vilas properties" or "''vila''-like". The name ''vila'' denotes Slavic nymph
A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...
s or fairies, female anthropomorphic spirits of woods, mountains, clouds, and waters, who had magical powers. In the region of Tamnava, north-western Central Serbia
Central Serbia (), also referred to as Serbia proper (), is the region of Serbia lying outside the autonomous province of Vojvodina to the north and the disputed Kosovo region to the south. Central Serbia is a term of convenience, not an administ ...
, the ''vilovit'' men were also called ''vetrenjaks''.[Todorović 2004, pp. 209–10] An early mention of ''vetrenjaks'' is found in a short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
by Serbian writer Milovan Glišić, published in 1875. In the story, men from Krnić and nearby villages talk about a battle their ''vetrenjaks'' fought on a hill to repel a hail storm brought by alien ''vetrenjaks''. They uprooted oaks and beat each other with them, their bodies turning black and blue from the blows. The defenders were victorious and moved the storm to a mountain, away from their fields.
Serbian writer Janko Veselinović was well acquainted with the folklore of Tamnava, where he worked as a teacher in a village. In his short story published in 1888, an elderly woman talks to him about various supernatural beings, including her co-villager Petar, a ''vetrenjak'': "As soon as he perceives a greyish cloud and hears thunder, Petar leaves whatever he may be doing, and goes somewhere. He runs so fast that no biped can overtake him. After he passes the cloud, he comes back naked and blue as indigo
InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...
. Then he has to stay in bed for a week. And do you know why he is like that? He told me. The ''pogibaoci'' anged and drowned peoplefrom surrounding villages drive the clouds toward our village, and Petar will not let hail beat us. He fights with them until he will overpower them, or they him... etar said'We uproot oaks, as one would pull onion bulbs from the ground, and beat each other with them.'"
A ''vetrenjak'' from the village of Trlić
Trlić is a village in the municipality of Ub, Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map ...
had reportedly claimed that he clashed with oxen and rams led by devils whose aim was to discharge hail over his village. Seeing hail clouds, people in Tamnava would shout, "Keep your cattle out of our crops!" Thus they addressed hanged and drowned persons who were imagined to fly before the clouds and lead them. Farmers avoided leaving a harrow on the field, as they thought that the hail-bringing devils could slam it on the head of the ''vetrenjak'' who defended the village. People behaved amicably toward ''vetrenjaks'', but they warned their children to keep off from them, as these men had "business with devils".[ In 2004, ethnographers interviewed elderly people in a group of hamlets south-west of the town of ]Valjevo
Valjevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Ваљево, ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Kolubara District in western Serbia. According to the 2022 census, the city itself has a population of 56,145 while the city admini ...
, who defined the ''vetrenjak'' as a man able to direct the movement of clouds. When such a man died, the wind would suddenly start to blow and clouds would loom. The term ''vetrenjak'' also designated a man who could fly invisible, which he usually did by night. He was born with a caul which was thrown away and eaten by birds.
In the folklore of Serbs 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 ...
, protection from hail was provided by the men called '' oblačars''; the name is derived from ''oblak'' "cloud". The ''oblačar'' would rush directly beneath a dark cloud, as soon as it appeared above the fields of his village. There, he would run to and fro, 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. In this way, the ''oblačar'' fought against a gigantic serpentine demon called ''aždaja'', which was thought to fly accompanied by its retinue in low dark clouds, spewing hail from its broad muzzle. If the cloud moved away from his village without discharging hail, it meant that the ''oblačar'' had overpowered the ''aždaja'' and its retinue. An ''oblačar'' in the village of Mirkovci annually received wheat from his co-villagers as a reward for his struggle.[Tolstoy & Tolstaya 1981, pp. 106–7]
Dragon man
The men who defended their village from bad weather were referred to as dragon
A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
s in eastern and southern Serbia,[ western Bulgaria, and ]Macedonia
Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to:
* North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia
* Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity
* Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...
.[Georgieva 1993, p. 112] In Serbia, they were also called ''zmajevit'' "having a dragon's properties", from ''zmaj'' "dragon".[ The mythological dragon was imagined as a fiery creature with wings, usually having a snake-like shape; he could also take the form of an eagle or a man.][Georgieva 1993, pp. 109–11][Zečević 1981, p. 68] Each dragon had his own territory,[Zečević 1981, p. 62] within which he dwelt by a forest spring or stream, in the hollow trunk of a beech tree,[ or in a mountain cave.][ He was benevolent toward the humans,][ and he took care that his territory received the right amount of rain at the right time, for good growth of the crops.][Zečević 1981, p. 67] His arch-enemy was a female demon named '' ala'' (plural: ''ale''), whose main activity was to lead storm and hail clouds over fields to destroy crops. The ''ale'' also consumed the fertility of the fields. Whenever he noticed an ''ala'' approaching, the dragon would fly up into the clouds to fight against the demon and chase her away. He shot fiery arrows and stones at her, which produced lightning and thunder.[Trojanović 1983, p. 151] In the regions where people believed in the zduhaći, the dragon was a highly regarded mythological being, but he was not associated with the crops and their protection from demons. Similar was the case in other than western regions of Bulgaria.[
The dragon man was believed to act in a manner similar to that of the mythological dragon: as soon as he saw bad weather approaching, which he knew was brought by an ''ala'', he would leave whatever he was doing, and fly up to confront the demon. This he did by falling into a deep sleep, or entering a state similar to death, usually at the very spot where he happened to be at that time. His soul then left his body in the form of a snake or a lizard, and soared skywards. It was claimed that he was not breathing as long as his soul was absent from his body. The battle could last for a whole day, or even for several days, during which time the man lay unconscious, sweating profusely from the exertion of the fight. There was a danger that, during the course of the battle, the ''ala'' might approach the man's body and harm him, which could be prevented by someone swinging a blade above him, or by sticking the blade at the lying man's head.][Zečević 1981, p. 150] He should not be pushed or moved while in this state: if he was not in the same position as when he fell asleep, his soul would not be able to return into his body, and he would die.[ When he woke up after the battle with the ''ala'', he was very tired.][Georgieva 1993, p. 134] Apart from these characteristics, the dragon man was seen as an ordinary human.[Kulišić, Petrović, & Pantelić 1970, p. 143][Georgieva 1993, p. 132]
There is a story about a dragon man from the village of Pečenjevce, eastern Serbia, who saw an ''ala'' in a cloud while he was scything. He said to scythemen beside him, "I am going to sleep, and you swing a scythe above me," before he lay down and fell asleep. A man who swung the scythe, however, inadvertently grazed him with the tip of the blade. When the dragon woke up, he told that he had been wounded by the ''ala'' he fought with, and lost a lot of blood.[Trojanović 1983, p. 147] A dragon from the village of Bogojevac always kept with him a piece of a scythe blade or a knife. As soon as he perceived the imminent approach of bad weather, he would lie down on the ground and stick the blade above his head. It was thought that his spirit then soared into the clouds to deal with the ''ala''. When he was drafted into the army, he fell asleep without a blade during a thunderstorm, and died.[Zečević 1981, p. 151] At a village near Tran in western Bulgaria, a man reputed to be a dragon would swoon when it started to thunder. After he came to, he would say, "How tired I am!" This was thought to refer to the strenuous battle he fought in the clouds.[
In Banat and some areas of eastern Serbia, the dragon men were referred to as ''alovit''.][ This adjective is derived from the noun ''ala'', and means "having supernatural or demonic properties". It could be applied not only to humans, but also to dragons, snakes, horses, trees, armies, and rivers.][Bjeletić 2004, p. 146] An ''ala'' could be seen as a good creature in some regions,[Zečević 1981, p. 66] such as Banat, Mount Kopaonik in south Serbia, and the adjacent Župa basin with nearby areas, where she was believed to be connected to a territory, which she defended against attacks by the ''ale'' from other territories.[Radenković 2001, pp. 559–60][Todorović 2011, pp. 224–26] This can be compared with the inter-regional fights of the zduhaći. In the villages that now form part of the city of Kruševac
Kruševac ( sr-Cyrl, Крушевац, ) is a list of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Rasina District in central Serbia. It is located in the valley of West Morava, on Rasina (river), Rasina river. According to the 202 ...
, when blessings were pronounced on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...
, the villagers would also say, "God, save our guardian ''ala''."[Zečević 1981, pp. 152–53] People interpreted hail ravaging their crops as a defeat of their ''ala'' by an ''ala'' from elsewhere.[Radenković n.d., para. 7] The victorious ''ala'' would loot the crop yield of the ravaged area, and transfer it to her own territory.[
At the sight of hail clouds, the ''alovit'' man would fall into a trance-like sleep, before his soul issued from his body and flew up to the clouds. In the manner of an ''ala'', his soul led the clouds over the fields of a neighbouring village. A man, who was thought to be ''alovit'', was described as unusually tall, thin, and bony-faced, with a long beard and moustache. When the weather was good, he worked and behaved like the others in his village, but as soon as dark clouds covered the sky, he would close himself in his house, put blinds on the windows, and remain alone for as long as the bad weather lasted. People also talked that he suffered from ]epilepsy
Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...
.[Kulišić, Petrović, & Pantelić 1970, p. 5] In the region of Boljevac, the epileptics were said to be ''alovit''—their souls went out of their bodies during epileptic fits and led hail clouds.
At the village of Kusić in Banat, a man named Ilija Bordan was regarded to be ''alovit''; the villagers talked that he had a tail
The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...
. Whenever a thunderstorm came, his appearance changed—he fought with an ''ala''. If the ''ala'' was overwhelming him, Ilija would lie down and sleep, and if he was overpowering her, the clouds would start to dissipate. There was a tale in the same village about an ''alovit'' man who would warn the villagers of the approach of a thunderstorm, before he took a wagon pole on his back and flew into the clouds. At the village of Sokolovac in Banat, people told of an ''alovit'' man who had four nipples. At the sight of hail clouds, he would mount his mare and disappear for several days. The latter two men would come back tired, bruised, and with torn clothes.[ As held in the central Serbian region of Gruža, men could become dragonlike. As such, they would suddenly disappear during thunderstorms, and fly into the dark clouds to fight against ''ale''. They were characterized as nimble, hot-tempered, rash and very strong.][ At a village near Radomir in western Bulgaria, there was a dragon man who was said to have been physically crippled by an ''ala''.][
The dragon man was believed to be born with some physical peculiarity, such as a caul, little wings or membranes beneath his armpits, a tail or teeth; or he was born an orphan.][ There were practices intended to preserve the supernatural power of the newborn dragon. In the region of Veles, Macedonia, twelve girls would pick cotton, spin yarn from it, weave a cloth from the yarn, made a shirt from the cloth, and finally dress the dragon boy in the shirt.][ As thought in the region of ]Leskovac
Leskovac ( sr-Cyrl, Лесковац, ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Jablanica District in Southern Serbia (Geographical Region), southern Serbia. According to the 2022 census, the city itself has a p ...
, Serbia, such a boy would only then become able to defeat an ''ala'', when three old women spun yarn, knitted a shirt, and dressed the child in it. All this had to be done in one day and one night, during which time the three women should not have spoken a single word.[ A similar custom was recorded in western Bulgaria,][ where it was also believed that the soul of the boy, while he slept in his cradle, left his body and walked around. If he was turned, he would die, as his soul could not return into his body.][
According to a belief, the power of dragon boys was greatest at the time of their birth; the younger they were, the greater power they had.][ In a folk tale from eastern Serbia, a group of dragons surrounded an ''ala'', which broke away and flew into a ]watermill
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...
. There was a woman in the mill with her baby, who was a dragon boy; he grabbed a stone and killed the ''ala'' with it.[ It was recorded in the region of ]Niš
Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names of European cities in different languages (M–P)#N, names in other languages), less often spelled in English as Nish, is the list of cities in Serbia, third largest city in Serbia and the administrative cente ...
that a winged dragon boy, in his fights with ''ale'', "takes a plough beam and immediately stops the ''ala'', and hail ceases."[ The mother of a dragon boy wanted to make him an ordinary child by cutting off the winglets beneath his armpits, but that section resulted in the boy's death.][ As was thought in the Župa basin and nearby areas, no one but the mother should see a dragon boy during the first seventeen days of his life; otherwise the child would die. If he survived, he would protect his village from hail, and at the age of seven he would fly away from home. It was also believed in Župa that the dragon men lived alone, without contacts with other humans.][
Prophet Elijah was also regarded as a protector from the ''ale''. As soon as he spotted an ''ala'' consuming the fertility of fields, he would summon dragons and harness them to his flying chariot. They then together attacked the demon, shooting fiery arrows at her.][ Instead of the dragons, the prophet could summon dragon men. They would then fall asleep, and their souls would rush to the thundering clouds to assist the prophet against the ''ale''. A legend in the region of Leskovac has it that fighting the ''ale'' was originated by Prophet Elijah, when he, accompanied by a dragon boy, killed twelve of these demons.][Zečević 1981, p. 72] In the popular tradition of Slavic peoples, Prophet Elijah is a Christian replacement of the pagan Slavic thunder god Perun
In Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, Perun () is the highest god of the Pantheon (religion), pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, ir ...
.
Some animals could also be regarded as dragonlike, such as rams.[ It was said that a rooster, a gander, or a turkeycock could grow a pair of little wings beneath their natural wings, thus becoming powerful dragons. A dragon rooster dug a hole beneath the threshold of his owner's house. As soon as dark clouds appeared, the rooster would go into the hole, and his spirit would fly out from his body into the clouds to fight with ''ale''. One day the owner killed the rooster, and immediately went mad.][ Another dragon rooster, with two ]comb
A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...
s, would fall to the ground and lie as if dead during thunderstorms. The Aesculapian snake (''smuk'' in Serbian and ''smok'' in Bulgarian) was regarded as a very beneficial animal. People avoided disturbing it in any way. The Aesculapian snake which inhabited a crop field or a vineyard was seen as its guardian. The snake was said to fly into the hail clouds and drive them away from its field or yard, or it dispersed the clouds by raising its head high in the air and hissing as strong as it could. In the region of Niš, the Aesculapian snakes were said to help the dragon boy in his fights against ''ale''.[ If an Aesculapian snake attained a certain age, it would grow wings and become a dragon.][Zečević 1981, pp. 68–69]
The dragon was regarded as a great lover and seducer of beautiful women, whom he visited by night, entering their houses down the chimney before turning into a man. The women who were visited by a dragon would after a while grow weak, pale and sunken-faced. There were magical methods to repel the dragon from them.[ It was believed that the children born out of such liaisons were physically and mentally ill, and that they would not live long. In another belief, the dragon would come for his son amidst thunder and lightning, and fly away with him. In the region of ]Bitola
Bitola (; ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki border crossing ...
, it was told that such children were born with a tail. After they grew wings, they flew into the sky, from where they shot witches with thunderbolts.[ There was a belief in the region of Leskovac that the dragon boys, fighters against ''ale'' born with the little wings, were offspring of dragons.][ At the village of ]Kruševo
Kruševo ( ; "Crușuva") is a town in North Macedonia. In Macedonian language, Macedonian the name means the 'place of pear trees'. It is the highest town in North Macedonia and one of the highest in the Balkans, situated at an altitude of over ...
, Macedonia, people told of an old shepherd named Trail who was a son of a dragon. He was allegedly so strong that he could shatter cliffs, and when he shouted, his voice could be heard from miles away.[
Old ]Slavic mythology
Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, or Slavic religion refer to the Religion, religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation of the Slavs, Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and ...
knew of men who were born out of relationships between women and dragons.[Perić 2008, pp. 174–78] These men were endowed with prodigious strength and exceptional abilities. They could turn into a dragon and fly, which they usually did in crisis situations, like battles. Two such heroes are recorded in the Serbian epic poetry
Serbian epic poetry () is a form of epic poetry created by Serbs originating in today's Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. The main cycles were composed by unknown Serb authors between the 14th and 19th centu ...
: Sekula Banović and Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk ("Fiery Dragon" Vuk). Both were late-medieval nobles and warriors, to whom mythical attributes were attached in the poetry. Their transformation into a dragon is described in three ways: the hero dresses his "dragon shirt"; he spreads his hidden wings; or he lets his soul out from his body in the form of a winged snake. The transformation may not be explicitly stated, but implied by a statement which indicates that the hero flies. Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
epic hero Volkh Vseslavevich is described as a son of a dragon; in folk poems, he transforms into a falcon
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...
, aurochs
The aurochs (''Bos primigenius''; or ; pl.: aurochs or aurochsen) is an extinct species of Bovini, bovine, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of t ...
, wolf, and some other animals.[ In a couple of Serbian and Bulgarian folk poems, ]Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...
suddenly falls asleep, and while he sleeps, he saves ships from a storm.
In the popular tradition of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Macedonia, the ability to leave one's own body was also possessed by some cunning women who practised magic for healing. A widespread custom of these women was to yawn repeatedly during healing rituals. This indicated the egress of their soul, which entered the sick person's body to chase away disease-causing demonic entities. The rituals were accompanied by spells, in some of which the cunning women referred to their soul as a greyhound
The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a dog breed, breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Some are kept as show dogs or pets.
Greyhounds are defined as a tall, muscular, smooth-c ...
: "Run away, ''uroks'', down gullies... The soul of Vida is a greyhound—she overtakes the ''uroks'' and chokes them."[ (An ''urok'' is a demonic entity, and Vida is the name of the cunning woman.)
]
Related traditions
The idea about the men with the inborn ability to leave their bodies in a spirit form, has also been recorded in Slovene and Croat
The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...
traditions. The spirit could turn into a bull, dog, boar, or some other animal. He intercepted bringers of bad weather, and fought with them to save the crops of his village. The men with this ability were designated by various names, such as ''vedomec'' in Tolmin
Tolmin (; ,trilingual name ''Tolmein, Tolmino, Tolmin'' inGemeindelexikon, der im Reichsrate Vertretenen Königreiche und Länder. Bearbeit auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1900. Herausgegeben von der K.K. Statistische ...
, ''mogut'' in Turopolje, ''vremenjak'' in 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 ...
and Sinj
Sinj () is a List of cities and towns in Croatia, town in the continental part of Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. As of the 2021 Croatian census, 2021 census, the population was 23,500 people, of which 10,800 inhabited its urban core.
Sinj is k ...
, ''legromant'' or ''nagromant'' in southern Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...
and the area around Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...
, ''višćun'' in Dalmatia, and ''štrigun'' in Istria
Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...
. A ''vedomec'' fought against another ''vedomec'', a ''mogut'' against another ''mogut'', and so on, and the winner would take bad weather to the region of his defeated foe. All these men were marked by some peculiarity connected with their birth. There were also supernatural beings, such as and in Slovenia, and ''kombals'' in Međimurje, who clashed with each other during thunderstorms over the plenty of their territories.[Radenković 2001, pp. 393–95]
A '' krsnik'' or ''kresnik'' was a man born with a caul, who could leave his body in spirit transformed into an animal. He fought demonic men called ''vukodlak'' (werewolves
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf–humanlike creature, either purposely or after bei ...
) and other evil agents. His victory meant that his village would have the abundance of all sorts of agricultural products.[Ginzburg 1991, pp. 160–62] The ''krsnik'' was recorded in Istria, Gorski Kotar, the Kvarner Gulf, and parts of Slovenia.[Radenković 2001, pp. 303–5] The ''benandanti
The () were members of an agrarian visionary tradition in the Friuli district of Northeastern Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries. The claimed to travel out of their bodies while asleep to struggle against malevolent sorcerers (; ) in order ...
'' were men born with a caul recorded in the region of Friuli
Friuli (; ; or ; ; ) is a historical region of northeast Italy. The region is marked by its separate regional and ethnic identity predominantly tied to the Friulians, who speak the Friulian language. It comprises the major part of the autono ...
in north-eastern Italy. They periodically fought for the fertility of the fields against male and female witches.[Ginzburg 1991, pp. 155–56] The ''táltos
The táltos (; also "tátos") is a figure in Hungarian mythology, a person with supernatural power similar to a shaman.
Description
The most reliable account of the táltos is given by Roman Catholic priest Arnold Ipolyi in his collection of fol ...
'', recorded in Hungary, were men and women born with teeth or some other physical peculiarity. They periodically fought each other in the shape of animals or flames. Their battles were often accompanied by storms. The winner would ensure abundant harvest for his village. The ''benandanti'' and the ''táltos'' were initiated at a certain age into their vocation by an older member of the same group, who visited them in a vision.[
In Greek folklore, a ''stikhio'' (στοιχείο) was a spirit that protected his territory against the adverse ''stikhio'' spirits from other territories.][ In ]Albanian mythology
Albanian paganism comprises the pagan customs, beliefs, rituals, myths and legends of the Albanian people. The elements of Albanian mythology are of ancient Paleo-Balkanic origin and almost all of them are pagan. Ancient paganism persisted among ...
, a '' drangue'' is a semi-human hero with enormous strength and the power to fly; he was born with a caul. The main goal of the ''drangue'' is to fight the demon ''kulshedra
The kulshedra or kuçedra is a water, storm, fire and chthonic demon in Albanian mythology and Albanian folklore, folklore, usually described as a huge multi-headed female Serpent (symbolism), serpentine dragon. She is the archetype of darkness ...
'', a huge multi-headed fire-spitting dragon. He uses meteoric stones, lightning-swords, thunderbolts, piles of trees and rocks to defeat the ''kulshedra'' and to protect mankind from storms, fire, floods and other natural disasters caused by her destructive power. Heavy thunderstorms are thought to be the result of the battle. In Romanian folklore, there were no defenders against bad weather, which was produced by a gigantic flying serpentine creature called a '' balaur'' or a ''zmeu''. A ''balaur'' could be controlled by an evil sorcerer called a '' şolomonar'', who was able to ride on that demon. The notion of a ''şolomonar'' named a ''vîlva'', who protected his village against attacks of ''vîlvas'' from other villages, was marginally encountered in some places of Romanian Banat.
It was believed in southern Poland that clouds and hail were produced by creatures named ''płanetnik'', ''chmurnik'', or ''obłocznik'': they compressed fog into clouds, and fragmented ice with iron flails into hailstones. They were considered to be the spirits of infants who had died without baptism, or the spirits of drowned and hanged people.[ Such spirits were seen in Serbia as bringers of hail clouds; they were addressed in folk spells, with which they were made to lead the clouds away from the village. According to other notions, ''płanetniks'' were persons who flew into the sky during storms. They could fly in spirit, while they were in deep sleep, or they could fly in body and soul. The ''płanetniks'' were friendly toward humans, often warning them about the approach of a storm or hail. They could direct the movement of clouds.][
Individuals who could leave their body in spirit during sleep were called ''burkudzäutä'' among the ]Ossetians
The Ossetians ( or ; ),Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v"Ossete" also known as Ossetes ( ), Ossets ( ), and Alans ( ), are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern side ...
of the Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
, and they were called ''mazzeri'' in parts of Corsica
Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...
. The ''burkudzäutä'', mounted on animals or household objects, flew on a night between Christmas and New Year to ''burku'', the land of the dead described as a great meadow. There they collected the seeds of agricultural plants and took them to their village, thus ensuring a rich harvest. The dead pursued and shot arrows at them as they flew back home. The wounded ''burkudzäutä'' would fall sick after the return, and some of them would die.[Ginzburg 1991, pp. 163–64] The ''mazzeri'' of neighbouring villages fought each other in spirit on the night between 31 July and 1 August. The village of the defeated ''mazzeri'' would suffer more deaths during the next year.[Ginzburg 1991, pp. 166–67]
In the eastern Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
*Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
region of Livonia
Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia.
By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...
, people designated as werewolves went underground in the shape of dogs to fight against sorcerers who stole the shoots of the grain. If the werewolves failed to wrest the shoots, there would be famine. In Romania, ''strigoi'' were people born with a caul, which they donned upon reaching adulthood; this made them invisible. They then travelled in animal form to the meadow at the end of the world. There they fought each other all night, becoming reconciled in the morning. The reason for the fight is not specified.[ The ]Circassians
The Circassians or Circassian people, also called Cherkess or Adyghe (Adyghe language, Adyghe and ), are a Northwest Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation who originated in Circassia, a region and former country in t ...
told that, on a certain night of the year, their sorcerers fought with the sorcerers of the Abkhaz people, trying to suck each other's blood.[
In West Europe, medieval sources describe women who fell into trance on certain nights, abandoning their bodies in the form of an invisible spirit or animal. They then travelled to a gathering led by a female divinity who bestowed prosperity and knowledge. The divinity, semi-bestial or attended by animals, was known by various regional names, such as ]Holda
"Frau Holle" (; ; also known as "Mother Holle", "Mother Hulda" or "Old Mother Frost") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in ''Grimms' Fairy Tales, Children's and Household Tales'' in 1812 (KHM 24). It is of Aarne–Thompson� ...
, Perchta, Madonna Oriente, Richella, Bensozia, Dame Habonde, and Fairy Queen (in Scotland). She could be derived from Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
goddesses like Epona, the '' Matres'', and Artio. In Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
, women and girls had nocturnal meetings in spirit with the so-called ''Donni di fuora'' "women from the outside", which could be traced back to the ancient ecstatic cult of the Mothers of Engyon, of Cretan
Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...
origin.
The ''armier'' were men from Ariège in the Pyrenees
The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...
who could see and talk to the souls of the dead. The ''mesultane'' were women and girls in Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
who plunged into a lethargy and travelled in spirit to the land of the dead, to communicate with them.
Theories on origin
The zduhaći, the dragon men, and the related folkloric figures of Europe can be compared with Eurasia
Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...
n shaman
Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...
s,[Klaniczay 2006, pp. 216–17] e.g., the '' noaidi'' of the Sámi, as well as the shamans of the Samoyeds
The Samoyedic peoples (sometimes Samodeic peoples) are a group of closely related peoples who speak Samoyedic languages, which are part of the Uralic languages, Uralic family. They are a linguistic, ethnic, and cultural grouping. The name derive ...
and Tungus in Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
.[Ginzburg 1991, pp. 170–72] They were all able to leave their body in spirit to fight against the enemies of their community.[ The shamans also fought against each other, usually in animal form, for reasons such as to procure for their side as much ]reindeer
The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...
as possible.[ However, for a shaman's soul to leave his body, he had to work himself into a state of ecstasy through a ceremony consisting of drumming, dancing, chanting, and even taking narcotics. All the zduhaći had to do was to fall asleep, although the unusual depth of their sleep indicates a state of ecstasy. There are detailed and eventful descriptions of the journey of the shaman's soul, but no corresponding accounts exist in the case of the zduhaći. However, the zduhaći who left their bodies were said to have gone into the winds. This expression may contain an idea of a journey.][Kordić 1990, p. 71] Pavel Rovinsky recorded the words he heard from his landlady in Montenegro on a windy night in March: "Listen, how they sing—the travellers; they have gone high high! Happy journey to them!"[
The crucial difference between the shamans and their European counterparts lies in the fact that the ecstasy of the former was public, while that of the latter was always private. Historian Carlo Ginzburg asserts that " is divergence stands starkly against a homogeneous background."][ Ginzburg regards all of them as mediators with the realm of the dead, who are the "ambiguous dispensers of prosperity"; the ecstasy represents a temporary death.][ The accounts in which the figures fly or fight materially rather than in spirit, are attempts "to describe an ecstatic experience perceived as absolutely real".][ Ginzburg argues, adopting a diffusionist approach, that the shamanistic elements of the European folkloric figures have their original source in the shamanism of Siberian nomads, and their diffusion was possibly mediated by the ]Scythians
The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian noma ...
.[Ginzburg 1991, pp. 212–13] Another possibility is that the shamanistic beliefs are derived from a common source. Their nucleus could have developed in a remote past from cultural interactions between the Proto-Indo-Europeans
The Proto-Indo-Europeans are a hypothetical prehistoric ethnolinguistic group of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family.
Knowledge of them comes chiefly from t ...
, speakers of the Proto-Uralic language
Proto-Uralic is the unattested reconstructed language ancestral to the modern Uralic language family. The reconstructed language is thought to have been originally spoken in a small area in about 7000–2000 BCE (estimates vary), and then exp ...
, and ancient populations of the Caucasus.[Ginzburg 1991, pp. 216–17] A third possibility is derivation from structural characteristics of the human mind
The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances, ...
.[ This is suggested by the persistence of the shamanistic phenomena over a long period, and their dispersion over a large area in culturally disparate societies. These three possibilities are not mutually exclusive.][
]
In literature
In the novel ''Lelejska gora'' by Mihailo Lalić
Mihailo Lalić ( sr-cyr, Михаило Лалић, ; 7 October 1914 – 30 December 1992) was a Serbian writer.
Biography
He was born in Trepča ( Andrijevica municipality) village in north-eastern Montenegro in 1914. His most important nov ...
, set in Montenegro during the Second World War, there is a negative character, Kosto, nicknamed Zduvač (a local variant of ''zduhać''.) Kosto is described as an elderly man of great strength. He says that when he lived in America the Italian Mafiosi called him Il Mago, "magician" or "sorcerer", which he translates as ''zduvač''. His Colt revolver is called Zduvač's Spouter because it always hits its target. Kosto is killed by the main character of the novel in a brutal fight.
In a short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
by Simo Matavulj, titled "Zduhač", Matavulj acts as the companion and translator for a French vicomte
A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. The status and any domain held by a viscount is a viscounty.
In the case of French viscounts, the title is s ...
who goes to hunt bears near a mountainous village in Old Herzegovina
Old Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Stara Hercegovina, Стара Херцеговина) is a historical region, covering the eastern parts of historical Herzegovina, outside the scope of modern Herzegovina. A large section of ''Old Herzegovina'' ...
(part of Montenegro). One of their escort is Mićun, a burly young man from the village, who falls into a trance during a storm. The vicomte is given the explanation that Mićun, being a zduhać, leaves his body to fight in the clouds against alien zduhaći. After an hour or two, the zduhać wakes up exhausted. Another man of the escort asks him, "Was it good for us?" to which Mićun answers affirmatively. The vicomte concludes the story by quoting Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
's well-known lines about the secret things of heaven and earth (''Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
'', 1.5.188–89).[Matavulj 1917]
pp. 62–68
/ref>
See also
* Gradobranitelj, man in Serbia who used magic to protect his village from bad weather
Notes
References
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*Radenković, Ljubinko (2001). "Крсник"; "Облачари"; "Хала". In Svetlana Mikhaylovna Tolstaya; Ljubinko Radenković (in Serbian).
Словенска митологија: енциклопедијски речник
'. Belgrade: Zepter Book World. .
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zduhac
Slavic weather deities
Serbian folklore
Shapeshifting
European witchcraft
North Macedonia folklore
Fictional Bulgarian people
Fictional Macedonian people
Legendary Serbian people
Slavic folklore characters