The three-headed eagle (or triple-headed eagle) is a mythological or

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...

bird, as it were an augmented version of the

double-headed eagle In heraldry and vexillology, the double-headed eagle (or double-eagle) is a charge associated with the concept of Empire. Most modern uses of the symbol are directly or indirectly associated with its use by the late Byzantine Empire, origina ...

. A three-headed eagle is mentioned in the apocryphal Latin Ezra, featuring in a dream by the high priest

Ezra Ezra (; he, עֶזְרָא, '; fl. 480–440 BCE), also called Ezra the Scribe (, ') and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra, was a Jewish scribe ('' sofer'') and priest (''kohen''). In Greco-Latin Ezra is called Esdras ( grc-gre, Ἔσδρα ...

. In a Chechen fairy tale, a three-headed eagle figures as a monstrous adversary to be killed by the hero. ''Öksökö'' (Өксөку) is the name of an eagle with either two or three heads in Yakut and

Dolgan Dolgans (; Dolgan: , , (Sakha); Yakut: ) are an ethnic group who mostly inhabit Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. They are descended from several groups, particularly Evenks, one of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. They adopted a Turk ...

folklore.P. E. Efremov, Фольклор долган ("Dolgan Folklore"), Novosibirsk: Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2000), p. 430
bestiary.us
V.L. Seroshevsky, Якуты. Опыт этнографичекого исследования ("The Yakuts. An experience in ethnographic research", Russian Political Encyclopedia, Moscow, 1993, p. 227. Exceptionally, a three-headed eagle (or rather, an eagle with two additional heads mounted on the tips of its wings) is shown as the coat of arms of minnesinger Reinmar von Zweter (c. 1200–1248) in the

Codex Manesse The Codex Manesse (also Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift or Pariser Handschrift) is a ''Liederhandschrift'' (manuscript containing songs), the single most comprehensive source of Middle High German ''Minnesang'' poetry, written and illustrat ...

(c. 1300). An unrelated depiction of the ''

Reichsadler The ' ("Imperial Eagle") is the heraldic eagle, derived from the Roman eagle standard, used by the Holy Roman Emperors and in modern coats of arms of Germany, including those of the Second German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (191 ...

'' with three heads is found in the ''Wappenbuch'' of Conrad Grünenberg (1483). A three-headed bird (not necessarily an eagle) is also found in the

Middle Low German Middle Low German or Middle Saxon (autonym: ''Sassisch'', i.e. " Saxon", Standard High German: ', Modern Dutch: ') is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented i ...

illustrated manuscript ''

Splendor Solis ''Splendor Solis'' ("The Splendour of the Sun") is a version of the illuminated alchemical text attributed to Salomon Trismosin. This version dates from around 1582. The earliest version, written in Central German, is dated 1532–1535 and is ...

'', dated to the 1530s. The sceptre of tsar

Michael I of Russia Michael I ( Russian: Михаил Фёдорович Романов, ''Mikhaíl Fyódorovich Románov'') () became the first Russian tsar of the House of Romanov after the Zemskiy Sobor of 1613 elected him to rule the Tsardom of Russia. He ...

was decorated with a three-headed eagle, and representations of the design are found in Russian symbolism. The literary anthology ''Lado'', published in 1911, opens with a poem "Slavic Eagle" (Славянский орел) by

Dmitriy Vergun Dmitriy Vergun (russian: Дмитрий Николаевич Вергун, Dmitriy Nikolayevich Vergun, uk, Дмитро Миколайович Вергун, Dmytro Mykolayovych Vergun; 1871–1951) was a publicist, journalist, Russian-language p ...

, in which the three heads are explained as representing the union of three races which contributed to the genesis of Russia, the "western" head representing the

Varangians The Varangians (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';Varangian
" Online Etymo ...

, the "eastern head" the

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

and the central head the Slavs. ''The Three-Headed Eagle'' (1944) by A. Ferris discusses the destiny of the peoples of Europe based on the Latin Ezra.

References

{{reflist Heraldic eagles National symbols of Russia Mythical many-headed creatures Heraldic birds Fictional birds of prey Birds in mythology Imperial Eagle

See also

References