Misplaced Pages

Balaur

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by SMcCandlish (talk | contribs) at 05:46, 10 March 2006 (Added "See also" links). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 05:46, 10 March 2006 by SMcCandlish (talk | contribs) (Added "See also" links)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

In Romanian folkore a balaur is a creature similar to a dragon, although distinct: dragons as such also exist in Romanian folklore. A balaur is quite large, has fins, feet, and multiple serpent heads (usually three, sometimes seven, or even twelve).

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 PIE *bel-, 'strong', or PIE *bhel-, 'to swell'. It is considered to be a pre-Roman word from the Romanian substratum.

See also

Stub icon

This article relating to a European folklore is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: