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Balaur is a creature in Romanian folklore, similar to a dragon. A balaur is quite large, has fins, feet, and is polycephalous (it usually has three, sometimes seven, or even twelve serpent heads). As a traditional character which is found in most Romanian fairy tales, it represents Evil and must be defeated by Făt-Frumos in order to release the Princess (see also Zmeu).

Balaur seems to derive from Proto-Indo-European language words *bel-, "strong", or *bhel-, "to swell". It is considered to be a pre-Roman conquest word from the Romanian substratum (see also List of Romanian words of possible Dacian origin).

Popular culture

• In the MMORPG Aion, the Dragons that once ruled the world and are the enemy are called the Balaur.
• In the MMORPG Star Trek Online the largest class of Gorn warship is the Balaur Dreadnaught.

in reality a balaur is a hydra a many headed dragon if you cut one head off it grows another one the way you know how to kill it is by killing either the dominiant head or the head that never talks

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in reality a balaur is a hydra a many headed dragon if you cut one head off it grows another one the way you know how to kill it is by killing either the dominiant head or the head that never talks

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