Drekavac, (literally "the screamer" or "the screecher"[1]), also called drekalo, krekavac, zdrekavac or zrikavac, is a mythical creature in
South Slavicmythology. The name is derived from the verb "drečati" ("to screech").
Description
In South Slavic mythology and folk tales this creature has been variously described:
In some folk tales it is depicted as an undead man who emerges from his grave by night to haunt the living.[2]
In others the
revenant is portrayed as unbaptised child which rises from its grave at night to haunt its parents and can also sometimes be heard entreating people passing cemeteries to baptise it and thus end its misery.[2]
In
Eastern Serbia it has been depicted in the form of a humanoid canine creature that walks on its back legs.
In the vicinity of
Maglaj it has been depicted in the form of ghosts of soldiers that wander around during night time, scaring people.[2]
In the vicinity of
Kozarska Dubica it has been depicted as a vampire-like undead man that rises out of the grave during night time, and wanders around scaring people.[2]
In the vicinity of
Arilje it has been depicted in form of a long-necked long-legged creature with a cat-like head.[2]
In
Sredačka župa it has been depicted in the form of a one-legged humanoid creature with glowing eyes that wanders around during night time and scares people.[2]
In the vicinity of
Prijepolje,
Lešak and Dragačevo it has been depicted as an apparition that can be seen in form of a dappled foal, dog, cat, or bird.[2]
In the vicinity of
Gruža it has been depicted in the form of a creature having a dappled, elongated and
spindle-thin body with a disproportionately large head. This creature can't fly and it is believed to be the soul of a dead child.[2]
A modern description of a supposed drekavac describes it as a canine creature similar to a
dog[3] or some kind of bird.[4]
Original beliefs
The drekavac was originally thought to have come from the
souls of sinful men, or from children who died
unbaptised.[2]
It was popularly believed to be visible only at night, especially during the
twelve days of Christmas (called unbaptised days in
Serbo-Croatian) and in early
spring, when other demons and mythical creatures were believed to be more active.[2] When assuming the form of a child, it predicts someone's
death, while in its animal form, it predicts cattle disease.[2] The drekavac is believed to avoid dogs and bright light.[2] Also, it is believed that if the shadow of drekavac falls upon some person then that person will turn sick and die.[2]
Modern sightings
Although the creature is mostly used in
cautionary tales for children, there are also some adults who still believe in its existence. According to the guide of a reporter of Duga magazine, numerous villagers on the mountain of
Zlatibor report seeing it, and many inhabitants claim to have heard it.[5]
Some modern sightings happened:
In 1992, it was reported that in the
Krvavica, the villagers found remains of an animal unlike any known from the area, and claimed it was a drekavac. It was described as looking like a dog, but with a "snake-like" head and hind legs "similar" to those of a
kangaroo.[3] Later, it was revealed to be just a rotten carcass of a fox;
In 2003, in the village of
Tometino Polje near
Divcibare, a series of attacks on
sheep occurred, with some villagers concluding that they had been perpetrated by a drekavac. Other villagers disagreed, seeing as the attacks took place in the daytime, as opposed to night, when the drekavac is supposedly more active.[4]
Appearances and references in fiction
In literature
Drekavac is mentioned in a short story by
Branko Ćopić, "Brave Mita and drekavac from the pond" (
Cyrillic: "Храбри Мита и дрекавац из рита") in which a group of
superstitiousfishermen stop fishing because they hear mysterious yells in the pond, where they were usually fishing, and start believing that they hear a drekavac, which leads to hunger in the village. The
protagonist of the story, a courageous village boy named Mita, investigates this mystery and captures the "drekavac", which turns out to be a
great bittern, a bird very rare for the area.[6]
In
EVE Online, the Drekavac battlecruiser is a class of spaceship, flown by the Triglavian Collective.
The Serbian
trading card gameIzvori Magije has numerous cards of drekavac type creatures, one of them named Drekavac iz vira (meaning "Drekavac from the whirlpool"). This creature is described as: "Big-headed and with long thin necks, drekavac often jump out of whirlpools to attack people who are returning home from watermills."[10]
In DmC: Devil May Cry, a demon named Drekavac appears as a recurrent enemy. It is not named as such until player's final encounter with it. Rather than claws, it possesses long thin swords.
"Drekavac" is also the title of a
Lordi song from their 2021 project
Lordiversity.
Similar mythical creatures
Bukavac – recorded in
Syrmia, a six-legged monster with gnarled
horns, slimy skin and long tail, that lives in water (rivers, swamps and creeks) and comes out of it during the night. It is known that it makes loud noises, and it will try to strangle people and animals that it encounters;[11]
Myling – from Scandinavian folklore, a phantasmal incarnations of the souls of unbaptized children that had been forced to roam the earth;
Nav – the soul of dead child that died before its third age;
Plakavac – recorded in
Herzegovina, is a newborn strangled by its mother, which will rise from its grave at night as small vampire-like creature, return to its house and scream around it, but otherwise can't do any harm;[13]
Poroniec – a hostile and malicious demon from Slavic mythology. They were believed to come into existence from stillborn fetuses, but also from improperly buried remains of children who had died during infancy.
^Levi, Pavle (2007). Disintegration in frames : aesthetics and ideology in the Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav cinema. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
ISBN978-0-8047-5368-5.
OCLC71581809.
^
abcdefghijklmŠ. Kulišić; P. Ž. Petrović; N. Pantelić (1970). "Дрекавац". Српски митолошки речник (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade: Nolit. p. 110.