Tugarin (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Тугарин) is a mythical creature in East European bylinas and fairy tales, which personifies evil and cruelty and appears in a dragon-like form.

Name forms and origins

Tugarin has many different names in

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

Slavic mythology Slavic mythology or Slavic religion is the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century. The South Slavs, who likely settled in the Balk ...

, such as Zmey Tugarin, Zmey Tugaretin, Zmeishche Tugarishche and others. "Tugarin" as a corruption of "Tugar-Khan" (Tugor-Khan of the Turkic Polovets), has been contested by an etymology from the root ''tug'' "grief".

Description

Tugarin, although spoken of as a dragon, largely retains an " anthropomorphic" form, and is seen riding a horse. It appears he has wings with which to fly, and he soars to the air during the duel with Alyosha. The flying wings are certainly a dragon-like trait, but some versions explain it away as a contraption made of paper, attached to his horse and not to himself. Tugarin was a great glutton, which is somewhat of a dragon-like trait. He could stuff a whole wheel of bread in each cheek, then deposit a whole swan on his tongue and swallow it. This is similarly but somewhat differently sung in some ''bylyni'' versions. He had a huge head, and in some texts, his severed head rolled off like a beer cauldron, or it rolled off like an onion, later to be described as big enough to serve as a cauldron. The pagan Tugarin is also portrayed as

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

rival of Prince Vladimir.

Nature myth

It has been suggested by some commentators that Tugarin represents the element of fire, since in some versions of "Alyosha Popovich", Tugarin's torso is covered with fiery snakes which he uses as a weapon, attempts to strangle Alyosha with smoke, throw fiery sparks at him, scorch him with fire, and shoot firebrands (, or ignited logs of wood) at him. Tugarin may also represent the element of water, because their duel usually takes place near a river (usually Safat River). However Tugarin is defeated due to rain, which spoils his papery wings.

Combat with Alyosha

Tugarin Zmeyevich is best known from the bylina about his duel with

Alyosha Popovich Alyosha Popovich (russian: Алёша Попович, literally ''Alexey, son of the priest''), is a folk hero in the Rus' folklore, a bogatyr (i.e., a medieval knight-errant). He is the youngest of the three main bogatyrs, the other two being ...

, which comes in many different versions. The story is also found in the prose fairytale version."Alyósha Popóvich", Afanas'ev, "312. Alyosha Popovich", In some versions, they two meet for the duel at Safat River, where they pitch pavilions. Tugarin roars in a booming voice, or else hisses like a snake. He is flying in the sky flapping his paper-like wings, which fail him when it rains. Alyosha Popovich wins the duel, cuts Tugarin's body into pieces and scatters them across the field. Some bylinas mention Tugarin's intimate relations with the wife of knyaz

Vladimir Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukr ...

. When she finds out about his death, she turns sad and reproaches Alyosha Popovich for separating her from her "dear friend".

Other dragons

Tugarin Zmeyevich is a chtonical character of an ancient dragon-fighting myth, related to

Zmey Gorynych A Slavic dragon is any dragon in Slavic mythology, including the Russian '' zmei'' (or ''zmey''; ), Ukrainian ''zmiy'' (), and its counterparts in other Slavic cultures: the Bulgarian ''zmey'' (), the Slovak ''drak'' and ''šarkan'', Czech '' ...

(, ), Fiery Dragon () etc.

Modern depictions

The legend of Tugarin Zmeyevich is mentioned in the novel ''The City Beautiful'' by Aden Polydoros, with the character Yakov imagining the antisemitic murderer of his family as Tugarin. The dragon is portrayed as an amalgamation of burned corpses.

Explanatory notes

References

;Citations ;Bibliography ;texts * * * * ;studies * {{Slavmyth Russian folklore characters Characters in Bylina Slavic legendary creatures Russian mythology Dragons