Bylinas - Tumblr Posts
Oh, oh yes... Slavic dragons are some wonderfully shifty beings.
They often begin as ordinary snakes, but if they live long enough (40 years e.g.) or somebody does hijinks with their dead bodies and cattle or other potent bits they become dragons - smoks and zmeis, evil lamias and other such. They might even grow 3 to 12 heads.
In south-eastern tradition zmeis are mostly benevolent with bad counterparts featured under other names, while further east and north they are a bit more ambivalent figures - villains just as often as righteous or neutral.
They can become guardians of sacred places, like Gorynich with Kalinov bridge, keeping out trespassers to land of dead. They can be minding their own business when a hero tramples on them, thus earning their ire (looking at you, Dobrynya). Their seduction might be a pleasant affair as witch Marinka would attest, getting furious over slaughter of her draconic lover, or more sinister, like what Gorynich did with Ivan Tsarevich's sister. They can be knaves too - kidnapping or exhorting people like Smok Wawelski did in Krakow. Some of them even embody turkic nomadic raiders in the form of thunder clouds such as Tugarin who needs to be defeated by Alyosha Popovich. And grotesque chudo-yudo is at times thought to be a brother to Koschei himself, the ultimate sorcerror and necromancer and troublemaker with no good deed to his name.
There are legends about their children too, like Volga/Volkh Svyatoslavovich/Vseslavyevich whose mother was a knyazhna (ruling lady, ruler's wife) and father a serpent, whose birth caused earth and all living beings to quake, who grew more quickly then other children and became a magician talking to and shape-shifting into animals to achieve his ends. He is counted among heroes.
Both male and female, they are not only fire-spitters, but also masters of depths, sleeping on stones at the bottom of sea, perching upon springs, building lairs deep in mountains, masters of heights, not only flying but also controlling weather, siphoning water from rivers through their tail to make rain or flood, bringing thunder clouds and hail.
Veles, god of underworld, animals and boundarries between fields and woods is sometimes thought to take serpentine form and throw fists with sky and war god Perun, thus releasing rain after long drought. Though it is disputed how old and authentically pagan is that tradition. At least Perun striking demonic creatures is a pretty certain thing.
And even deep into modernity people in Balkans still believed in their sleepy magicians.
Weather/wind/dragon men, zmai who lives on water banks, forest edges, in hollow trees and fights ala or azhdaya creatures that cause barrenness, in zduhac battling other magicians from rivaling communities to protect homes and crops of his own people.
And in kresnik born with the gift or taught by fairies or in magical school who heals people and cattle and while sleeping struggles against his dark counterpart assumed to be vampiric and witchy force. It was Adriatic thing.
In Romania people believed in solomonari who too studied in magic shools and under devil, but unlike kresniks did not protect, but bring ruin to fields and homes when riding dragons they were given to mount and causing storms. Similar to strigoi minus vampiric characteristics. Thankfully one might request help of a contra-solomonari who would do what amounts to kresnik's job, but without having to fall asleep.
This split into evil and good sorcerrers is a christian thing. Original conception was of one neutral cunning class rather then two with different moral alignmet.
There are three types of dragon in Slavic mythology: the fiery dragon is a huge reptile with wings, a being that carries a fire inside him, as known in English. But, there is also a human form that is his descendant and ascendant, a human with great power, usually called dragonkin, some of which can even shapeshift into a dragon-like form and fly. The third form is the spirit dragon, the most unusual and most powerful of them all – this invisible essence willingly resides only in a special human who is unable to control it, and it is the only being that is able to confront the ancient beast that brings havoc upon men, while leaving the human body to fight its archenemy in the sky. Stay tuned for more mythology bits. 🔥
A poster I did for "Heroic epics of the peoples of Russia" project by Nikolay Rastorguev Foundation and the Moscow's Department of Culture
Rus Byliny (plural) — oral epic poems in Kyivan and Novgorod Rus, counting more than 400 poems and mostly focusing on the semi-historic deeds of bogatyrs ("great warrior"). Despite common traits, they show a variety of themes, structure and dates of origin. The centerpiece is the most famous bogatyr trio — Ilya of Murom, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovitch with their respective antagonists, while the foreground focuses on much more archaic heroes — Svyatogor and Mikula Selyaninovitch. Heroes of that period inhabit almost a mythological world, and often posses chthonic traits themselves. Even by the time of the Boratyr Trio their stories centered on no longer belonging to the "modern" world.
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