Dragon

Tradition / Region: Romanian Mythology
Alternate Names: –
Category: Dragon

The Myth

A shepherd from Minarken once told how his companion Simon proved himself against the dreaded Smo.

In those days, the young men of the village often kept watch over their masters’ flocks at night. They would gather around their fire in the hills, laughing, boasting, and telling stories to pass the long hours.

One night Simon suddenly said, half in jest, “Do you think I could summon the Smo if I saw him flying past?”

The others laughed, but wagers were quickly made. Bottles of brandy were promised if he could do it, and Simon agreed.

Not long afterward, a flash of lightning appeared in the western sky. Soon the men saw what they feared most — the fiery Smo drawing nearer. Sparks streamed from it as it flew high through the darkness.

Simon sprang up. From his belt he drew the small iron fork he carried beside his knife. He swung it three times above his head and hurled it into the ground before him. Then he shouted across the mountains:

“When I call you, you must follow me and come to this place!”

Far away, the blazing dragon suddenly turned and came snarling toward them. At Simon’s command it halted before him.

“Where are you going?” Simon demanded.

With a dull voice and fire pouring from its mouth and eyes, the Smo answered, “I go to my sweetheart in the village below.”

“She is mine, not yours,” Simon declared. “You will stay here as long as I wish.”

And the spirit obeyed him.

For a long time Simon held the fiery dragon there beside the fire while the others watched in fear and amazement. Only toward morning did he lift the fork again, cast it once more into the ground, and command:

“Go back where you came from — but you shall not go to my village.”

At once the Smo rose into the air and drifted westward, slowly vanishing toward the dark horizon. By then the roosters were already crowing and the sky over the mountains was turning pale.

For when dawn comes, the spirits of the night must withdraw, and the world belongs again to humankind.

Sources

sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Stephan und der Drachen. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/rumaenien/siebenbuergen/stephan.html

sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Berufung des Smo. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/rumaenien/siebenbuergen/berufungdessmo.html

Tradition / Region: Romanian Mythology
Alternate Names: The Kronstadt Lindworm; Peak Dragon; The Mountain Linddur
Category: Dragon

The Myth

Not long after the town of Kronstadt was founded among the mountains, people said a dreadful dragon lived in a small cave high on a peak above the settlement. The creature, called the Linddur, would fly down into the valley whenever hunger drove it, devouring both people and animals and filling the region with fear.

One day the son of the town judge, a student preparing to preach, went outside the walls to memorize his sermon. Near the city wall he found a quiet place and began to recite his words aloud. He spoke so loudly and earnestly that the Linddur heard him from its mountain cave.

The dragon swooped down before the youth could escape and swallowed him whole.

Grief spread through the town, for the young man was well loved, and his parents were overcome with sorrow. While they mourned, a stranger came before the judge and said, “Strength cannot defeat such a beast, but cunning may. If we act quickly, your son may yet be saved.”

The judge promised him a rich reward. The stranger took a calfskin and filled it with quicklime. He laid it out in an open patch of grass near the castle and hid nearby, bleating like a calf.

Hearing the sound, the Linddur descended at once. It saw what it thought was prey and devoured the calfskin greedily. Soon afterward it was seized by a terrible thirst and flew to the nearest water to drink deeply.

But the quicklime within it drank the water faster still and burned with such heat that the dragon’s body swelled and burst apart. When the beast split open, the student was found still alive inside and was rescued.

In gratitude, the judge rewarded the clever stranger with many gifts. And to remember the deliverance, the image of the Lindworm was set upon the wall that leads from the eastern corner of the city up toward the archer’s battlement, so that all would recall the dragon that once haunted the peak above Kronstadt.

Sources

sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Der Lindwurm auf der Zinne. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/rumaenien/siebenbuergen/lindwurm.html

Tradition / Region: Romanian Mythology
Alternate Names: The Dragon of Wendchenberg; The Rock Dragon; Fire Dragon of Klein-Logdes
Category: Dragon

The Myth

In the hills near Kreisch, high on the Wendchenberg, there lies a rocky cleft known as the Zwergelloch. Long ago, people said a terrible creature lived there, called the Zwergel.

The villagers feared it greatly. To keep the monster from descending upon them, they were forced to offer it a human sacrifice every week. Only by feeding it could they keep it in its rocky lair and spare the village from destruction.

The same creature was also seen in other places. Once, it flew over Klein-Logdes, breathing fire as it crossed the sky. Yet whenever the flames touched the earth, they died at once, as if the ground itself would not burn.

The Zwergel was not only a devourer but also a spirit that could seize human bodies. It once possessed a Wallachian maid, who wasted away under its power. Her mother, in desperation, laid her out on a bier as if she were already dead and called neighbors and relatives to mourn her. Through this false funeral, the creature was driven out, and the girl was freed.

But in the mountains, people still spoke of the cleft in the rock and of the being that once lived there — the Zwergel, the dragon that demanded flesh and could enter the living as easily as it flew through the sky.

Sources

sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Drachen. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/rumaenien/siebenbuergen/drachen.html