Slavic dragon
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Dobrynya Nikitch rescues Princess Zabava from Zmey Gorynych, by Ivan Bilibin. |
In
Slavic mythology,
European dragons have their peculiarities. A
dragon is called
zmey in
Russian and
Bulgarian,
zmiy in
Old Church Slavonic,
zmaj/змај in
Serbian,
żmij in
Polish (although a different word, 'smok', means dragon in Polish). Most of these words are masculine forms of the Slavic word for "snake". In
Romania, there is a similar figure, derived from the Slavic dragon and named
zmeu. In Polish and Belarussian culture there is a unique word
smok, which comes from the Indo-Iranian word for "swallow"[
1].
In myth, the dragon is able to constrain the water in the rocks. For this, it's the
Perun's (god of lightning and thunder, also god of war) opponent. Perun, when throwing thunders, is trying to kill the dragon and set the water free.
In
Russia and
Ukraine, a particular dragon-like creature,
Zmey Gorynych, has
three heads, is green, walks on two back paws, has small front paws, and spits fire. According to one
bylina, Zmey Gorynych was killed by
Dobrynya Nikitich.
Other Russian dragons (such as
Tugarin Zmeyevich) have
Turkic names, probably symbolizing the
Mongols and other
steppe peoples. Accordingly,
St George (symbolizing
Christianity) killing the Dragon (symbolizing
Satan) is represented on the
coat of arms of Moscow. Some prehistoric structures, notably the
Serpent's Wall near
Kiev, have been associated with dragons as symbols of foreign peoples.
In
Slovenia a dragon is called "zmaj", although an archaic word of unclear origins, "pozoj" is sometimes used as well. Dragons in Slovenia are generally negative in nature, and usually appear in relation with
St. George. Other, presumably pre-christian folk tales relate stories of dragons defeated similarly as the Polish
Wawel Dragon, i.e. by tricking them into devouring lime. However, the dragon is not always harmful to man. The best example of this is the Ljubljana dragon, who benevolently protects the city of
Ljubljana and is pictured in the city's coat of arms. In
Croatia,
Bulgaria,
Serbia and
Montenegro a dragon is called "zmaj", "zmej" or "lamja". It is a multi-headed dragon (with 3, 7 or 9 heads) who breathes fire. Also in
Serbia it is also called "aždaja" or "ala", the latter corresponding to Bulgarian "hala" (see
Azhi Dahaka and
Zilant). Most probably from Bulgarian, the word for 'dragon' ("zmeu", with E and not with A as in Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian) was borrowed among the Romanians.
The
Wends formerly believed in
Zirnitra as the black dragon. The name Zirnitra means magically empowered. Some modern interpreters view this Wendish dragon as a god of
magic or sorcery, but this is controversial.
*
European dragon*
Chuvash dragon*
Smok Wawelski - dragon of
Krakow*
Zilant - dragon of
Kazan*
Smaug - In the fiction of J. R. R.
Tolkien
