Sárkány

The sárkány is the dragon of Hungarian folklore, a many-headed monster of the fairy tales slain by the hero, and in folk belief a storm-bringing serpent that the magical wandering scholar called the garabonciás rides through the clouds.

What Is a Sárkány?

Sárkány is the Hungarian word for dragon, and Hungarian folklore uses it for two quite different creatures. In the fairy tales, the sárkány is a monster, often with several heads, that the hero must defeat. In folk belief, a related creature, the sárkánykígyó ("dragon-snake"), is a storm serpent tied to weather and to the magical figure known as the garabonciás.

In the Fairy Tales

Hungarian fairy tales love the number seven, and the seven-headed dragon (hétfejű sárkány) is one of their best-known monsters, though dragons with three, nine, or twelve heads also appear. The dragon may guard a spring, demand a princess, or hold captives in a castle in another world. The hero, frequently a poor youngest son, wins with a magic horse, a magic sword, or help from animals and wise women, and he cuts the dragon's heads off one by one. Like the Romanian zmeu, many Hungarian fairy-tale dragons behave like people: they talk, ride horses, live in castles, and have mothers and wives.

The Garabonciás and the Storm Dragon

In Hungarian village belief, the garabonciás was a wandering scholar with secret knowledge, sometimes said to have been born with a full set of teeth or to have studied magic for many years. He would arrive at a farmhouse and ask for milk or eggs. If the household refused him, he could take revenge with a storm. Reading from his magic book, he called a dragon out of a lake or swamp, bridled it, and rode it through the sky, bringing hail and thunder. The dragon was believed to grow from an ordinary snake, and the story explained destructive summer storms. Similar storm-riding wizards appear in neighboring countries, such as the Romanian solomonari who ride the balaur.

Dragons in Hungarian History

The dragon also has a place in Hungary's royal history. In 1408 Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary and later Holy Roman Emperor, founded the Order of the Dragon, a knightly order pledged to defend the Christian faith and the king. Its emblem was a dragon curled into a circle. One of its members was Vlad II of Wallachia, who took the name Dracul ("the Dragon") from it, and his son Vlad III became known as Dracula. The dragon later appeared on the arms of the powerful Báthory family.

Legacy

Dragons remain stock characters in Hungarian children's stories and animation. In modern fiction, J. K. Rowling's Hungarian Horntail is a fictional dragon breed, not drawn from Hungarian folklore. For dragons of the region, see Dragons Across Cultures.

Related

• Zmeu: The zmeu is a giant, dragon-like ogre of Romanian fairy tales, a humanlike being of enormous strength who can fly and shapeshift, kidnaps princesses such as Ileana Cosânzeana, and is defeated by the hero Făt-Frumos.
• Balaur: The balaur is the many-headed serpent-dragon of Romanian folklore, a monster of waters and caves that heroes such as Făt-Frumos must kill, and the storm mount ridden by the wizards called solomonari.
• Zmaj: The zmaj is the dragon of South Slavic folklore, a fiery, winged, often protective being that guards fields from hail-bringing demons, takes human lovers, and fathers heroes such as Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk.
• Hungarian Horntail: The Hungarian Horntail is a ferocious dragon breed from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, best known as the spiked-tailed dragon Harry Potter must get past in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.
• Dragons Across Cultures
• The Peasant and the Dragon

Sources and Further Reading

• Tekla Dömötör, Hungarian Folk Beliefs (Corvina and Indiana University Press, 1982)
• Linda Dégh, ed., Folktales of Hungary, trans. Judit Halász (University of Chicago Press, 1965)

Cite this entry: “Sárkány,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/sarkany.