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The kulshedra or kuçedra is a water, storm, fire and chthonic demon in Albanian mythology and folklore, usually described as a huge multi-headed female serpentine dragon. The kulshedra is believed to spit fire, cause drought, storms, flooding, earthquakes and other natural disasters against mankind. In Albanian mythology she is usually fought and defeated by a
drangue The drangùe ( sq-definite, drangùa, drangòni) is a semi-human winged divine figure in Albanian mythology and folklore, associated with weather and storms. Babies destined to become drangue are born with their heads covered in caul and with two ...
, a semi-human winged divine hero and protector of mankind. Heavy thunderstorms are thought to be the result of their battles. In northern beliefs, the kulshedra can take possession of the
sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
and moon. In southern beliefs, she is described as an enormous female serpent who surrounds the world. According to this version, if she were ever to touch her tail with her mouth, she could destroy the whole world. It is said that she requires human sacrifices for accepting to postpone the natural disasters and catastrophes. According to folk beliefs, the kulshedra's earlier stage is the bolla, which has the appearance of a water and chthonic demonic serpent. The bolla's eyes remain shut for the whole year except on
Saint George's Day Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, and cities of which he is the patron saint, including Bulgaria, England, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Cáceres, Alcoy, Aragon and Catalonia. Sa ...
, when it gazes the world and will devour any human on sight. The bolla will eventually morph into kulshedra if it lives many years without being seen by a human. The bollar and errshaja are considered intermediate forms of this serpent as it goes through a series of
metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the w ...
. These terms also signify serpents; the term ''bullar'' merely being a synonym for ''bolla'' in Southern
Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares la ...
. In some regions the kulshedra is depicted like a female eel, turtle, frog, lizard or salamander. The kulshedra can also appear in the guise of a woman, who keeps her true nature hidden. As a semi-human divine figure she holds also positive qualities that emerge indirectly from Albanian folk
tales Tales may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Tales'' (album), a 1995 album by Marcus Miller * ''Tales'' (film), a 2014 Iranian film * ''Tales'' (TV series), an American television series * ''Tales'' (video game), a 2016 point-and-click adventure ...
,
beliefs A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take ...
and
rituals A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, ...
. It is said that the village where the kulshedra lives has great prosperity in agriculture and livestock. Indeed she absorbs by her breath foodstuffs from everywhere, and her village thrives, while the affected villages become poor and do not prosper. According to folk beliefs people used to practice sacrifices to her so she could bring them good and stop any harmful action.


Names

The term bolla is etymologically related to Greek Φάλη, Φάλαινα 'monster, whale,' (although the relationship is not certain).,
Bolla
, ''A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology, and Folk Culture'', pp. 46–47.
Kulshedra (; def. ) or (; def. ) derives from the Latin ', roughly meaning an " snake".,
Kulshedra
, ''A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology, and Folk Culture'', pp. 153–156.
The term ''bullar'' is given as a Southern Albanian variant by some sources.


Origin of the myth

The legendary battle of a heroic deity associated with thunder and weather, like
drangue The drangùe ( sq-definite, drangùa, drangòni) is a semi-human winged divine figure in Albanian mythology and folklore, associated with weather and storms. Babies destined to become drangue are born with their heads covered in caul and with two ...
, who fights and slays a huge multi-headed serpent associated with water and storms, like kulshedra, has been preserved from a common motif of Indo-European mythology. Similar characters with different names but same motifs representing the dichotomy of "good and evil" – mainly reflected by the protection of the community from storms – are found also in the folklore of other
Balkan The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the wh ...
peoples.


Bolla

The ''bolla'' is said to remain closed-eyed until
Saint George's Day Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, and cities of which he is the patron saint, including Bulgaria, England, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Cáceres, Alcoy, Aragon and Catalonia. Sa ...
, where it peers into the world, and will devour any human that approaches it. It is explained in folklore that Saint George had cursed the beast to be forever blind except on his
feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does ...
.


Kulshedra

Kulshedra is generally considered to be a female dragon, like a multi-headed serpent form, but it is known to have pendulous drooping breasts touching the ground, thus some German commentators have stated she might be also regarded as a
hag HAG is a Swiss maker of model trains. The company was founded by Hugo and Alwin Gahler on 1 April 1944 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The Gahler brothers originally manufactured model trains in O scale but due to competition, particularly by Mär ...
. Kulshedra is furthermore said to be covered in wooly red hair, have a long tail, and have seven to twelve heads. It is also said to spit fire. Kulshedra's milk and urine are both considered poisonous. Kulshedra can also appear in the guise of a human female; its appearance in an ordinary woman's guise known locally for example in Dukagjini, Kosovo. It may also appear in the form of a female lizard, turtle, frog, or salamander. At the same time, kulshedra is widely considered to be a storm demon. doi:10.2307/2843266.''  Kulshedra is believed to cause drought and other water-related issues for humanity such as torrents, tempests, water shortages, big storms, flooding, or other natural disasters. Often to placate it, a human sacrifice must be made, as witnessed in the tale of the hero Qerosi ("Scurfhead"). In southern beliefs, she is described as an enormous female serpent who surrounds the world. According to this version, if she were ever to touch her tail with her mouth, she could destroy the whole world. In northern beliefs, the kulshedra can take possession of the
sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
and moon. To frighten the evil demon, the Albanian tribesmen used to shoot in the sky or provoke great noise with metal objects, even by ringing the church bells. "The male form, called Kulshedër, acts as a devil".


Metamorphosis

According to folk belief, a snake after living a certain number of years will metamorphosize into a bolla and eventually become the monstrous kulshedra. The belief that an ancient snake becomes a dragon is not unique to Albanian culture, and similar beliefs can be found for example in Hungary and Romania, as pointed out by
Robert Elsie Robert Elsie (June 29, 1950 – October 2, 2017) was a Canadian-born German scholar who specialized in Albanian literature and folklore. Elsie was a writer, translator, interpreter, and specialist in Albanian studies, being the author of numerou ...
. In the Kosova town of Prishtina, the kulshedra begins life as a being invisible to mankind for the first twelve years of its life, after which it turns into a ''bolla'' ("a kind of serpent"), and afterwards it sprouts wings, becomes hairy, and begins to combat the drangue (dragúa). and citing it. But the folklore of Malësia and the Northern Mountain Range in Albania provides a more complex life cycle: when the serpent manages to live fifty years without being noticed by anyone, it becomes a ''bullar'', a reptile that feeds milk to snakes, from which these snake derive their venom. If it lives another fifty years without being seen, it becomes an ''ershaj'' which coils around its human victim's neck, punctures his chest and eats the heart. When an ''ershaj'' (''er̄šaj'') lives for another century unseen, it finally becomes a kulshedra. In Tirana, kulshedra was said to begin life as a being hiding in a dark hole which became a snake after six months; the snake must grow an additional six months before it exhibited the behavior for which it could be properly called a kulshedra. Among the Albanian Kastrati tribe, it was believed that a snake sighted by a wren lost its ability to transform into a kulshedra.


Battles with Dragùa

Dragùa, sometimes called or , is the male conqueror of the female monster kulshedra, whom he must fight to the death in collective beliefs. Their prime aim in life is to combat and slay Kulshedras. They thus spend much of their youth exercising and running around, so as to learn how to avoid kulshedra's urine and milk. When they sense a Kulshedra approaching, dragùas "go completely berserk and their souls depart from their bodies in preparation for the coming battle". When a human is attacked the dragùa will "fly to their assistance and slay kulshedra by pelting it with cudgels, ploughs, yokes, lances and stones, and even with uprooted trees and houses. Such attacks are seen by humans as lightning". Heavy thunderstorms are thought to be the result of the battle. The dragùas, even as infants, use the cradle to shield themselves from kulshedra's attacks, which consist of her urine and poisonous milk from her breasts. They also use this cradle as weapons. In the Northern Albania, the two are envisioned as battling perpetually in the bend of the Drani River in the Northern Mountain Range. But some folklore speaks of the dragùa accomplishing kulshedra's destruction by drowning, and in Central Albania, the hero is said to have drowned her, knocking her unconscious by throwing trees and boulders at her, and afterwards drowning her in
Shkumbin The Shkumbin (; ; la, Genusus, also la, Genessus, label=none or la, Scampis, label=none), also commonly Shkembi, is a river in Southern Europe. It is long and its drainage basin is . Its average discharge is . Etymology It derives from La ...
, a river in central
Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares la ...
. Dragùas are not the only beings said to have defeated Kulshedra. There are multiple folktales (see: Folktales and other stories with Kulshedra) in which saintsElsie, Robert (2000),
The Christian Saints of Albania
. ''Balkanistica''. 13: 43, 45.
and folktale heroes not identified as dragùa have defeated Kulshedra., ''Albanian Folktales and Legends''


Folktales and other stories with Bolla/Kulshedra

Saint George and Saint Elias (originally the Old Testament prophet 
Elijah Elijah ( ; he, אֵלִיָּהוּ, ʾĒlīyyāhū, meaning "My God is Yahweh/YHWH"; Greek form: Elias, ''Elías''; syr, ܐܸܠܝܼܵܐ, ''Elyāe''; Arabic: إلياس or إليا, ''Ilyās'' or ''Ilyā''. ) was, according to the Books o ...
) both have stories in which they fight (and defeat) a Bolla/Kulshedra. Saint Elias, in particular, is identified in some regions with the Dragùa and is also a weather god and provides protection against storms and fire. Some folktales involving the slaying of a Kulshedra include: * "The Daughter of the Moon and Sun": the kulshedra is slayed by The Daughter of the Moon and Sun, whose weapon is a point of light * " The Twins" (''Binoshët''): the kulshedra is slain by Zjerma, one of the twins (the other being Handa), whose weapons are silver swords * "The three friends and the Earthly Beauty" * "The three brothers and the three sisters" * "
The youth and the maiden with stars on their foreheads and crescents on their breasts The Youth and the Maiden with Stars on their Foreheads and Crescents on their Breasts is an Albanian folktale. It is related to the theme of the calumniated wife and classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, " ...
" * "The girl who became a boy" * "The snake and the king's daughter" * "The barefaced man and the Pasha's brother" * "The maiden who was promised to the sun"


Other mentions of Bolla/Kulshedra

On the Greek island
Poros Poros ( el, Πόρος) is a small Greek island-pair in the southern part of the Saronic Gulf, about south from the port of Piraeus and separated from the Peloponnese by a wide sea channel, with the town of Galatas on the mainland across the s ...
, once inhabited by a majority of
Arvanites Arvanites (; Arvanitika: , or , ; Greek: , ) are a bilingual population group in Greece of Albanian origin. They traditionally speak Arvanitika, an Albanian language variety, along with Greek. Their ancestors were first recorded as settl ...
, the term Bullar is still used to describe water snakes, and in northern Albania, both Bolla and Bollar are used to describe grass snakes. In  Dungeons & Dragons, it is a level 22 Solo Brute that sometimes forms pacts with other demons or other powerful monsters of chaos and evil."Monday Monster: Kulshedra , Kobold Press"
 ''koboldpress.com''. Retrieved 2017-04-11.


See also

*
Albanian folklore Albanian folk beliefs ( sq, Besimet folklorike shqiptare) comprise the beliefs expressed in the customs, rituals, myths, legends and tales of the Albanian people. The elements of Albanian mythology are of Paleo-Balkanic origin and almost all ...
*
Drangue The drangùe ( sq-definite, drangùa, drangòni) is a semi-human winged divine figure in Albanian mythology and folklore, associated with weather and storms. Babies destined to become drangue are born with their heads covered in caul and with two ...
*
Stihi Stihi is a fire-breathing storm demon in Albanian mythology and folklore, similar to the kulshedra. Etymology The Albanian term ''stihí'' is a variant of ''stuhí'', "storm", related to el, στοιχείο, "element, spirit". Appearance A fe ...
* Ljubi * Djall, a devil-like figure in Albanian folklore *
Balaur A balaur ( pl. ''balauri'') in Romanian folklore is a type of many-headed dragon or monstrous serpent, sometimes said to be equipped with wings. The number of heads is usually around three, but they can also have seven heads or even twelve head ...
, a similar figure in Romanian folklore *
Lernaean Hydra The Lernaean Hydra or Hydra of Lerna ( grc-gre, Λερναῖα Ὕδρα, ''Lernaîa Hýdra''), more often known simply as the Hydra, is a serpentine water monster in Greek and Roman mythology. Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, w ...


Sources


Citations


Bibliography

* . * Elsie, Robert (2000), "The Christian Saints of Albania". ''Balkanistica''. 13: 35–57. * . * * * * * * * * {{refend European dragons Albanian legendary creatures