Fern Flower
Published on May 3, 2019

Shuffling

  • Geretva
  • Sarkani

Regions of expansion

Ukraine 1 Hungary 1
Hungary
Ukraine

Description

A mystical creature from the folklore of Hungarians and residents of Transcarpathia.

This creature often acts as a treasure keeper, protecting them from prying eyes. Most often he is depicted as a huge scaly dragon or a winged snake, but sometimes he can acquire the features of other creatures, including a demon. It is also believed that this is an evil and dangerous demon that drags hail clouds, eats people and cattle, can even eat the sun, causing solar eclipses.

A shuffle is a huge winged snake, the size of two cows or 12 meters long, which, depending on its age, has four, six, nine or twelve heads. There is such a snake from a runner who has lived for seven years in the desert, where no one has seen him. It is believed that if anyone sees it during this time, it stops growing. Every year during his stay in the desert, sharkani grows one head. These huge snakes live in forests and caves.

There is a version that the Shuffle is blind and does not see where the cloud is going. Therefore, it is led by a special demon — vitrennik. He puts a bridle on the snake and directs it, and consequently, the cloud that it drags on itself, in the right direction.

Shuffling in popular culture