Talk:Slavic dragon

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In Russia he is called as Zmey Gorinich, has three heads, is green, walks on two back paws, has small front paws, and spits fire.

Yes, and Zmey in Russian means Snake, not Dragon.

In Bulgarian smok("смок") is kind of snake. I think its name comes from smucha("смуча") which means "to suck". To tell that somebody is a "smok" means that he drinks(swallows) too much. So smok is not unique.

1 Zilant
2 Zmaj and azdaja
3 Three Heads?
4 Left-out information

[edit] Zilant

Hm, I think it's not correct to compare Tugarin Zmievich with Zilant. The first is a Slavic dragon named after Turks, the second is a Turkic dragon, and his Russian name is only a rendering of Tatar word 'Snake. In fact, Zilant is presented not in the culture of Russians, but in the culture of multinational people of Tatarstan, and can't be related to a Slavic dragon. especially it could't symbolize Turkic peoles, becose he probably symbolized Russians! :)--Untifler 15:56, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

In russian zmeja means snake, but zmei (male for of female zmeja) means dargon. Nice image of Zmei Gorynych (more clearly seen dragon, than image on page): http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/872/dragonudopm3.gif

[edit] Zmaj and azdaja

The description of the creature corresponds to azdaja, animal like being like lizard. Zmaj is human-like being which communicates with people and steals young girls according to Serbian mythology, and their children with those girls are heros. Zmajs were considered great lovers. When Zmajs are landing and arriving somewhere they are accompanied with flames, thunders and strong winds. It is intersting to note that in Old Testemony similar creatures are mentioned that are called sons of God. In the Bible they land on Earth and took human daughters as wifes and had children with them that were heros.

Remark: You should put the link to Milos Obilic here - he was the knight of the dragon order, it is a XIV century story, there is a literature/legends about the origin of Milos, as well as the artistic work. Moreover, it is on wikipedia, as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milos_Obilic

[edit] Three Heads?

In some fairytales, slavic dragons have not only three, but also six and nine heads. In one such tale, a hero must kill all three. On the first night that the hero stands guard, the three-headed one comes out. On the second night, the six-headed one comes out. On the third night, the nine-headed one comes out. Sometimes, if all heads aren't sliced off at the same time, they grow again or can be put back on. The heads usually come in multiples of three. The Russian version of this article is quite usefull and more detailed on the subject of heads. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ladywater (talk • contribs) 07:42, 1 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Left-out information

"A dragon is called zmey in Russian and Bulgarian,"

Actually, a dragon can also be called "drakon" in Russian (дракон). See: ru:Дракон. "Zmey" is an older word, and isn't used as frequently anymore. I think in English, "Snake" or "serpent" can also mean "dragon". Esn (talk) 21:10, 10 April 2008 (UTC)