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
- Ljubi (garden storm-demon)not mother Lubia
- Kulshedrasoft dragon field
Linked stories
Elsie Llamja: woman+serpent, springs, child-devourer, S+Greek colonies. Lubia/Ljubi owns the many-headed garden. Dual lemmas — never merge.
