Kulshedra, the serpent-dragon

The kulshedra (also kuçedra) is a water, storm, fire and chthonic demon of Albanian folklore, usually pictured as a huge multi-headed female serpent-dragon with seven to twelve heads, her body covered in reddish hair and her long breasts dragging on the ground. She is the archetype of darkness and evil, believed to spit fire and to cause drought, storms, flooding and earthquakes against humankind. Well known throughout the Albanian-speaking Balkans and among the Arbëresh of southern Italy, she is the complementary opposite of the drangue, the light-bringing hero who fights and defeats her; their combats are imagined as heavy thunderstorms.

Domains

• drought and storm
• chthonic waters

Powers

• to spit fire and to withhold the waters, bringing drought

Relations

• enemy: Drangue, the winged storm-heroThe kulshedra is the dark, destructive counterpart endlessly opposed by the storm-hero drangue, whose battles are seen in heavy thunderstorms.Elsie, Robert, A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture, Hurst & Co., London, 2001, s.v. 'Drangue'. (secondary)

Sources

• The kulshedra is a multi-headed female serpent-dragon of Albanian folklore, a water, storm and chthonic demon and the archetype of darkness opposed by the drangue.: Elsie, Robert, A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture, Hurst & Co., London, 2001, s.v. 'Kulshedra'. (secondary); Doja, Albert, 'Mythology and Destiny', Anthropos 100/2, 2005, pp. 449-462. (secondary)