After taking last week’s Slavic Saturday to talk updates about A Dagger in the Winds, the first book in my Slavic fantasy series, we’re back to demons today with the Chała (also known as the Ala or Woe), a female terror of the sky.
(June 2021 Updated) Note: If you enjoy Slavic mythology, check out A Dagger in the Winds, the first book in my Slavic fantasy series called The Frostmarked Chronicles. You can also join my monthly newsletter for updates and free novellas (such as the prequel, The Rider in the Night) set in the world of the series.
We’ve discussed many times how demons in Slavic mythology typically are undead souls that died or lived unnaturally, but it appears Chałas do not fall under this group. Instead, they are one of the wild creatures of Slavic myth. And in this case, they’re also incredibly horrific.
The Chała is particularly relevant after our discussion of the Płanetnik/Zduhać – a demon and protector of the winds and weather – a couple weeks ago, as the two are directly opposed. While Płanetniks typically use their power to protect friendly villages from bad weather, Chałas are destructive creatures capable of producing crop-ravaging hailstorms. Particularly among south Slavs, it was believed this caused massive battles between Chałas and Płanetniks in the sky and atop mountains. These skirmishes manifested in great tempests as both combatants called the winds to their aid.
The terrifying appearances of Chałas reflect their negative power. They were pictured as anything from a dragon-like winged snake to dark voids on the wind, ravens, or even a female figure made of lightning. This means they were shape-shifters, like many demons in Slavic mythology, and could strike in any of these forms. In some stories, they could even possess a person’s body for a time.
Chałas were destructive to more than just crops. Like any good myth to frighten children, it was claimed that the Chałas were voracious creatures, willing to swoop down and steal any child exposed during their storms. But unlike the Leszy, which brought the child to live in their forest families, Chałas devoured their catch. The demons were considered so hungry that they would work together at times to devour the sun and moon, and if they were to succeed, then the world would come to its end.
With these demons causing such horror, was the only hope to stop them a Płanetnik? Not necessarily. Eagles were thought to be warriors against the Chała, but they weren’t alone. Dragons, also known as żmij, zmei, or zmey, would clash with the demons in the air and stop their storms from destroying the crops.
Different regions and sub-regions within Slavic myth had different tales for the creature as well. Among some Serbians, it was believed the Chała had three mouths. A poem speaks of this:
In one mouth she bears fairies and winds,
the second mouth – infirmity and bad diseases,
the third mouth – spells, curses.
From Wikipedia
In Bulgaria they called it a Хала, and stories told of a Chała with giant wings and a sword-like tale. It was believed in other areas of the country that strong winds, not storms, brought the demons. Among other Slavs, Chałas can take a more human-like appearance, acting as a figure similar to Baba Jaga/Baba Yaga – a trickster witch with many stories about her frightening, but sometimes helpful, power.
The Chała makes a few dramatic appearances in my stories. As a theme of the books is the winds and their strength, no clash among the powers in the sky is complete without the creature. At first in A Dagger of the Winds, only one of the forms is presented, but Chałas are so diverse that they must appear as diverse as the stories about them. That makes them frightening foes for Wacław and Otylia, the series’s protagonists.
That’s all for this week’s Slavic Saturday. Be sure to keep a lookout for more posts next week, and if you haven’t seen the full series of posts, be sure to check them out.
*As always just a quick disclaimer. Slavic mythology is broad and not written in many if any primary sources, so there’s a variety of interpretations. The interpretations I’m using here are from the sources I’ve found to be reliable and as well as some creative freedom for my book series.