Azhdaha
Lak · numen · Lak traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Azhdaha is the dragon of Lak folktale, its name and shape drawn from the Iranian aždahā and shared with the wider Daghestani and Caucasian tradition. It is the classic water-withholding monster: coiled over the single spring on which a village depends, it lets the water flow only when a young woman is delivered to it in turn, so that the community must yield up its daughters one by one until a hero arrives to cut off the dragon's heads and free both the water and the maiden waiting as its tribute. The episode is among the most widespread in Lak magical narrative and gives the serpent a fixed role as the adversary whose death restores life to the land.
Domains
- monstrous serpents
- water hoarding
Powers
- stops up the water-source
- devours the tribute-maiden
Sources
- The dragon azhdaha is a stock figure of Lak folktale, blocking a village's water and exacting a maiden, then slain by the hero.: Халилов Х.М. Устное народное творчество лакцев. Махачкала, 2004. (secondary); Халидова М.Р. (сост.) Мифологическая проза народов Дагестана: Антология. Махачкала, 2011. (secondary)