After stepping away from dragons for last week’s post about the Fern Flower around the Kupala Night/Noc Kupały summer solstice festival, we’re back to finish off the series (for now) with the most famous slavic dragon: Zmey Gorynych (also called Zmei Gorynych or Змей Горыныч).
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 get a free eBook copy of the prequel novella, The Rider in the Night, via most retailers throughout the world.
The Multi-Headed and Multi-Tailed Beast
As Zmey Gorynych’s name implies, he follows the characteristics of a type of Slavic dragon called the Zmey/Zmei/Żmij. Check out that post for more about these “vipers” in general, but Gorynych follows the trend of having many heads (ranging from three to six or even twelve), all of which can breathe fire. He is described as being large enough to block out the sun with massive wings and even seven tails. And with this power, he is capable of mass destruction, burning villages and kidnapping women (much like the story of other dragons including Chudo-Yudo and Smok Wawelski). Specifically as well, his name means “Serpent of the Mountains.”
The color of Zmey Gorynych ranges from black to green. Regardless of color, however, he is thought to be an incredibly menacing opponent for a bogatyr (a hero of Russian tales) and has sharp claws of shining copper in addition to his flaming maws.
Importantly, like most Slavic dragons, he is capable of shape-shifting in order to scheme. Zmey Gorynych specifically was thought to transform into a young man to seduce princesses and other women, often kidnapping them. In the former case, this could lead to the tales of the children of dragons and humans being great warriors or other beasts. In the latter one, the kidnapping led to a bogatyr’s journey to face the dragon and free the princess.
The most famous of these bogatyrs connected to Zmey Gorynych was Dobrynya Nikitich. Said to have emerged during the Kieven Rus period, Dobrynya was a powerful warrior of the noble class. The dragon had kidnapped princesses and destroyed too many villages, so Dobrynya went to defeat him. Though a difficult fight against a three-headed beast capable of breathing fire, Dobrynya manages to strike Zmey Gorynych.
The Zmey immediately begged for mercy, claiming he would never burn villages or kidnap princesses ever again. With this promise, the bogatyr allowed his opponent to go, but Slavic dragons are known to be tricksters. Zmey Gorynych returned to his schemes without delay, forcing Dobrynya to chase him down again.
The resulting fight lasted three long days and nights. In the end, Dobrynya manages to defeat the great beast and put an end to his destruction, and his story has become the inspiration for many stories in especially Russian popular culture today.
Statues of Zmey Gorynych are spread throughout modern Russia. A Christianized version of the story involving Saint George slaying the dragon instead is pictured on both the Russian coat of arms and that of Moscow as well. That part was new to me, and I had to take a closer look into the Russian double-eagle to see the white rider driving a spear into the black dragon in the crest’s center. If that doesn’t tell you how important this story is to Russia, I don’t know what does.
In The Frostmarked Chronicles
There will be dragons in the series, and there may or may not be a giant, black, multi-headed and multi-tailed one with copper claws at some point. But… spoilers… so sorry! A Dagger in the Winds is dragonless, so such an appearance will be later in the series, though there is a sneak peek in book 2, The Trials of Ascension.
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.