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Overview
The narrator initially hesitates between vulture and griffin, then chooses to call the bird a griffin. It seizes Little Wild-Rose from a roof and brings her to feed its young. The young instead give her crumbs, make a bed and shield her with their wings. A dragon living in a nearby poisonous well habitually kills each brood as soon as it is ready to fly. This brood survives because an archangel intervenes while the parent is away.
Returning at dawn, the delighted bird asks who has helped; the young say they slept through the event. Seeing the child’s brightness, it attributes the benefit to her. It then angrily swallows her because its young had not eaten her, but she reappears with increased beauty. Afterwards she becomes as dear as its own offspring, and it provides a swinging chamber of flowers and moss in the tree. The tale supplies bird wings, nest and young, but no explicit lion body. Its initial uncertain naming is retained rather than importing general griffin anatomy. The later human marriage ends without narrating this bird family’s fate.
Origins & earliest records
Roumanian Fairy Tales, collected by Mite Kremnitz, adapted and arranged by J. M. Percival (New York: Henry Holt, 1885), Little Wild-Rose, pp. 91–104.
Records & interpretation
Complete selected English narrative from blessed apple to marriage. Preface assigns tale 9 to Miron Pompilin. Bird naming and later uncertainty are preserved.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Roumanian Fairy Tales: Little Wild-Rose, pp. 91–104
Preface assigns tale 9 to Miron Pompilin in Convorbiri Literare. Complete selected English narrative; Romanian original not collated.
Family, evolution & connections
The griffin’s young and fostered Wild-Rose
Complete English adaptation, pp. 91–104; nest parentage and subsequent fostering.
Scroll sideways to see all branches. With a keyboard, focus the tree and use the arrow keys.
- Its own unnamed young, number unspecified
Narrator-stated children and later care for the previously existing human child; labels distinguish fostering from birth. The bird is initially described uncertainly as vulture or griffin; no lion anatomy is supplied. Own offspring number and other parent are unknown. Wild-Rose appears beside the old man after he eats the apple half, with no narrated pregnancy; the archangel is a rescuer, not an inferred parent. Romanian originals have not been collated.
The griffin’s unnamed young
The narrator repeatedly identifies the young birds as the older griffin’s children. Their number and the other parent are unstated; the initial vulture-or-griffin hesitation is retained.
Little Wild-Rose, the Radiant Child
The griffin eventually cares for Wild-Rose alongside its own young. She was already a child before being carried to the nest, so the foster relationship does not make her biologically griffin-born.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary historical English adaptationKremnitz/Percival 1885: Little Wild-RoseResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.