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The word for dragon in Germanic mythology and its descendants is worm (Old English: wyrm, Old High German: wurm, Old Norse: ormr), meaning snake or serpent. In Old English wyrm means "serpent", draca means "dragon". Finnish lohikäärme means directly "salmon-snake", but the word lohi- was originally louhi- meaning crags or rocks, a "mountain snake". Though a winged creature, the dragon is generally to be found in its underground lair, a cave that identifies it as an ancient creature of earth. Likely, the dragons of European and Mid Eastern mythology stem from the cult of snakes found in religions throughout the world. ^[1]

The dragon of the modern period is typically depicted as a huge fire-breathing, scaly and horned dinosaur-like creature, with leathery wings, with four legs and a long muscular tail. It is sometimes shown with feathered wings, crests, fiery manes, and various exotic colorations.

Many modern stories represent dragons as extremely intelligent creatures who can talk, associated with (and sometimes in control of) powerful magic. In stories a dragon's blood often has magical properties: for example in the opera Siegfried it let Siegfried / Sigurd understand the language of the Forest Bird. The typical dragon protects a cavern or castle filled with gold and treasure and is often associated with a great hero who tries to slay it, but dragons can be written into a story in as many ways as a human character. This includes the monster being used as a wise being whom heroes could approach for help and advice, so much so that they resembled Asian dragons rather than European dragons of myth. For example, when German author Michael Ende created a "Luckdragon" in his fantasy novel The Neverending Story and a movie was made based on it, many western audiences were confused as to why a "Luckdragon" had no wings and looked like a giant flying dog.

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[modifier] Mythologie slave

Dragons of Slavic mythology hold mixed temperaments towards humans. For example, dragons (дракон, змей, ламя) in Bulgarian mythology are either male or female, each gender having a different view of mankind. The female dragon and male dragon, often seen as brother and sister, represent different forces of agriculture. The female dragon represents harsh weather and is the destroyer of crops, the hater of mankind, and is locked in a never ending battle with her brother. The male dragon protects the humans' crops from destruction and is generally loving to humanity. Fire and water play major roles in Bulgarian dragon lore; the female has water characteristics, whilst the male is usually a fiery creature. In Bulgarian legend, dragons are three headed, winged beings with snake's bodies.

In Bulgarian, Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian lore, a dragon, or "змей" (Bulgarian), zmey (Russian), smok (Belarusian) zmiy (Ukrainian), is generally an evil, four-legged beast with few if any redeeming qualities. Zmeys are intelligent, but not very highly so; they often place tribute on villages or small towns, demanding maidens for food, or gold. Their number of heads ranges from one to seven or sometimes even more, with three- and seven-headed dragons being most common. The heads also regrow if cut off, unless the neck is "treated" with fire (similar to the hydra in Greek mythology). Dragon blood is so poisonous that Earth itself will refuse to absorb it. It's interesting fact that in the Bulgarian mythology these dragons are sometimes good, apposing to the evil Lamya /ламя/, a beast that shares a common likeness with the zmey.

The most famous Polish dragon is the Wawel Dragon or smok wawelski. It supposedly terrorized ancient Kraków and lived in caves on the Vistula river bank below the Wawel castle. According to lore based on the Book of Daniel, it was killed by a boy who offered it a sheepskin filled with sulphur and tar. After devouring it, the dragon became so thirsty that it finally exploded after drinking too much water. A metal sculpture of the Wawel Dragon is a well-known tourist sight in Kraków. It is very stylised but, to the amusement of children, noisily breathes fire every few minutes. The Wawel dragon also features on many items of Kraków tourist merchandise.

Other dragon-like creatures in Polish folklore include the basilisk, living in cellars of Warsaw, and the Snake King from folk legends.

In Slavic mythology, European dragons have their peculiarities. A dragon is called zmey in Russian and Bulgarian, zmiy in Old Church Slavonic and Ukrainian, zmaj in Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Slovene, and żmij in Polish. Most of these words are masculine forms of the Slavic word for "snake", which is normally feminine (like Russian zmeja). In Romania, there is a similar figure, derived from the Slavic dragon and named zmeu. In Polish and Belarusian culture there is the word smok.

[modifier] East Slavic

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.

Russian dragons usually have heads in multiples of three. Some have heads that grow back if every single head isn't cut off.

[modifier] South Slavic

Dobrynya Nikitich slaying Zmey Gorynych, by Ivan Bilibin

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 sulphur. 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 Macedonia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, 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 and Bosnia it is also called aždaja (Serbian language), aždaha (Bosnian language) (see Azhi Dahaka and Zilant). Ala (in Serbian) or hala (in Bulgarian) is, by a belief, a female dragon, but generally she is a creature separate from dragons. Most probably from Bulgarian, the word for 'dragon' (zmeu, with E and not with A as in Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian) was borrowed among the Romanians.Modèle:Fact

[modifier] See also

• Chuvash dragon
• Smok Wawelski - dragon of Kraków
• Zilant - dragon of Kazan
• Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych (2006 animated feature film)
• Zirnitra - Wendish dragon and god of sorcery

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[modifier] Zilant

Zilant is a legendary creature, something between a dragon and a wyvern. Since 1730, it has been the official symbol of Kazan. This winged snake is a part of Tatar and Russian folklore and is mentioned in legends about the foundation of Kazan.

[modifier] Nomenclature and etymology

The word Zilant is the English transcription of Russian Зилант, itself a rendering of Tatar yılan/елан [jɯlɑn`] (i.e., "snake", sometimes pronounced as [ʓɯlɑn`]).

The Tatars themselves, on the other hand, frequently refer to this creature with the Persian word Ajdaha (Dragon) ^[2] or Ajdaha-yılan (Dragon-snake). For Tatars, it was a repulsive creature, corresponding to European dragons and to Persian dragon. According to Idel-Ural beliefs, any snake that survives for 100 years turns into Ajdaha dragon.^[3]

Zilant/Ajdaha should be distinguished from Aq Yılan (White Snake), which is the king of snakes. Aq Yılan ^[4] or Şahmara ^[5] advised and helped epic heroes, batırlar ^[6], often by giving them gifts. As regards his beneficial influence on humans, the White Snake is similar to the Chinese dragon. The word Şahmara ^[7] is derived from the Persian roots shah (king) and mar (snake).^[8]

Chuvashes and Mari, ethnic groups surrounding Kazan as well as Tatars, also have legends relating to the foundation of Kazan, but none of them refer to the Kazan dragon. After the 16th century Russians acquired this legend from Tatars. For Kazan Russians, Zilant had negative connotations, as it was represented as a Slavic dragon rather than a snake.

The popular perception of Zilant among citizens of Kazan is strongly influenced by Western culture and many modern citizens imagine Zilant to be a more classically Western wyvern or dragon as depicted in films.

[modifier] Legends

Most legends related to Kazan are contradictory and Zilant is no exception. There are several variations on the Zilant legend.

According to the first story, a beautiful damsel married a resident of Old Kazan. She had to get water from the Qazansu River and complained to the local khan that his capital was poorly situated. She advised him to move the city to the neighborhood of Zilantaw Hill, and the khan agreed. However, the hill was infested with numerous snakes which were "stout as a log". Their leader was a giant two-headed snake, i.e., Zilant. One head ate only grass, while the other swallowed virgins and youths. A wizard advised the khan to build a straw and wood near the hill. In spring, the snakes came out from their winter burrows and crept into the pile of straw. A knight errant was sent out to set the pile of straw on fire, burning out the snakes. They were deadly even in death, "killing people and horses with their stink". However, the gigantic two-headed snake-dragon escaped to the Qaban lakes. According to the story he still lives in the waters of the lake and, from time to time, takes vengeance on the citizens. According to other stories, the giant snake was transformed into Diü, a spirit who founded the underwater kingdom of the lake.

It is also said that say that Zilant did not escape to the lake but instead tried get revenge upon the knight, who by that time had ridden some 50 çaqrım ^[9] away from Kazan. During the fight that followed, Zilant cut the hero into six parts. The knight, however, had managed to stab the dragon with his poisoned pike, and Zilant eventually died.

There is also a legend about Zilant's return to Zilantaw. They say that Zilant re-established himself in a big cave near the hill. The dragon would occasionally fly over the panic-stricken city and drink water from the Black Lake^[10]. At first the people of the city people paid tribute to him, but later they managed to kill him with a wizard's help.^[11]

[modifier] Related legends

According to one legend, when Bulgars came to found the town of Bilär, they discovered a big snake. They decided to kill it, but the snake begged for peace and pleaded with Allah to give her wings. Once she had her wings the snake flew away from Bilär.

Another great snake was said to live in a pagan tower temple at Alabuğa. Although the Bulgars adopted Islam as early as the 10th century, the snake survived until the time of Tamerlane's invasion after which it disappeared.

Ibn Fadlan, who visited Volga Bulgaria in the 10th century referred to numerous snakes, especially in trees. Ibn Fadlan wrote about a huge fallen tree, longer than hundred ells. He saw a big snake at the trunk of the tree, almost as large as the tree itself. The Bulgars allayed his fears by assuring him that the snake was not dangerous.

[modifier] Interpretations

The popular historian Lev Gumilyov pointed out in his Ancient Turks that the Kypchaks, one of the ancestors of modern Tatars, came from the Zheliang ^[12] Valley in the Altay Mountains. In his opinion, the nearby Zheliang Mountain and Zheliang settlement were named after Zilant the White Snake. If there is any truth in Lev Gumilyov's idea, then the dragon of Kazan should be regarded as a remnant of the once popular Turkic totem. ^[13]

These flying snakes were also known in Bolghar, Suar, Bilär and the other cities of Volga Bulgaria. For the most part, these snakes were benevolent. However, in the boundary fortresses of Kazan, Alabuğa and Cükätaw, legends about flying monsters flourished. One particular fortress on the Shishma River was known as Yılantaw, later russified as Yelantovo. Many scholars believe that Zilant, like other flying snakes, symbolized the evil rulers of the neighboring pagan peoples. The legendary burning of the snakes may symbolize the victory of Islam over paganism. Sceptics say that the Bulgars purposefully spread those legends in the border regions in order to dismay their neighbors.

There is also speculations that Zilant's origination was not from the White Snake, but the Falcon (Börket), an image similar to Zilant from an earlier epoch.

[modifier] Zilantaw in Kazan

Zilantaw Hill (originally Tatar Yılantaw/Елантау/Жылантау ^[14], Snake Mount)^[15], associated with Zilant legends, was formerly situated on the bank of Kazanka River. Some researchers support the view that Kazan was founded here, citing ancient Tatar legends as support. Other legends place the city foundation at Iske Qazan, the Qaban settlement, an Old Tatar settlement from the 16th century. However, these legends ignore the Kazan Kremlin, which is actually the oldest part of the city.

It is probable that a small settlement, not the city of Kazan, had existed at Zilantaw in the Bulgarian epoch (12th-14th centuries). The nearest settlement, Biş Balta, has been known since Khanate's epoch. In 1560 the Zilantov Monastery of Assumption ^[16] was established on the hill. In recent centuries, the hill was covered with an old Russian cemetery, attested to since the Khanate's epoch. During the excavations in the 1970s, vestiges of an original monastery were unearthed. The most ancient layer contained indications of a great fire, lending support to the legend about the burning of the snakes. In historians' opinion this great fire would have occurred during the Mongol invasion.^[11]

Zilantaw actually used to be a high and waterless island, which would make it the best place for snakes to hibernate during winter. The nearest lake was called Zmeinoye or Zmievo, that is, Snake Lake. However in 1957 Qazansu's course was changed so that the old riverbed, separated from the Kuybyshev Reservoir, was swamped. Nowadays, Zilantaw is an unpractical depressive area, surrounded by plants and depots. The old cloister was reopened here in 2005.^[17]

[modifier] Zilant as a state symbol

Like Aq Bars, Zilant could have been one of the symbols of Volga Bulgaria prior to the Mongol invasion. Some also speculate as to whether Zilant was featured in the Kazan Khanate's insignia. Hollander Carlus Allard noted that The Cæsar of Tatars once had two flags ^[18], and Zilant was pictured on one of them, most likely the flag of Kazan.

After the conquest of Kazan in 1552, Ivan the Terrible adopted this image with the title of Kazan's khan (tsar). Zilant was also featured in a seal of False Dmitry I as well as a flag of Tsar Alexis. Early Russian images represent Zilant with one head, four chicken legs, a bird's body and a snake tail. This representation is thus a cockatrice rather than a dragon.

In 1730 a royal decree established Zilant as a coat of arms of the Kazan Governorate. It was described in the decree as a "black snake, crowned with the gold crown of Kazan, red-winged on the white field". Being the coat of Kazan, Zilant was incorporated into the Russian Imperial coat of arms. The image was added to the arms of all the towns in the governorate. Zilant also appeared on the coat of arms of Kashira, a town located to the south of Moscow, as it was an appendage town of the exiled Kazan khan Ğäbdellatíf back in the 16th century. After 1917, the governorate was abolished and along with it, all the imperial emblems that featured Zilant.

Discussion about restoring Zilant as a city symbol resumed in the 1990s. Supporters of Zilant referred to the state insignia of the Khanate of Kazan. Some Tatar nationalists, however, dismissed the use of Ajdaha-Zilant as an evil symbol of aggression, derogatory to the Tatars and their statehood. They also pointed out that Zilant might be construed as the dragon killed by Saint George as represented on the Coat of arms of Moscow. According to this popular interpretation, Saint George would then symbolize Muscovy, and the "dragon" would symbolize Kazan.

It was eventually decided that Zilant should be associated with Aq Yılan (White Snake) as a positive Turkic spirit. During the Millennium of Kazan in 2005, Zilant was reinstated as a symbol of Kazan. It is now featured in the coat of arms of Kazan and as well as in the municipal jack.

[modifier] Zilant in art

Zilant could be seen at the decorative elements all over Kazan. The most prominent is a fontain The Qazan (2005), stylized as cauldron.

See also

• Yilbegän, Yuxa and Chuvash dragon (Вěре Çěлен) are related mythological creatures.

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Zahhak en anglais

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John's Book of Revelation — Greek literature, not Roman — describes Satan as "a great dragon, flaming red, with seven heads and ten horns". Much of John's literary inspiration is late Hebrew and Greek, but John's dragon, like his Satan, are both more likely to have come originally through the Near East. Perhaps the distinctions between dragons of western origin and Chinese dragons (q.v.) are arbitrary.

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Other European legends about dragons include "Saint George and the Dragon", in which a brave knight defeats a dragon holding a princess captive. This legend may be a Christianized version of the myth of Perseus, or of the mounted Phrygian god Sabazios vanquishing the chthonic serpent, but its origins are obscure.

The tale of George and the Dragon has been modified for modern works, with Saint George portrayed in one Welsh nationalist rendering as an effete wally who faints at the sight of the dragon [1] and a poem by U. A. Fanthorpe based on Paolo Uccello's painting, which hangs in the British National Gallery. In the poem, Saint George is a thug, the Maiden considers the relative sexual merits of the dragon and saint, and the Dragon is the only sane character. Certainly, Uccello's fifteenth-century painting, in which the Maiden has the dragon on a leash, is itself not the most conventional representation of the story.

Le christianisme a intégré cette peur du dragon, en transformant sa signification. Il devint le symbole de tout ce qui est opposé au christianisme, le symbole de la barbarie, de la Bête maléfique, incarnation de Satan et du paganisme. Le dragon deviendra, avec le thème de l'Apocalypse, une source inépuisable d'inspiration pour les artistes. L'art qui s'en inspire fait du dragon l'image du péché et du paganisme, dont triomphent avec éclat les saints et le(s) martyrs. L'Apocalypse de Jean décrit le combat du Dragon, et de la Bête de la Terre contre l'Agneau divin. Le dragon est enchaîné pour mille ans, puis revient le temps de l'ultime combat, et le dragon vaincu cède sa place au règne définitif de Dieu.

Le dragon symbolise l'adversaire le plus fort, le plus merveilleux que l'on puisse combattre. De même, l'enjeu du combat est souvent capital pour le héros : délivrance d'une princesse inaccessible, acquisition d'un objet au pouvoir puissant, reconnaissance éternelle des populations délivrées. Cet enjeu incarne le but de la vie du chevalier où priment l'absolu et les vertus cardinales (courage, maîtrise de soi, etc.) qui doivent lui permettre d'arriver à cette liberté intérieure qui résume l'idéal chevaleresque : valeur et pureté absolues. Dans un registre semblable, l'hagiographie chrétienne rapporte des histoires où des religieux (ermites, moines, saints, etc.) arrivent à dominer des dragons souvent par la seule force de leur prière et l'aide d'un simple objet (corde, écharpe) : en-dehors de l'aspect pédagogique présentant la victoire du Bien sur le Mal, cette action n'est possible que grâce à l'intégrité des saints, qui montrent ainsi par leur vie exemplaire qu'il est possible de combattre aussi bien les forces naturelles que surnaturelles.