Llamja (spring woman-serpent)

Llamja / Llamje

Elsie Llamja: S woman-serpent spring-guard; Mod.Gk Lamia contact.

Description

Southern Albanian dragon-like being with a woman’s body and a serpent’s tail. Elsie 2001 s.v. Llamja: Alb. llamje, def. llamja; guards waterholes and springs, drinks the water, changes forms, kidnaps and devours children; found in mountains and stagnant ponds; recorded in southern Albania and Albanian colonies of Greece. The name touches Modern Greek Lamia — honest contact with a wider Balkan–Greek figure, not a cue to paste in a Libyan queen’s classical biography. She is not the same as Lubia of the many-headed garden.

Signs

Belief-signs this figure carries.

Features

  • woman+serpent physiology; guard springs/waterholes (Elsie)
  • drink waters; assume various forms (Elsie)
  • kidnap and devour children (Elsie)

Lead story

At a southern spring the water goes quiet and wrong. Llamja keeps a woman’s form above a serpent’s tail; she drinks the hole dry, shifts shape, and takes children. Elsie keeps her beside Lubia as her own entry — spring guard of the south and of the colonies in Greece. She is not the same as Mother Lubia of the garden.

Aliases

Llamja · Llamje · Llamjas

Region

Southern Albania + Albanian colonies of Greece (Arbëresh/Arvanite zone); springs, waterholes, mountains, stagnant ponds

Relations

Linked stories