Bestiary · Slavic · Cloud maiden
Vila
Also known as: vila, vilas, wila
A winged maiden of the South Slavs, who lives in the mountains and clouds, shoots arrows, heals with herbs, and can become a hero's sister.
The vilas of Serbian and Croatian songs are beautiful maidens with golden hair and wings. They live in the mountains, in the clouds and by lakes, dance in rings on the meadows, and fly about under the clouds. A vila can shoot deadly arrows, poison springs and blind a hero, but she also knows every healing herb and can bring the dead back to life. In the songs heroes like Marko Kraljević overcome vilas and make them their sworn sisters; Bogdan Ljutić steals a vila's wings while she bathes and makes her his wife, until she gets her wings back and flies away. Afanasyev reads the vilas as cloud maidens, whose arrows are the lightning and whose dancing is the whirling of the storm.