Some notes about dragons in Slavic and Romanian cultures

The following article includes notes on peculiarities in Slavic and Romanian cultures as , some motifs concerning the dragons should demonstrate a broad area of common or similar representations in both types of cultures. Romanian ethnic territory is at the confluence of various languages, cultures and civilizations and Romanian culture shares many features with the Slavic cultures because of linguistic and cultural contact and the similar historical conditions under which they flourished. The issue of Slavic influence on Romanian culture has appealed to many researchers that have sought to explain the mystery of how a Romance culture survived in territory surrounded by Slavs. This work will thus offer a new approach to the study of the Romanian-Slavic and Romanian–Balkan relationship and we hope a synthetic and unified vision of their common elements, and it will try to give some new ideas about an unresolved, debated, and contentious topic.

Romania’s geographical position nowadays, as an ‘oasis of Latinity in a sea of Slavs’(Tapon 2011:485) located ‘at the croassroad of civilisations’ (Boia 2010: 25) favoured different influences along history on the Romanian culture in all its components (mentalities, customs, habits, linguistics), so that today it can present a different kind of Latinity (l’altra latinita (Niculescu 2007:34), having the appeareance of an immense ‘leopard skin’, a palimpsest whose layers are slowly discovered by researchers.

It is a common knowledge that the traditional Romanian culture particularly has preserved, due to using the Slavonic language as a religious language, a multitude of Slav elements and that a considerable number researchers have outlined the Slav influence as ‘the strongest of the old influences on the Romanian language’(Miklosich 1861, Bogdan 1894 , Mihăilă 1960,  Hristea1982,  Caraman 1983, 1997, Ionescu-Irimia 1978, Poruciuc 2010) [1].

The cultural and antrolopogical dimensions of this influence were somewhat neglected, as the extent to which the identity profile of the Romanians was influenced on one side by using the Slavonic language as a religious language longer than the Latin (which turned the Romanian into a Romance language), and on the other side by becoming neighbour to several countries where Slav languages are spoken, by the circulation of a common framework of beliefs, legends, stories, motives, characters and mythological representations or the usage of similar or identical terms in cultures belonging to different families (Romance and Slav).

This paper aims at researching a somewhat limited field, namely the one of common mythological characters for the Slav and Romanian cultures, looking into similarities and identical elements, changes in significance and name, specific conotations for the cultural spaces of contemporary Romania and its surroundings.

Special attention was given to the linguistic components of mythology and to the importance of the language as a tool for expressing the culture, civilization, as a bearer of ethnicity, as well as the etnographic dimension of mythology in its diverse representations.

The first characters which is worth looking into, especially due to the openness which creates scientifically wise is the Dragon. This motive circulates both in the entire Slav area, and in the Romanian culture, but its meanings, functions and representations are different. Ethymologically, the term used to occur starting with the Indo European   and old Slavic cultures, having the significance of dragon or snake. In Bulgarian culture the dragon (Bg. zmej) is a winged being, with human or snake body, which spits fire or sometimes flies. Also, in the popular beliefs of the Bulgarians, these dragons (Bg. zmejove) are supernatural beings, which stand out by an extraordinary physical force. In the same space of popular legends the dragon is one-eyed, generally not badly intended with human beings, but rather a protector of a treasure or a flying being, which often falls in love with earthly females, and whose love is destroying as a curse. Paradoxically, in the Bulgarian popular legends, the dragon is married, has children, and a wife, a similar creature (bg. zmejca), represented as an extraordinarily beautiful woman.

In Macedonian, the dragon (Mac. zmej, zmaj) appears in the popular stories, but its representations are limited to a supernatural creature or an evil human being. For the Slovene, Serbians or Croatians, the dragon is a fantasy character represented as a snake or dragon, to the Eastern Slavs it appears as a symbol of wisdom, in the Northern Slav area the meaning of Russian and Ukrainian zmij (snake) is a classical demon, protective of the household, grains, crops.

Unlike the Southern area where the character is anthropomorphous, for the Eastern and Northern Slavs the dragon is regarded in an old fashion, rather as a home protecting snake and agrarian demon.

In Romanian, the definitions of the dragon [zmeu] are very close to the Bulgarian ones, excepting its marital status. According to the Romanian dictionaries, the dragon [zmeu] is the fantasy character from stories, having a human face, hairy body and scaled tail, but the anthropomorphous representation is better outlined than the zoomorphous one (Rom. Zgripţor-griffin or griffon), while the anatomic details of the dragon or devil ancestor (hair, tail, scales) are nearly absent. As a fantasy character, the dragon is the impersonation of evil and the main opponent of the positive character (Rom. Făt-Frumos, Prince Charming or Handsome Lad). The anthropomorphous dimension of the Romanian dragon is marked by its mundane activities (George Călinescu — a renowed Romanian critic in the history of Romanian literature — noticed the habits of a hunting passionate medieval knight) and its love relations with earthly females.

The Romanian dragon has very few of the typical dragon or snake, telling itself apart through its generalized anthropomorphous character and its different attitude towards people: some dragons help humans, while others are solely represented as malefic characters. In spells and curses in particular the dragon appears as an evil creature, sometimes together with its female counterpart (the she-dragon), not necessarily his wife.

Very strongly and originally represented in the Romanian popular culture, tending to become ‘one of the fundamental myths in the Romanian culture’ (Călinescu 1982: 34) is the sense of Flying being, imaginary character which appears in the dreams of young girls, when they are prone to falling in love, causing them contradicting states of mind [2–15].

The depiction of this youngster whose contours are still obvious in the popular literature will have been outlined in the cult model: Ion Heliade Rădulescu — Zburătorul (Heliade-Rădulescu, 1977), Mihai Eminescu Luceafărul (Eminescu 1980).

In this sense the dragon is powerfully humanized and till its playful representations there is only one step ( Cărtărescu, 2010).

Undead supernatural creatures (Rom. moroi) were ‘human beings’, men or women who come to the world wearing a hood or a cap, with long spine-shaped tail, covered in hair, during day they seem to be normal people, but during night, their souls wander to meet others of their own kind at crossroads, while their body remains deep in sleep.

These creatures have a corespondent, the females-creatures which are very evil, killing children and sucking their blood. When one of these creatures dies its heart must be pierced with a stake, so that its soul is not able to leave the grave. It is also thought they have the ability to turn into animals, such as dogs or wolves. Generally, the ones who can turn into these creatures are children born with a skin on their head, which they afterwards swallow, children resulted from incest. The ghosts get out of the grave six weeks after their death, wander the earth during night and return in their graves when the morning comes.

The meeting place is a symbolic one in the Romanian culture, namely the border or the crossroad and their game represents a flight in the sky, just like a dance over the church tours, at the night of Saint Andrew. The belief in the ghosts’ existence is old in the Romanian culture, being noted in one of Matei Basarab’s writings (14-th century).

Every belief related to undead supernatural creatures from the Romanian culture is borrowed from the Slavs, especially from the Serbians. These creatures have as a correspondent the vampire or the mora. The sense of the word with ethimon in old Slav was of plague or epidemic, in several Slav languages is that of evil spirit, semidemonic creature, with a hard to tell appearance, which  comes during the night, sits on the human’s chests trying to suffocate them; braids the horses’ tails and manes; steals or changes children from cradles, or night butterflies who leave their bodies and wander around the world under various appearences.

Similar to other undead supernatural creatures and having as a natural enemy the vampires, are the werewolves, fantastic animals with a wolf face, which according to the popular beliefs, come from dead unbaptized children and eat the moon and sun. The word, present in almost all Slav languages and Romanian (vârcolac) seems to be a combination between the word volk — wolf and dlaka — hair colour, fur-suggesting the transformation into a wolf. (Ionescu-Irimia 1978: 125, Mihăilă 1960:39)

A general characteristic of the beliefs regarding werewolves in the entire Slav area and in the Romanian mythology is that the main guilty for the sun and moon eclipses is the werewolf.

For the Southern Slavs, the werewolf is synonimous to the vampire and it is interesting to notice that it is represented like the soul of an evil human being leaving his grave in order to take revenge on the ones alive, to kill or torture them [16–25].

It has mixed traits, anthopomorphous and zoomorphous, but mainly zoomorphous. Among its characteristics, the ones in the Bulgarian folklore are different, having the appeareance of a cyclope which has an eye as big as an egg on its forehead. Also, in the Bulgarian culture, werewolves can also be female, meaning that every kind of woman can become an werewolf.

For the Romanians, the werewolf has the essential characteristics we encounter at the Slavs, the supposed genesis from a dead, unbaptized child and being responsible for the moon and sun eclipses, but it does not have the traits of a vampire.

In the popular Romanian beliefs it is thought that the werewolf can tranform itself if the woman cooking a polenta hits the paddle on the fireplace while if the women spin wool at night without a candle the wires help the werewolves climb to the moon.

The fairies appear as characters in nearly all the cultures in Europe, but the Romanian representations have been influenced by the Slav beliefs. In a folkloric representation they appear as spirits, young girls which come in groups of 3, 5, 7, 9, or 12, outstandingly beautiful and dressed in white, wearing scales on their chests and bells to their feet, with their hair unbraided and flowered, with magical powers, flying in the sky over the trees and singing, playing the flute, bagpipe or violin, feeding themselves by flowers (Mihăilă 1960:183, Ionescu-Irimia 1978:39) [26].

They can appear under different names in the Romanian folklore, such as: Mândrele(the proud), Frumoasele(the beautiful), Zânele(the fairies), Sfintele(the saints), Milostivele(the merciful), Vrednicele(the worthy), Cinstitele(the honest), Împărătesele(the emperesses), Vântoasele(the windy), Maiestrele(the mastery),  Fetele Câmpului(the daughters of the field).

The Romanian fairies are ‘twin sisters’ of Serbian vila and samovila. The term comes from the old Russian (Rassoha 2002:104) and the belief in vila and samovila was common especially in Bulgaria, being imagined as an aquatic or sylvester divinity, a female demon soul resulted from the souls of murdered unburried girls, passionate about dance. Where they dance the grass stops growing. The places where they meet to dance are especialy near springs, at crossroads, in meadows, where they attract young men just like mermaids. If someone passes the place where they dance, they shall become ugly; if one lays in their hearth, their body shall be full of sores; if one hears their songs, they shall become deaf; if one answers their calls, they shall become mute. When they want to punish someone, the fairies carress and sing to them, lure them with pleasant dreams, dance with them and spin them thrice, and then start cursing, tying their tongue, making them lose their minds.

This name is associated to some areas in Bulgaria and to the powerful wind, the storm, strengthening the belief that fairies’ dance can cause vortices.

The fairies or vilas have different representations for the Slav peoples (beneficial demon for the Serbians, some sort of nymph for the Slovene). Especially in Western Romania, the term vila was adopted, being considered as a female wind divinity similar to the fairies or windies, being used in imprecations addressed to children [27–39].

The Pentecosts are other supernatural creatures which are thought to bring disease in people’s souls. As a function, in many regions of Romania they are identified as fairies, the only difference being that they are pictured as ugly old ladies who wander around the Pentecost, only on Wednesday, 24 days before Pentecost. Just like the fairies, they fly around the sky, singing and dancing around springs and fountains, around crosses, at crossroads or in meadows, but only in the days marked as their own. In these days, no one has to work, because these creatures are vindictive, they can cripple, take someone’s eyes out or drive crazy those who fail to respect this interdiction. As a punishment they can also lift someone up in the air and drop them down to break their bones. They always come in groups of three.

In what regards their origin, these girls are said to be originated in Alexandru Macedon’s time, they might even be the daughters of Emperor of Rusalim, the enemy of the Christians (Olteanu 2010:261, Ionescu-Irimia1978:174). The name of Pentecost holiday, which was also given to these supernatural creatures which take on evil activities around this holiday, is borrowed from the Slavs (Old.Slavonic. rusalija, Scr. rusalja, Bg. rusalija, Slov. Ceh. Rus. Rusalka.), but it has an correspondent in Latin [ Rosalia]

The circulation of the imaginative representation means for the Pentecosts is not certain. For the Bulgarians the habits performed in the Pentecost week are identical to the Romanian ones, but dancing is considered as a way to cure certain diseases, dances such as căluşari (horsemen) or floricica (little flower) having a magic-ritual’s functions in the Southern part of the country and it was artistically represented in literature ( Marin Preda 1992: 214–217).

Another evil spirit is samca, also called Avesta or devil’s wing. This is the representation of a cruel being, maybe the worst of all bad spirits, which shows itself to pregnant girls, whom it tortures and scares, before they give birth, leaving them distorted. If they don’t die, they, together with the born children, get a disease called samca, which manifests itself with shivers, nightmares and continuous weakness. Samca’s representations are very diverse. She shows herself to pregnant women and babies during day or night, taking the form of a cat, dog, pig, hen, crow, frog or fly. As a protection agains this demon the new mom or the babies must wear some amulets around their necks, write the name of the Samca on the house walls or use spells. The origin of the name is Bulgarian (senka) and this character can be seen by wizards born on Saturdays who are also able to kill her.

The second name, Avesta, also existed in the Old Slavonic language and it is still preserved in the Serbian and Bulgarian(vešticawitch).

Romanian culture shares with Slavic cultures a lot of features and those could be noticed at linguistic and cultural levels. We suppose that Slavic cultures left deep traces in the cultural identity of Romanian people and there are many issues to be discovered.

In Romanian and some Balkan cultures we can find evidences of common representation of dragons and their symbolism should not be analysed in isolation, but in connection with other cultures, which in different times and from various sources became parts of European and of  Balkan traditions.

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