Stories about the fiery serpent. Fire serpent in Rus'
Fire Serpent
The fiery serpent, according to popular belief, is the personification of the devil. The devil takes this form when he intends to have sexual intercourse with women. Stories about such connections exist among all Slavic peoples, and they are also included in our chronicles.
According to the legend of Peter and Fevronia, the devil entered into a relationship with the princess (the wife of Paul, Peter's brother) during the life of her husband, but in most cases he chooses as his victims lonely widows or girls, who are beyond measure sad and killed for their dead husbands or lovers, and takes the place of the latter. Such unfortunates, completely absorbed in their grief, often forget their duties towards God and their neighbors. They stop praying, stop attending church, murmur against the Lord, doubt His mercy, and blaspheme.
These are the circumstances that the devil takes advantage of. Having identified such a woman, in the dead of night he flies across the sky in the form of a fiery kite, stops over her hut, scatters sparks and appears yearning under the guise of her husband or lover. Of course, such a phenomenon terrifies a woman, but the devil’s charm is so great that she soon gets used to the idea that the person she loves is alive and not dead.
The devil spends the night with her in passionate caresses and disappears at the first crow of the roosters. Then his visits to his new mistress occur every night.
The love of the fiery serpent dries and torments women. They turn pale, lose weight, and become emaciated. The days are spent in severe melancholy, eagerly awaiting the night, and with it, the beloved.
It happens that a woman seduced by the devil talks to him in the presence of strangers, but the latter do not see or hear the spirit. Sometimes from such connections children will be born, but not ordinary ones, but heroes, magicians or kikimoras.
There is the following legend about the origin and life of kikimoras among the Russian people:
“The unclean soul will fall in love with the red maiden, he, the accursed one, will burn like a fiery serpent, he will illuminate the dense oak forests. He, the villain, flies across the sky like a ball of fire; scatters on the ground with flammable fire, in the red maiden’s mansion he becomes a young man of indescribable beauty. He dries and chills the red maiden to the point of languor.
Is it because of this unclean force that a girl’s child is born into something ugly? Out of anguish and sadness, the hearts of the father and mother are torn that the red maiden has given birth to an unnatural child. They swear and scold the unlucky child with a great oath: he should not live in this world, he should not be like a human being; He would burn forever in boiling tar, in an unquenchable fire.
Since that oath, that cursed child, without pore, without time, disappears from the mother’s womb. And he, the accursed one, is carried away by the unclean, distant lands to the thirtieth kingdom. And there, exactly seven weeks later, the cursed child is called Kikimora.
Kikimora lives and grows with a magician in the stone mountains; He waters and pampers Kikimora with copper dew, soars in the bathhouse with a silk broom, and scratches his head with a golden comb. From morning to evening, Kikimora is entertained by the bayun cat, telling her overseas fairy tales about the entire human race. From evening until midnight, the magician plays brilliant games, amuses Kikimora with either a blind goat or blind man's buff. From midnight until broad daylight, Kikimora is rocked in a crystal cradle.
Exactly seven years later, Kikimora grows up. The thin one, the dark one, that Kikimora; and her head is as small as a thimble, and her body is barely recognizable as a straw. Kikimora sees far away in the sky, rather he runs on the damp ground. Kikimora doesn’t try for a whole century; without clothes, without shoes, she wanders summer and winter. No one sees Kikimora either in the middle of the day or in the middle dark night. She, Kikimora, knows all the cities with suburbs, all the villages with little villages; She, Kikimora, knows about the entire human race, about all the grave sins. Kikimora makes friends with magicians and witches.
She keeps evil on her mind for honest people. As the years end, when the time comes for the law, Kikimora runs out from behind the stone mountains into the wide world to the evil magicians of science. And even those magicians are cunning, malicious people; They send Kikimora to good people for destruction. Kikimora enters the hut without anyone knowing, she settles behind the stove without anyone knowing. Kikimora knocks and thunders from morning to evening; from evening until midnight Kikimora whistles and hisses in all corners and on the counter; from midnight to broad daylight he spins hemp tow, twists hemp yarn, and warps silk warp. At dawn, she, Kikimora, assembles oak tables, sets up maple benches, and lays damask benches for a slovenly feast, for uninvited guests. Nothing is to her heart, Kikimora: and that stove is not in the right place, and that table is in the wrong corner, and that bench is not on the wall. Kikimora builds the stove in his own way, sets up the table in an elegant way, and decorates the bench with cufflinks. She survives, Kikimora, the owner himself, she, the accursed one, plagues every human race. And even after that, she, the evil one, stirs up the world of the baptized: a passer-by is walking down the street, and even then she throws a stone under his feet; whether the posadsky is going to the market to trade, and then she hits him with a stone in the head. Since that disaster, the great houses of the townspeople are empty, the courtyards are overgrown with grass and ants.”
If the connection with the snake continues for a long time, then the woman goes crazy and often commits suicide.
The only way to get rid of the snake devil is to put a neck cross on him. But it is difficult to persuade a charmed woman to resort to such a measure. If, however, she obeys, then at least she did not have time to put the cross on the neck of the evil one, but after several repetitions of this attempt, the devil leaves her and the patient recovers.
Here is one of the stories that were often told in villages:
“There was a case in Vetluga. A young woman, having been married for only one year, suddenly lost her husband: he was killed somewhere on the side. Anna shed a lot of tears, she grieved greatly and did not know what to do out of sadness. Autumn came, and the townspeople saw a flyer: it would appear, illuminate and scatter over the house where the young widow lived. Many warned Anna and said that they themselves saw how a fiery serpent flew towards her, and advised her to turn to God with prayers, but the widow did not want to hear, she rejected the advice of good people. She, without hesitation, told her family and friends that her husband was not killed, but was only hiding from people, because misfortune befell him, and he did not dare to show himself to anyone except his wife, whom he visited often. She said that when her husband spends the night with her, he sleeps with her, as he slept before while alive, and leaves around midnight before the roosters crow. However, the fiery serpent did not fly for long to the widow. She began to quickly melt, did not eat anything for days, was sad and lost her mind, and soon paralysis struck her, so she soon died in complete exhaustion and madness.”
In addition to the cross, a conspiracy pronounced by a healer could save a woman yearning for him from the fiery serpent.
The ritual began with sticking a Mordvinnik into the threshold and into all the cracks of the hut, and then the conspiracy itself was pronounced:
“As in the city of Lukorye a serpent flew across Pomorie, the city’s queen admired him, she was killed by longing for the king, she mated with him, with the serpent, her whiteness diminished, her heart yearned, she indulged in one consolation - as the serpent flies, so it will deceive her. I'm not afraid of you, snake. I will worship the Lord God, I will become like the Venerable Mary of Egypt, I will be imprisoned. Just as a dead man cannot rise from the earth, so do not you fly to me, do not set my womb on fire, and do not yearn for my heart. I make a conspiracy, lock myself with an iron castle, fence myself in with a stone fence, cool myself with spring water, cover myself with the shroud of the Mother of God; Amen".
author Belov Alexander IvanovichFiery serpent wolf However, it is possible that Koschey the Immortal is a later version of the myth. In earlier versions, the Fire Serpent acts, and he acts quite boldly, as befits an unrestrained aggressive enslaver. The Fire Serpent kidnaps (or takes into
From the book Aryan Rus' [The Heritage of Ancestors. Forgotten gods of the Slavs] author Belov Alexander IvanovichA fiery serpent with twelve heads. In Russian fairy tales there is a character - the giant Usynya. He stands on a par with such giant characters as Gorynya and Dubynya. It is assumed that Gorynya is associated with the mountains, Dubynya - with oak trees, and Usynya - either with a long mustache, or with the waters of the river,
From the book Aryan Rus' [The Heritage of Ancestors. Forgotten gods of the Slavs] author Belov Alexander IvanovichThe Fire Serpent Returns There is a similar character in Slavic mythology. A fiery demon snake flies into the widow's house and, hitting the stove damper, scatters with many sparks, transforming into a beautiful young man. In this guise the serpent seduces the widow.
From book Everyday life sorcerers and healers in Russia in the 18th-19th centuries author Budur Natalia ValentinovnaFire Serpent The Fire Serpent, according to popular views, is the personification of the devil. The devil takes this form when he intends to have sexual intercourse with women. Stories about such connections exist among all Slavic peoples, and they are also included in our chronicles. According to
author Kryuchkova Olga Evgenievna From book Slavic gods, spirits, heroes of epics author Kryuchkova Olga Evgenievna From the book Slavic gods, spirits, heroes of epics author Kryuchkova Olga Evgenievna From the book History of Humanity. Russia author Khoroshevsky Andrey YurievichFireball over Tunguska On the morning of June 30, 1908 in the sky above the river basin. Podkamennaya Tunguska (Krasnoyarsk Territory) a gigantic sparkling fireball rushed rapidly and exploded at an altitude of about ten kilometers. The force of the explosion was equivalent to that of an atomic bomb.
author Kryuchkova Olga Evgenievna From the book Slavic gods, spirits, heroes of epics. Illustrated Encyclopedia author Kryuchkova Olga Evgenievna From the book Traditions of the Russian People author Kuznetsov I. N.Fiery Serpent In the Tula province there is a belief that on Epiphany, wherever the fiery serpent appears, it will find its destruction. Everyone in Rus' knows what a miracle the fiery serpent is. Everyone knows why he is flying and where he is flying; but no one dares to talk about it out loud.
Akunov Wolfgang Viktorovich
Year of Fire Having repulsed the advance of the Comintern vanguard into Berlin in January 1919, the German Whites launched their next attack against the self-proclaimed Bremen Soviet Republic. Having broken the stubborn resistance of approximately 1,500 Red Guards in fierce battles and
From the book Encyclopedia of Slavic culture, writing and mythology author Kononenko Alexey AnatolievichSnake Fire Wolf In Slavic mythology, a hero, a character in the Serbian epic. The origins of this character, like the hero of the ancient Russian legend Vseslav, Prince of Polotsk (11th century), are in the pan-Slavic myth of the wolf hero (werewolf). The Fire Wolf Serpent (Vuk) is born from the Fire Serpent in
Three centuries ago, a strange epidemic struck the Balkans and Eastern Europe. After the funeral, the ghost of the deceased appeared before relatives, asked for food, and then squeezed them (primarily children) in his arms until death. Relatives complained to local magistrates and the church. As a result of long ordeals, people driven to despair sought permission to exhume graves and discovered “dead people” there, showing signs of life. After they were executed, the uninvited guests no longer appeared. Local residents called them ghosts, but later it turned out that the Turks called the same ghosts vampires. Gradually this word migrated to the languages of Europe. It is curious that doctors of that era considered vampirism a disease and assumed that the infection came to Europe from the Turkish Sultanate.
The best minds of Europe, on behalf of the sovereigns, dealt with an unexpected misfortune; the most authoritative persons took part in the exhumations of the graves of vampires, sent to verify the authenticity of messages coming to the authorities of Austria-Hungary from various places. Many reports appeared, among them - the “Dissertation on the Appearances of Ghosts, Vampires and Apparitions” published in 1749 by Abbot Augustin Calmet, the “Medical Report on Vampires” made especially for the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa by the chief physician of Vienna Gerard Van Swieten, the work of Pope Benoit XIV Prospero Lambertini “Vampires in the light of science” (1749), etc.
Neither priests nor scientists could explain this eerie phenomenon, which was also accompanied by poltergeists in the homes of vampire victims. Therefore, everything was officially attributed to “native superstitions of the Slavs and Greeks.” But vampirism did not disappear, but continued to exist (no longer called vampirism) in various places and was observed even in the 20th century. I collected many such examples in The Book of Vampires, where I tried for the first time in the last three centuries to study the phenomenon using scientific methods.
DISCOVERY dossier
Poltergeist (from German poltern - make noise and geist - spirit) - this term refers to inexplicable, paranormal phenomena associated with noise and knocking, spontaneous movement of objects, spontaneous combustion, etc. A poltergeist is usually attached to a person, most often a child. The invasion of a person’s life by forces of unknown origin is associated with material damage and psychological trauma. The poltergeist poses an insoluble question to scientists: where does the energy expended during this phenomenon come from?
THE MIRACLE OF SAINT KHARBEL
From the point of view of modern scientific ideas, a vampire is not a dead person (as was believed in the Enlightenment), but a comatose person buried by mistake. The second misconception was the myth that the vampire drinks the blood of his victims. In fact, as was said in reports back in the 18th century, the vampire’s embrace left specific bruises on the victim’s body - but the skin was not damaged. The blood myth arose from the fact that a vampire was found in a coffin half filled with blood (with a whitish, extremely caustic toxic secretion). However, it was the blood of the vampire himself, and not his victims.
During my research, I came to a surprising conclusion: some incorruptible saints are typical vampires. In the book “Incorruptible” (1977) by the American Joan Carroll Cruz, 102 cases of “miraculous incorruptibility” are described. One of the most impressive cases concerns the “beautifully preserved and bleeding body” of the Lebanese saint Harbel Makhouf. This Maronite monk “died” on December 24, 1898, after an apoplexy. During his life, he observed strict bodily discipline: he wore a hair shirt, slept on the ground, and ate once a day (like his other comrades).
According to the traditions of his monastery at Annai, Harbel was buried in his casual clothes, without a coffin and, of course, not embalmed.
Many admit that they would have immediately forgotten about it, but one very unusual phenomenon occurred. For 45 nights after his burial (it is during this period that the complete decomposition of the body usually occurs), a bright glow was observed around the grave. Monastery officials asked permission from the Order's leaders to exhume the body. The exhumation took place three months later in the presence of a crowd of residents of a nearby village.
However, it is doubtful that the reason for the exhumation was a simple glow over the grave. In vampirology it is repeatedly reported that over the burial of vampires at night you can see a very specific glow that cannot be confused with any other; this must have been what aroused suspicion. Moreover, in this region, vampirism in those days, and even now, is quite common. It is also possible that the saint was a vampire (his condition testified to this) and it was the statement of people who saw the ghost that became the real reason for the exhumation.
Since there had been long and heavy rains the day before, which flooded the cemetery, Saint Harbel (at that time, however, he was not a saint) was found floating in a grave full of dirty water. After the body was washed and changed, witnesses to the exhumation noticed that some kind of liquid was leaking from its pores. It was described as “a mixture of sweat and blood,” that is, blood with an unknown admixture gradually left the body through the sweat ducts. It had a specific pungent odor, similar to the floral aroma that is formed during the breakdown of amino acids, which, by the way, is a sign of a living body. This fluid continued to leak, resulting in Harbel's clothing having to be changed twice a week. Pieces of clothing soaked in it were distributed as holy relics and were considered healing.
This continued until July 1927, when it was decided to place the body in a galvanized wooden coffin, and the latter in a special crypt in the prayer wall, raised on stones in order to protect it from moisture. The miracle of Saint Harbel caused worship, and streams of people began to arrive in Annaya. And today the pilgrimage does not stop, it has become even more widespread, although since 1950 Harbel’s body has not been shown to the public. In February of that year, pilgrims noticed that liquid began to leak through the prayer wall onto the floor. This forced the monks to reopen the grave, and what they saw shocked those gathered. The body looked flexible, life-like, and showed absolutely no signs of decomposition. At the same time, toxic substances turned the zinc coffin and the saint’s clothes into dust. The liquid flowed out in such quantities that, when dried, it formed masses of white powder, which were dismantled as relics by pilgrims.
PREDECESSORS TO THE MARONITE MONK
And now it’s time to look into the archives of vampirology. Abbot Augustin Calmet writes in his treatise: “In state reports for 1693-1694. talks about ghouls, vampires and ghosts that appear in Poland [Rzeczpospolita] and - more widely reported - in Russia. They appear at any time of the day and come to drink the blood of living people and animals - in this large quantities that sometimes it flows back through their mouth, nose and, most often, through their ears, and the corpse floats in a coffin filled with blood... One of these vampires was buried about three years ago; over his grave a glow was visible, similar to the light of a lamp, but less bright. The grave was opened and a man was found, intact and seemingly as healthy as any of us present. Then he was taken out of the grave; the body was not truly flexible, but it was whole and completely intact; then they pierced his heart with something like a metal lance, round and sharp: a whitish liquid with blood flowed from there... After that, they cut off his head with an ax, and the same liquid with blood flowed from his body, but more abundantly than from his heart. In the end, he was thrown back into the grave and covered with quicklime to finish the job for sure.”
Thus, in both cases, which are separated by 200 years, we see a glow over the vampire's grave, a body floating in a blood-filled coffin, and a huge amount of an unknown "whitish liquid". The only difference is that one comatose man was brutally killed and covered with lime, and the other was made a saint. Both are vampires.
And in other cases, when we are undoubtedly talking about vampirism, modern researchers never use this term. For example, in the famous poltergeist that appeared in the village of Askiz in the Republic of Khakassia in 1994-1995, when several people died from it, no one recognized the typical features of this phenomenon. It was studied by a group of scientists led by Yuri Yaklichkin, with whom I subsequently discussed the vampiric nature of this phenomenon.
Vampirism is almost always accompanied by poltergeists (including people constantly seeing vampire clothes and things that “move on their own”). From the grave to the house the vampire moves in the form of a so-called “fiery serpent” - similar to ball lightning education, which many today confuse with UFOs. What a vampire eats to maintain strength in his comatose state is unclear. This is probably some kind of hypothetical “life force” that has not yet been discovered by science. On average, a vampiric coma lasts several years, but sometimes (like Harbel Makhof and others) - decades, after which the comatose person dies (and his remains, saturated with toxic secretions, do not decompose, but only dry out).
The ghost of a vampire is seen only by those to whom the “focus of his attention” is directed.
Of course, almost everything about this phenomenon looks strange and mysterious. But at the same time, it is the most documented anomalous phenomenon. The words of Jean-Jacques Rousseau are indicative: “If there was a true and proven story in the world, it was the history of vampires. Nothing is missing: official reports, testimonies of titled persons, surgeons, priests, judges - the evidence is complete.” The phenomenon has been described in Europe for 900 years: about an ancient epidemic of typical vampirism in England in the 1190s. it is described in detail in the chronicle of William of Newburgh “History of England”. It seems that in 900 years it would be possible, if not to study, then at least to recognize the existence of this phenomenon. However, not only scientists, but also many researchers of the unknown consider this phenomenon too fabulous, strange, and incomprehensible. This is a paradox...
ON THE TRAIL OF THE FIRE SERPENT
The grass is falling with a little evening dew,
A black-browed widow is scratching her braid and washing her neck.
And he doesn’t take his dark eyes off the sky at the window,
And it flies, coiled into rings, in the bright sparks of long snakes.
And it makes noise, closer and closer, and over the widow’s yard,
The thatched roof bursts into flames.
And the black-browed widow will immediately close the window;
Only kisses and words can be heard in the bright room...
These poems by Afanasy Fet are an excellent exposition of the legend of the Fire Serpent or Flyer, as he was popularly called. It is in this form that he moves from the grave to the house.
It is curious that the Fire Serpent began to appear in the villages of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine only during the spread of the epidemic of vampirism, or rather in the middle of the 17th century. The famous Murom “Tale of Peter and Fevronia” can also be attributed to this time, which begins with a description of a typical Flyer. The Fiery Serpent began to visit the wife of a certain prince, who, having flown into the house through the chimney, turned into a man and engaged in fornication with the princess.
In all descriptions the phenomenon looked approximately the same. Soon after a person who had fallen into a vampiric coma was buried, a strange glow was noted over his grave. Eyewitnesses saw a fireball, usually the size of a football, flying from the direction of the cemetery towards the village, leaving behind a multi-meter tail of something similar to flame. The flight was silent, proceeding at low speed at a height of human height and above, up to three meters above the ground. The ball flew into the chimney of the house where the buried person lived, and there it turned into his ghost, visible only to the victim. The ghost of the “dead man” sometimes made love to a widow (or widower), and more often squeezed his relatives (primarily children) in his arms, and they began to wither and soon died. All this was usually accompanied by a poltergeist.
Ancient beliefs about Flyers have existed in Russian villages since the 17th century. to this day. The peasants believed that the Fire Snakes were “devils who fly and tempt women.” The following motif of stories was widespread in the villages: The Fire Snake (referred to in the Yaroslavl region as a “fire snake”) flies to girls and women, and, scattering sparks over the pipe, “he (through the pipe) appears in the hut in the guise of a handsome guy or the deceased husband of the mistress Houses". (Mikhail Chulkov, 1786)
Vladimir Dal in his book “On Beliefs, Superstitions and Prejudices of the Russian People” points out that this creature does not have a single name. In the Smolensk and Ryazan regions such a snake was called Lyubak, in the Oryol region - Volokita, in the Tambov province - Lyubostai. According to the beliefs of the Yaroslavl and Vladimir regions, there is Raid, an evil spirit in the form of a fiery broom “six arshins”. He often visits people who are grieving for the deceased.
The fire snake appears in the folklore only of those regions where an epidemic of vampirism occurred 250-300 years ago, including in Serbia and its neighboring countries. For example, the Serbian epic about Vuk the Fire Serpent tells about this. By the way, the constant character of our folk tales - the Serpent Gorynych (that is, the Burning One) - is the Fire Serpent, the Flyer. Today, artists and animators depict him precisely as a snake, and by the name “Gorynych” they understand his supposed ability to spew fire. In fact, it is not a snake at all, but it got its nickname from its multi-meter fiery tail, which wriggled during flight (that’s where the nickname came from - the Serpent).
In fairy tales, this Serpent strives to get into the beauty’s room because in reality he visited widows.
There is no doubt that the Serpent Gorynych really extremely annoyed the villagers and brought death with him. In this regard, cartoons about epic heroes show a true picture of how the appearance of the Serpent Gorynych caused panic among the peasants. But the main thing is missing from them - that this Serpent flew from the cemetery.
From sunset to sunrise
Samara researcher of modern mythology Igor Pavlovich in his work “Fire Snakes - Who are They?” writes that “similar beliefs have survived to this day.” In particular, researchers in the Yaroslavl region over the past twelve years have recorded 166 stories touching on the image of the Fire Serpent. “These creatures do not fly quickly, wriggling, sometimes noisily twirling and tumbling. Numerous reports of encounters with these creatures occur in 1910-1919, 1930-1939, 1940-1949,” writes Pavlovich.
And ufologist Dmitry Kazakov collected hundreds of evidence of this strange phenomenon and identified some of its patterns:
1. It always appears after sunset or before sunrise, from somewhere from the side (not from the sky).
2. Always has the same parameters.
3. With rare exceptions, they appear over populated areas. They especially gravitate towards widows' houses, where they scatter sparks or dive into chimneys. In this case, the deceased appears in the hut (there are many eyewitnesses).
4. They were very common until the 1960s. Now they are observed extremely rarely.
A typical incident occurred in the summer of 1945 with a woman, who refused to identify herself, who was walking from the village of Melyandy to the village of Chupraki:
“We saw with a friend - something similar to a fiery sheaf of rye, about a meter in size, was flying. He flew smoothly, just above the houses. Not fast and direct. Then he turned towards a house. There stood a half-withered tall spruce. The “sheaf” touched her and crumbled. And then this spruce completely withered. And then one woman (widow) told us that her deceased husband Stepan “flew in”: “I’m walking through the yard, and he’s standing there, dressed all in white. Then I started hooting, and he flew out.”
And here is evidence of the snake’s return to the cemetery:
“V.F. Konovalov lived on the “Giant” state farm near Kovrov. In the late fall of 1953, when he was 8 years old, he was on his way to school. The path went past the village cemetery. Suddenly, a pink, dim ball appeared above the forest, which, thanks to its tail, looked like a “flying kite.” The ball flew slowly, and the witness was able to get a good look at it. It was the size of a soccer ball, even a little smaller. Having described a slow arc, the ball hit the concrete slab of one of the graves. There was a silent explosion with flames in all directions. The boy ran as fast as he could towards the school...” (Archive of the Commission on Anomalous Phenomena).
There is a lot of similar evidence. Getting to know them makes you look differently at the fairy-tale Serpent Gorynych - he no longer seems fairy-tale...
How the flyer was caughtOne day the flyer was completely caught. He fell in love with a woman whose husband had died shortly before. He will fly into the chimney like a Fire Snake, and in the hut he will turn into the husband of this woman. And she began to lose weight and turn pale, as if someone was sucking her blood. Knowledgeable people took pity on her and decided to lie in wait and catch the flyer. For this purpose, about five people gathered and in the evening sat down near the hut into which the Fire Serpent appeared. Suddenly they saw a flaming ball with a tail flying, flew up to the pipe and descended into it. One man brought holy water from the house and began to sprinkle this water on the door, shutters and windows of this hut so that the flyer could not get out; then they climbed onto the roof, sprinkled the pipe there and covered it with a board; then they entered the hut itself.
As soon as the flyer smelled holy water, he jumped out from behind the table and rushed into the pipe, but it was closed and sprinkled with holy water; then he began to rush from corner to corner, and meanwhile the men began to sprinkle the shutters and inside the hut. Then the Fire Snake turned into a fly and hid in a corner on the stove, but the men did not give rest there either. After that, he hid in a pot where the hostess put the threads. The men were glad that they had finally caught the flyer and covered the pot with a frying pan. Then they took the pot and, holding the frying pan with their hand, carried it outside. But the flyer burned a hole in the pot and flew out invisibly, only a handful of sparks remained, and they soon went out and turned to ashes.
One peasant left, as usual, in the spring to earn money. Three weeks later, a letter comes to his wife that he has died.
At first she cried and grieved a lot, then she stopped crying and became very cheerful and talkative. The mother-in-law began to ask why she was so cheerful, but the widow did not tell her anything.
Meanwhile, at this time, all the neighbors began to notice that at night the Fire Snake was descending over her house: it scattered with rare sparks over the roof and disappeared into the chimney. One of the neighbors told the mother-in-law of the widowed young woman about this incident. The mother-in-law again began to pester the pullet and ask why she was becoming more cheerful? Finally, she revealed to her that her husband was not dead and that he visited her at night and even brought her gifts.
Her mother-in-law dissuaded her and told her that the neighbors all saw the Fire Snake flying over their house and crumbling. The young woman was very frightened and finally believed that it was not her husband who was visiting her, but the Fire Serpent - as punishment for missing her husband too much. She turned to the help of a healer, and she advised her to do so. As soon as night comes and the time for him to come, she must sit on the threshold of the cage where she slept, and scratch her head with a comb, and pour hemp into her apron and eat it.
The young woman did just that. As soon as night fell, she sat down on the threshold of the cage and began scratching her head and eating hemp. Suddenly she sees her husband walking across the yard towards her, angry, gloomy, approaches her and asks what she is doing. Then the young woman replies:
- Don't you see? I scratch my head and eat cannabis.
From these words he flew into a terrible rage; grabbed her by the braids and began to beat her, then went out into the yard, hit the ground, causing fiery sparks to fall from him, and disappeared. On the second day, the mother-in-law found the pullet barely alive in the cage, but since then the Fire Serpent stopped flying to her.
The peasant went to the city to earn money, and his wife was left alone. And the sorcerer fell in love with her, so much so that he couldn’t bear it. And she doesn’t even want to know him:
- I have my own husband, what do I need you for?
This sorcerer was known to have evil powers and learned to use the Fire Serpent. As soon as night falls, it will crawl out of its chimney, fly up in a ball of flammable sparks, and then fall into the chimney of the house where that pullet lived. But he appeared to her in the form of her husband, and even though she sensed that something was unclean here, she still could not overcome sin and every night she made love with her “husband,” even though he was a sorcerer. And this went on until trouble happened: the woman felt herself in a burden. And then take your husband’s friend and come on leave. And he said: her husband works day and night, earns money, and there was no way he could visit her at night a hundred miles away!
The young woman realized that she had been taken over by an evil spirit and that now she could not escape the shame - and she closed the view in the hut ahead of time. She's gone crazy, poor thing, and no one can prove that she committed suicide.
On the eve of the funeral, when the sexton was reading prayers over the body, he suddenly dozed off from fatigue, and at that very moment a cloud of sparks flew out of the stove. He began to curl around the floor and cry bitterly in a human voice. The sexton hesitated - everything was lost.
This, you know, the sorcerer-lover came to say goodbye to his darling forever.
A little evening dew
The grass is crumbling,
Scratching his braid, washing his neck
Black-browed widow.
And it doesn’t bother you at the window
From the sky of dark eyes,
And flies, twisting into rings,
There is a long snake in bright sparks.
And the noise is getting closer, closer,
And over the widow's yard,
Over the thatched roof
Scatters with fire.
And the window will immediately be curtained
Black-browed widow;
Only heard in the bright room
Kisses and words.
The Fire Serpent is the embodiment of serpentine cunning and strength, which flies over villages and penetrates the huts of lonely girls and women. If a flyer falls in love with a girl, then the sweetheart is incurable forever. No one dares to reprimand such passion, or speak to him, or give him drink. Everyone sees how the Fiery Serpent flies through the air and burns with an unquenchable fire, but not everyone knows that as soon as he descends into the chimney, he will find himself in a hut as a young man of unspeakable beauty. Without loving, you will love, without praising, you will praise, the old women say, such a fine fellow. He, the villain, knows how to deceive the soul of a red maiden with greetings; He, the destroyer, will delight the young lady with a swan speech; he will play, ruthless, with a zealous girl’s heart; He, insatiable, will drown his beloved in hot embraces; He, barbarian, will melt his scarlet lips with honey and sugar. From his kisses the red maiden of the ruddy dawn burns; from his greetings the beautiful maiden blooms like a red sun. Without the Serpent, the beautiful maiden sits in melancholy, in grief; without him she does not look at God's light; without it she dries, dries herself!
But in fact, the Fire Serpent has a ball-shaped head, a trough-shaped back, and a long, very long tail - sometimes up to five fathoms. Arriving at its place, it crumbles into sparks that fly out as if from a sieve, and it flies so low that it can be seen from the ground no more than a fathom. He visits only women who have long and deeply grieved for their absent or deceased husbands.
The visitor himself is not visible to outsiders, but his voice is heard in the hut; He answers questions and begins to speak himself. Moreover, his visits are noticeable because his lovers begin to grow rich before people’s eyes, although at the same time every woman with whom the Serpent gets into the habit certainly begins to lose weight and waste away (they say: “The Midnight Office is on”); and another is tormented to the point that she dies or commits suicide (all cases of female suicide are attributed to the Fire Serpent).
There are, however, ways to get rid of the visit of the Serpent. A conscientious and bashful woman will come to her senses and turn to the witches for advice, and they will show how to find out who comes at night: whether the husband is real or unclean. To do this, they order, while the chosen one is sitting at the table with the Fire Serpent and treating her to everything that he brings and displays, to drop some thing from the table and then, picking it up, bend over and look: are there any hooves in sight? is there a tail tip between them? For a girl enchanted by the Serpent, there is a reliable way to get rid of the fierce spell. On a moonless night, you need to throw prophetic herbs into a cauldron: sheep's gentian, hellebore, iris, sweet clover - and in the morning douse yourself with the decoction - and the Serpent will forever forget the way to home. But you should remember: herbs should be collected only in the mermaid week, not earlier, not later. To get rid of the Fire Snake and the dryness around it, you can stick Mordvinnik grass into the threshold and all the cracks of the house and read the spell:
How can a dead man not rise from the ground?
So you shouldn’t fly to me either,
Do not set my womb on fire,
And my heart should not be sad.
I am conspiring with a conspiracy,
I lock myself with an iron lock,
I fence myself off with a stone wall,
I cool off with spring water,
Veil Mother of God I'm covering myself.
Then they sprinkled holy water everywhere - especially in the attic, because the Fire Serpent appears through the chimney.
In ancient times, it was believed that women gave birth to children from Fire Serpents, but most of them were short-lived (“as soon as they were born, they went under the floor”) or were already dead. The birth of freaks is also attributed to the participation of the Serpent, and the midwives who went to receive such children conceived from evil spirits, they said that children would be born “black, light, with a short tail and small horns”: kikimoras. There were, according to the words of hoary antiquity, cases where twelve little snakes were born from such love at once, sucking to death the beauty that gave birth to them into the world.
At the same time, there were people who were not afraid to call upon the Fire Serpents in conspiracies to dry out a girl’s heart. To do this, they washed themselves in the bathhouse and whispered a curse into the water that remained after washing: “Nine spirits are coming from me, nine fiery ones, they want to light the blue sea; do not light the blue sea, but light the heart of such and such a girl.” And they secretly gave this water to the one they were bewitching.
The Fire Serpents were called to their presence by sorcerers, because the flyers bring money to their chosen ones and help them dig up treasures. They used to say about people who suddenly became rich: “The flyer brought money.”
For amorous dates with a woman, a sorcerer sometimes turns into a Fire Serpent. Also, its appearance may foreshadow the death of someone in the family.
(According to A. Korinthsky)
E.A. Grushko, Yu.M. Medvedev
"Russian legends and traditions"
And no matter how they call this phenomenon: flyer, fiery serpent, serpent - lubak.
There are tales about the flyer, and not only Russian ones. There are eyewitness accounts, folklore collectors and serious scientists mention it. In V.I. Dahl’s dictionary we read “...a flyer is a flying, crumbling, evil air spirit, a fiery kite.” There is a wonderful poem by A.A. Feta, written back in 1847:
The grass is falling with a little evening dew,
A black-browed widow is scratching her braid and washing her neck.
And he doesn’t take his dark eyes off the sky at the window,
And it flies, coiled into rings, in the bright sparks of long snakes.
And it makes noise, closer and closer, and over the widow’s yard,
The thatched roof bursts into flames.
And the black-browed widow will immediately close the window;
Only kisses and words can be heard in the bright room...
The phenomenon, in a word, is not uncommon.
Actually, I already have one story about a flyer, and there are many similar ones on the site. In hard times, this phenomenon was often observed. I repeat: fairy tales about the flyer have been written, and scientific articles have been written.
And, probably, everything has already been said on this topic, but I’ll tell you one more story, I’ll share...
It was during the difficult war years. “Funerals” flew into homes by the thousands. Great grief covered the cities and villages: women howled and wailed for their dead husbands, orphaned children wandered along the roads, begging for alms for Christ’s sake. A sea of human suffering and tears! This was a place for evil spirits to roam!
In the village where my father was born, there lived a girl, Nastya. Seventeen years in total. She got married on the eve of the war.
Good day, my dear residents of your favorite site! Don’t be offended that I’m so familiar - dear, but all the good words have been taken apart, I got it... dear. I was inspired to tell this story mainly by Hilda’s story; I commented on it a little, but then decided to write it as a separate story. Moreover, I heard it not from the thirtieth lips, but from the second, namely from my beloved grandmother Alexandra Makarovna Strakevich, blessed memory to her. It happened in one of the Siberian villages, or rather villages, because there is a church there (therefore it is considered a village). In memory of my grandmother, I will try to tell the story from her perspective.
...No... nothing like that happens in the village now, but during the war, and even after, there was a thing... It happened with Manka Evstropova, it happened just after the war.
The Slavs believed that evil has many faces. In their mythology there was an interesting character - a fiery serpent. In Western countries there is a similar creature - an incubus. He seduces widows and girls, taking away their vitality. They say that the fiery serpent can still penetrate the homes of unwary beauties, doing its dirty work. How to deal with it without falling for tricks? Let's figure it out.
Description
This received different names in the villages. Some called him “snake-lubaka”, others - “fiery raid”, others called him more simply - “maniac”, others - “charming”. However, everyone described the purpose of his appearance in the same way. The essence came only to widows and unmarried girls and seduced them with wonderful gifts. Having given herself over to the tempter, the woman withered from a strange passion and died.
The fiery serpent did not appear to everyone. In the evenings he scattered bait on the paths and roads - all sorts of gifts. Either he puts a beautiful ring or a handkerchief, or he hangs shiny beads on the bushes. A fiery serpent appeared at night to the girl who picked up the object without a blessing. With a luminous beam or a fiery broom, he flies up to the chimney of the hut and penetrates inside. And he appears to the beauty in the guise of a man whom she misses. If a widow is chosen as the victim, it means that the spirit looks like her late husband, the girl looks like her absent boyfriend.
It’s easy to recognize a charmer and distinguish him from a real young man: he, as they say, has no backbone. Like any other evil spirits, the fiery serpent cannot correctly pronounce the names of saints. For example, in his mouth the Lord is “Sus Christ”, and his mother is the “Miracle Mother”.
Why does the charmer come to his victim?
The evil spirit of the Slavs appears as the fact that pious people were forbidden to grieve for the dead, to yearn for the absent. This was considered an unworthy and bad deed. Such feelings arose only among those who do not believe enough, and this is already a serious sin. In addition, the tempter could be interested in a girl who lost her virginity before the wedding. The fiery serpent felt that the woman was a sinner and tried to seduce her.
At first, the snake threw gifts at her, testing her. If she showed unreasonable greed, then he himself would show up. This mythological creature, as legends say, had sexual intercourse with a sinner. The woman suffered from this. She transferred her feeling for the absent (or deceased) loved one to the evil spirit, that is, she gave him vital energy. Her health, both physical and spiritual, suffered from this. The girl gradually became dependent on the demon’s caresses and suffered when he was not there. The relationship could lead to a false pregnancy. According to legends, the fetus remained in the body for an abnormally long time - up to several years. When the birth began, instead of a baby, sand or a firebrand came out of the womb. Sometimes a child was still born. It was black, cold, with hooves instead of legs. I didn’t live with such passion for long.
How the fiery serpent was cast out
Contains several recipes for fighting evil forces. The sick woman was given a decoction of overpowering grass or burdock to drink. These same plants were hung on the walls of the room as a talisman. It was desirable for the woman to tell a stranger about her night guest. U Eastern Slavs this condition was considered mandatory. If a woman can open up and understand that something bad is happening to her, then there is hope for salvation. In addition, widows often did not go to bed alone and put the child in bed. Then the charmer did not appear. It was recommended to read the prayer against the prodigal demon over the girl, which was contained in the breviary of Peter the Mogila. And doors, windows and chimneys were consecrated by saying the word “Amen!” If these methods did not help, then respected people in the village talked to the sick woman. They urged to put a cross on the appearing creature. Naturally, the fiery serpent did not agree to this. If the girl persisted, he disappeared forever.
Original method of protection
There is a belief that you can get rid of a charmer in a special way. You need to dress yourself and dress up your children as the bride and groom. When asked by the devilish creature why she is doing this, the answer must be that brother takes sister. The charmer will say that this is not the case. To this one should answer: “Does the dead go to the living?” In the Carpathian villages they assured that the fiery serpent did not appear to the unfortunate woman again.
The danger of this creature lies in the fact that under its influence the woman not only got sick, but went crazy and became inadequate. After a while she killed herself. Sin fell on all her offspring up to the seventh generation, so they tried to rescue the unfortunate woman from the clutches of evil spirits with all their might.
in Slavic mythology
Many peoples have legends about the fiery serpent. It is found in Russian epics and Serbian epic songs. The stories have a lot in common. For example, there is a story about how this creature seduced a woman who later gave birth to a son. The child grew up and defeated his evil father in a fair fight.
In the legends about the eternal struggle between light and darkness, the charmer is also mentioned. There he appears as an assistant to the devil, who inspires passion in an unprotected woman.
In Right Bank Ukraine there are legends in which this creature is called “obayasnyk”. This is a dead groom appearing to a sinner. To prevent his visits, it is forbidden to look at the stars on Vlas's day.
Conclusion
It is interesting that many peoples have evil creatures in their mythologies that have similar characteristics. Surely they weren’t just invented, something was the basis for the appearance of such legends among people who had no contact with each other. Or maybe, as conspiracy theorists say, they were deliberately introduced into folk art those who wanted to teach people to obey? What do you think?