Drangue, the winged storm-hero

The drangue (definite drangùa, drangoni) is a semi-human winged divine hero of Albanian folk belief, the most widespread Albanian culture-hero. Babies destined to become drangue are born wrapped in a caul and bearing two, sometimes four, wings under their arms, and their supernatural strength is held to reside in their wings and arms. The drangue is the archetype of light and good, the protector of mankind who fights and defeats the serpent-dragon kulshedra with thunderbolts, lightning-stones and uprooted trees; their battles are imagined as the great thunderstorms of the highlands. The dragon-slaying sense of the word is already documented in Frang Bardhi's Dictionarium Latino-Epiroticum of 1635.

Domains

• storm and weather
• protection of mankind

Powers

• to do battle with the kulshedra and shield mankind in the storm

Relations

• enemy: Kulshedra, the serpent-dragonThe drangue is the light-bringing hero who fights and defeats the serpent-dragon kulshedra, their clashes manifesting as thunderstorms.Elsie, Robert, A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture, Hurst & Co., London, 2001, s.v. 'Drangue'. (secondary)
• slayer of: Kulshedra, the serpent-dragonIn the central Albanian combat myth the drangue overcomes and slays the kulshedra, hurling trees and lightning-stones at her.Elsie, Robert, A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture, Hurst & Co., London, 2001, s.v. 'Kulshedra'. (secondary)

Sources

• The drangue is a semi-human winged storm-hero of Albanian mythology, born with caul and wings, the protector of mankind and the slayer of the kulshedra.: Elsie, Robert, A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture, Hurst & Co., London, 2001, s.v. 'Drangue'. (secondary); Tirta, Mark, Mitologjia ndër shqiptarë, Akademia e Shkencave e Shqipërisë, Tirana, 2004, pp. 121-140. (secondary)