Tradition: Bulgarian Mythology, Macedonian Mythology
Alternative Names: Fairy wind, Samovila, Yuda Wind
Category: Fairy
The Myth
The fairy wind appears in a Macedonian Bulgarian folk song as three powerful gusts of wind that are not ordinary winds at all, but three yudi, supernatural fairy beings. They arrive quietly at first, but then seize Stoyna, a young bride, and carry her away through the air to the great village of the yudi. There, the fairies prepare their own horo, or chain dance, and force Stoyna to join them. She dances among them while weeping for what she has left behind.
An old yuda samovila notices Stoyna’s sorrow and asks why she is crying. She questions whether Stoyna misses her mother, father, brothers, sisters, companions, or beloved, but Stoyna tells her that none of these is the cause of her grief. What weighs upon her heart is her little child. She worries about who will wrap the child, rock it to sleep, and care for it while she is gone. Her longing for the child is the only thing that makes her weep among the supernatural dancers.
The old yuda promises to help. She tells Stoyna that she will send a powerful wind through the human world and pass by the child’s home. There she will rock the child’s cradle, wrap the child, and care for it. The fairy wind therefore becomes the means by which the yuda can cross between her own supernatural world and Stoyna’s distant home, turning a frightening force that carried the young mother away into an act of compassion toward the child she left behind.
Sources
Stefan Verkovich. “Chapter 2.” In Narodni pesni na makedonskite Balgari (Folk Songs of the Macedonian Bulgarians). Liternet.bg.
https://liternet.bg/folklor/sbornici/verkovich/2.htm