Zmaj

The zmaj is the dragon of South Slavic folklore, a fiery, winged, often protective being that guards fields from hail-bringing demons, takes human lovers, and fathers heroes such as Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk.

What Is a Zmaj?

The word zmaj (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Slovene) and its Bulgarian and Macedonian cousin zmey come from the same old Slavic word for snake that gives Russian its Zmey Gorynych. In the South Slavic lands, however, the dragon often has a very different character. Instead of a simple monster to be slain, the zmaj is usually a powerful, fiery, masculine being that can help or harm people.

Protector of the Fields

In Serbian and Bulgarian village belief, the zmaj's great enemy is a female storm demon, called the ala or hala in Serbia and often the lamia in Bulgaria, or sometimes the many-headed aždaja. These demons drive hailstorms over the fields to destroy the crops. The zmaj fights them in the sky, and thunder and lightning were explained as their battle. A village protected by its own zmaj could expect a good harvest. Some people were thought to be zmajevit, "dragon-natured," born with the dragon's power and able to leave their bodies in sleep to join these fights.

Dragon Lovers and Dragon Sons

The zmaj is also a seducer. Folk songs and beliefs tell of a zmaj who visits a woman at night as a fiery light streaking across the sky, then appears to her as a handsome man. Women visited this way were said to grow pale and thin, and families used charms and herbs to drive the dragon off.

A child born of such a union might become a great hero. The most famous is Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk, "Fiery Dragon Wolf," the hero of several Serbian epic songs. He is based on a real man, Vuk Grgurević Branković, a 15th-century Serbian despot who fought the Ottomans in Hungarian service and died in 1485. The songs say he was born with a birthmark shaped like a sabre and with fire coming from his mouth, signs of his dragon father.

Appearance and Powers

Descriptions vary. The zmaj may be a winged serpent, a fiery bird-like light, or a man with small wings hidden under his arms. Fire and flight are its most constant traits, along with great strength and the ability to change form. Its many-headed relative, the aždaja, is more often a hostile monster in fairy tales, slain by a hero to free a princess or a blocked spring.

Legacy

Dragons remain common emblems in the region. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, has a dragon on its coat of arms and dragon statues on its Dragon Bridge (1901), based on its own local legend. Serbian writers and artists have kept Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk alive as a symbol of heroic resistance, and the poet Jovan Jovanović used "Zmaj" as his pen name. For other Slavic dragons, see Dragon Species and Dragons Across Cultures.

Related

• Zmey Gorynych: Zmey Gorynych is the many-headed, fire-breathing dragon of Russian epic songs and fairy tales, best known for kidnapping a princess of Kyiv and being defeated by the hero Dobrynya Nikitich.
• Kulshedra: The kulshedra is a monstrous, many-headed female dragon of Albanian folklore who spits fire, hoards water to cause drought, and is fought in storms by the winged hero called the drangue.
• Zmeu: The zmeu is a giant, dragon-like ogre of Romanian fairy tales, a humanlike being of enormous strength who can fly and shapeshift, kidnaps princesses such as Ileana Cosânzeana, and is defeated by the hero Făt-Frumos.
• Balaur: The balaur is the many-headed serpent-dragon of Romanian folklore, a monster of waters and caves that heroes such as Făt-Frumos must kill, and the storm mount ridden by the wizards called solomonari.
• Sárkány: The sárkány is the dragon of Hungarian folklore, a many-headed monster of the fairy tales slain by the hero, and in folk belief a storm-bringing serpent that the magical wandering scholar called the garabonciás rides through the clouds.
• Dragon Species
• Dragons Across Cultures
• The Gypsy and the Dragon

Sources and Further Reading

• Natalie Kononenko, Slavic Folklore: A Handbook (Greenwood Press, 2007)
• Mike Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Russian and Slavic Myth and Legend (ABC-CLIO, 1998)
• Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Srpske narodne pjesme, vols. 1–4 (Leipzig and Vienna, 1823–1833)

Cite this entry: “Zmaj,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/zmaj.