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.