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.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Drachen. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/rumaenien/siebenbuergen/drachen.html
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive