The folk expressions for "dragonfly" represent one of the standard items in lexical lists and in dialectological vocabularies. Estimated roughly, some 2500 authentic appellations have so far been evidenced in various European languages. These include over 100 expressions, in which any kind of an association between the dragonfly and the snake is expressed.
The geographic range of the dragonfly/snake nomenclature is centered upon central Europe, but the well-defined outer borders of the area run as follows: In the East: from the SE border of Slovenia, over W Croatia, westernmost Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia, including most of the area of Germany up to the Baltic and to Norway. In the West: from Slovenia and Friuli, across N Italy (Piedmont) to S France. The southern branch runs from the Provence, to the Mediterranean and on to Languedoc and Catalonia. The northern part of the fork stretches from W Switzerland, over Savoy and westward to the Limousin. Brittany (in France) and Cornwall, Wales and Anglia (in Britain) form a separate unit. Outside this territory, such appellations appear unknown.
Like often is the case in various ethnographic features and folk superstitions, the distribution of the dragonfly/snake appellations is not restricted to a certain language or a language group. Rather, it seems to reflect a much older cultural tradition, prevailing in this area before the present languages evolved. The distribution patterns fit almost perfectly with those of the Urnfield cultures, as formed in the first millennium B.C. The Catalan occurrence is supported by an Urnfield center in Catalonia.
Ethnographically, the Urnfield cultures were recently attributed to the ancient Veneti. It is amazing, therefore, that the distribution of dragonfly/snake folk names corresponds generally very well also with the area where a "Venetic element" appears preserved in numerous topographic names (cf. J. Šavli et. al., 1996, Veneti: First Builders of European Community, Edit. Veneti, Vienna).
Page Created: January 1, 2003
Page Updated: January 1, 2003
©Copyright 2002, 2003 Gary L. Gorsha
