In the Bulgarian folklore, many demons and evil spirits are present who have been associated with the destruction of mankind and material present on the earth through their anger and magical powers.
Ala is a female mythological demon present in the folklore of Bulgaria which considers her to be the destroyer of the crops and the symbol of the hail storm and thunderstorms over the field of the farmers.
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Origin of Ala
While some fanciful creatures are regular to all Slavic ethnic gatherings, brew appears to be selective to Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serb legends. All things considered, other Slavic gatherings additionally had evil presences of awful climate.
Among East Slavs, this witch was called Baba Yaga, and was envisioned as a lady of colossal height with a major nose, iron teeth, and distending jaw; it was accepted that she ate kids, and her quality brought rainstorms and chilly climate.
The term baba is available in customs, convictions, and toponyms of every Slavic gathering, generally as a representation of wind, obscurity, and downpour. This leads a few researchers to accept there was a proto-Slavic eternality or evil spirit called Baba, related to terrible weather.
Hints of convictions in that devil are saved among South Slavs in articulations for the terrible climate regular in late-winter.
Brought to the Balkans from the old country, these convictions joined with those of the local populaces, inevitably forming into the personage of Alaa.
The pre-Slavic Balkan wellspring of Ala is identified with the vulva, female evil presence of a terrible climate of the Vlachs of Serbia, who, similar to lager, driven hail mists over harvests to destroy them, and removing trees.
A Greek female devil Lamia may likewise have contributed to the improvement of her. Much the same as brew, she eats kids and is called greedy. In southern Serbia and North Macedonia, lamnja, a word got from lamia, is additionally an equivalent for her.
Etymology
The evil presence’s name in the standard Serbian, Alaa, originates from tongues which lost the velar fricative, while Hala is recorded in a Serbian vernacular which has held this sound and in Bulgarian.
Therefore, it is accepted that the first name had an underlying h-sound, a reality that has driven Serbian researcher Ljubinko Radenkovic to dismiss the historical underpinnings given by a few word references.
This included that of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, by which the evil spirit’s name originates from the Turkish word ‘Ala’ as that word comes up short on the h-sound.
The name may rather come from the Greek word for hail, χάλαζα; spelled out. This derivation is proposed by Bulgarian researcher Ivanichka Georgieva, and upheld by Bulgarian researcher Rachko Popov and Serbian researchers Slobodan Zečević, and Sreten Petrović.
According to Serbian researcher Marta Bjeletić, Ala and Hala originate from the thing xAla in Proto-South-Slavic, the tongue of Proto-Slavic from which South Slavic dialects rose.
That thing was gotten from the Proto-Slavic root xal-, signifying the wrath of the elements. A potential related in the Kashubian language may be hała – “an enormous animal or thing”.
Appearance of Ala
Mythical beast or snake-like evil presence associated with the breeze, and tempest and hail mists. It was had confidence in the Gaza district of focal Serbia that she is undetectable, yet that she can be heard — her ground-breaking murmuring reverberated before the dim hail clouds.
In Bulgaria, ranchers saw a ghastly Ala with tremendous wings and blade-like thick tail in the shapes of a foreboding shadow. At the point when an Ala–cloud surpassed the town, residents looked into the sky planning to see a supreme hawk rising there.
They accepted that the powerful feathered creature with a cross on its back could oust Ala–cloud from the fields. In eastern Bulgaria, he showed up not in mists, however in storms and whirlwinds.
In different locales of Bulgaria, she was seen either as a “bull with tremendous horns, a dark cloud, dim haze or a snake-like beast with six wings and twelve tails”.
She is thought to occupy far off mountain regions or caverns, in which she keeps awful climate. In Bulgarian custom, tempests and hail mists were deciphered as a fight between the great mythical beast or falcon and evil Ala.
Serbs in Kosovo accepted that she brings her tail down to the ground and shrouds her mind in another place. Any individual who saw her head turned out to be in a flash crazy.
In a high help cut over a window of the Visoki Dečani cloister’s congregation, a falcon grips a snakelike Ala while an eaglet looks on.
According to a portrayal from eastern Serbia, he is an exceptionally enormous animal with a snake’s body and a pony’s head. A typical feeling is that he is the sister of the mythical beast, and looks pretty much like him. In a spell from eastern Serbia, Ala is depicted as a three-headed snake.
Effects on Humans
Brew principally pulverize crops in fields, grape plantations, and plantations by driving hail storm mists overhead, typically during the primary portion of the late spring when grain crops age.
The brew is additionally accepted to “drink the yields”, or hold onto the harvests of a town and transport them to somewhere else in their enormous ears, along these lines making a few towns poor, and others rich.
This was held as the motivation behind why the Aleksandrovac area in focal Serbia was so productive: it was the place beer moved their plunder.
The individuals of Kopaonik mountain accepted the neighborhood that he shielded the harvests of the region from another brew. On the off chance that hail obliterated the yields, it was felt that she, from another zone had crushed nearby Ala and “plastered the harvests”.
Lager can likewise spread themselves over fields and defeat the maturing of the harvests, or more regrettable, expend the field’s ripeness, and drink the milk from sheep, particularly when it roars.
Brew additionally has extraordinary quality; when a tempest removed trees, the individuals accepted that an Ala had done it. This brought about a colloquialism for a tough man: jak Kao Ala, “as solid as an Ala”.
Quick Read: Ahriman [The Hateful Soul]
Connection with Baba Yaga
Looking at society stories, there are similitudes between him and the Russian Baba Yaga.
The previously mentioned theme of a stepdaughter going to an Ala’s home in a woods is recorded among Russians as well – there a stepdaughter comes to Baba Yaga’s home and feeds her “animals”.
Comparative is likewise the themes of an Ala and Baba Yaga turning out to be back up parents to kids whom they later eat because the youngsters find their mystery.
In the Serbian model, the mother of an Ala’s godchild talks with him, and in the Russian, the godchild talks with Baba Yaga.
Read More: Aim [The Duke of Hell]
Conclusion
Ala is a female demon from the Bulgarian mythology who is considered to be the one to bring upon the hail and thunderstorms on the fields of the farmers and destroy all the crops which they have grown with hard work.
This demon is believed to take many forms and is often considered to be a ruthless and full of anger demon who is famous for using her power and magical spells for the destruction of human beings and the material which they grow or harvest.