The Dragon and His Mother in Stan Bolovan

Overview

The son raids a sheepfold nightly for a ram, ewe and lamb, and milk for his mother’s rejuvenating bath. His strength is genuine: he crushes stone, throws an iron-sheathed club three miles, carries twelve water-filled buffalo skins and uproots trees. Stan’s greater strength is a bluff, established by squeezing cheese while calling it stone. The dragon accepts the deception and brings him home as a servant.

The mother prepares milk with lamb blood and marrow and has a wrinkled face, tangled hair, sunken eyes and onion-scented breath. She plans increasingly difficult tasks, while Stan pretends he could throw the inherited club into the moon, carry off the entire well or uproot the whole forest. The frightened son performs his work and promises more wages. On her advice he tries to kill the sleeping servant with the club, but strikes a concealed trough instead. Stan’s claim that a flea bit him convinces both that he is invulnerable.

The dragon ultimately carries the gold home for Stan. His hundred hungry children demand dragon meat, terrifying the visitor into flight. Neither dragon is slain, and the tale concludes that the son never dares return to the world. No wings, flame breath or reptilian scale pattern is described in this selected version.

Origins & earliest records

Roumanian Fairy Tales, collected by Mite Kremnitz, adapted and arranged by J. M. Percival (New York: Henry Holt, 1885), Stan Bolovan, pp. 1–15.

Records & interpretation

Complete selected English tale and original hosted title/preface transcription. Preface assigns tale 1 to Slavice in Convorbiri Literare.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Roumanian Fairy Tales: Stan Bolovan, pp. 1–15

   Mite Kremnitz, collector; J. M. Percival, adapter and arranger · 1885

   Preface assigns tale 1 to Slavice in Convorbiri Literare. Complete selected English witness; original Romanian and intermediate source editions not collated.

Family, evolution & connections

Dragon mother and son — Stan Bolovan

Stan Bolovan, complete English adaptation, pp. 1–15.

Repeated literal mother–son statements. Both dragons are unnamed; no father, sibling or intermediate ancestor is supplied. Stan is a human servant. The inherited club’s unnamed ancestors do not establish a longer genealogy. Romanian originals have not been collated.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary historical English adaptationKremnitz/Percival 1885: Stan BolovanResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.