Firedrake (folklore)

In East Slavic tradition, the "fiery serpent" is said to generally resemble a fiery shaft (Russian: коромысло, "fiery carrying pole"), a flaming broom, or a glowing ball of blue fire, releasing sparks during its flight.^[1]

In Swedish folklore, the flogdrake has been given the analogy of a fiery steelyard balance,^[2] firebroom, or flaming sheaf of straw.^[3] It lacks any visible limbs to wings, and is said to appear in the evening sky surrounded by sparks, looking like a golden stripe that sweeps across the sky.^[2]

• 
  a flying bolide meteor
• 
  old Swedish steelyard balance

The firedrake beliefs stems from inexplicable sightings of shooting stars, bolides, and comets, seen as streaks of light flying across the sky, and sometimes crashing and boring into the ground. The association with dragons is not unique to Slavic folklore, and appears variously across Europe to some extent. Similar being also appear in other parts of the world – cf. Boitatá.

In English, the term is firedrake (fire-drake; Old English: fyrdraca), ambiguous with "fiery dragon" and "fiery meteor", as well as will-o'-the-wisp.^[11]

English firedrakes are quite obscure; the lexicographer James Murray wrote for the former the following definition in volume 5 of the Oxford English Dictionary (1901), but does not elaborate further:

A 'fiery dragon'; a mythical creature belonging to Germanic superstition.^[11]

Such have been thought to be the Devil himself, and have been used as a kenning or noa-name for Satan or other personification of evil and deceit, etc.

Demons took on various shapes, and the "fiery serpent" of the East and West Slavs, as well as the "flying serpent" of the Southern Slavs appeared as serpents in air, and as humans on ground.^[13] It releases sparks during its flight and enters the (women's) house through the chimney.^[1]

The evil spirit reputedly visits the woman at night-time.^[14] Women who were widowed, or separated from her husband was particularly vulnerable to having affairs with this certain type of devil,^[1][8][14] because the devil will assume the shape of the dead or absentee husband.^[15] In their grief, and their desperation to be rejoined with their lost love, women do not recognize the serpent and become convinced that their lover has returned.^{[citation needed]} It is told that those who are visited by the serpent experience weight loss, exhibit signs of insanity and eventually commit suicide,^[16] or wither and die.^[14] In addition, victims of the serpent often experience hallucinations, including visions of supernatural torment, such as suckling on breasts which excrete blood rather than milk.^{[citation needed]}

The serpent may bring gifts, but those gifts turn to horse manure at sunrise (Russian, west-Ukrainian).^[16][1][18]

Mythology also tells that the fiery serpent had a son by a human woman, and she bore a werewolf (оборотень), the "Fiery Serpent Wolf" (Zmei Ognennyi Volk; Змей Огненный Волк). Thus women can have the fiery serpent's children, and illegitimate births are still often explained as such devil spawn.^[14] If a woman conceives a child with such a devil, the pregnancy will be exceedingly long, and the child will be born with black skin, with hooves instead of feet, eyes without eyelids and a cold body (Russia), or its body will be cold and jelly-like (East Ukraine). Such births are not viable, and the children die.^[16]

The Swedish version is historically called flogdrake (Old Swedish: floghdraki, "fly-dragon"), elddrake ("fire dragon") or eldsdrake ("fiery dragon"). Whether mythologically related to the Slavic tradition, it stems from seeing light phenomenons in the sky. It is a wingless worm-dragon that flies across the sky while glowing, looking like a streak of fire or light akin to a shooting star, living in mountain tunnels that it drills, called drakarör ("dragon tubes").^[2]

Some interpret the fire streak phenomenon as the dragon "firing over his possessions" or "illuminating his goods", and thus pointing out where the treasure or dragon's nest is to be found. Other interpret the fire streak as the dragon itself.^[6]

• Aitvaras – Nature spirit in Lithuanian mythology
• Drak (mythology) – Infernal familiar and domestic sprite from German folklore
• Chuvash dragon – Legendary winged fire-breathing and shape-shifting creature in Chuvash legends
• Incubus – Mythological demon that seduces women
• Mavka – Female spirit in Ukrainian mythology
• Wawel Dragon – Creature in Polish folklore
• Zburător – Supernatural being in Romanian folklore
• Zmei (Russian) – Dragon or serpent in Russian mythologyPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Flogdrake – similar myth in Sweden