Zburător

Zburător or sburător (Romanian word meaning 'flyer') is a supernatural being in Romanian folklore, described as a "roving spirit who makes love to maidens by night".[1]

General description

The zburător is also likened to an incubus, and described as a malevolent demon[2] active in a "oniric-erotic" manner,[3] i.e., visiting women in their dreams in the guise of a handsome young man.[4] They are otherwise referred to as a zmeu (another dragon-like creature) in some regions,[5] though perhaps perceived to have more human-like aspects than the zmeu.[1]

A zburător may also be a specific form that a zmeu can take. One story tells of a woman married to a man she did not love. Each night a zmeu "in the form of a zburător" visits and the woman disappears with it, reappearing later.[6]

History of lore

Dimitrie Cantemir, writing about the myth concerning it in Descriptio Moldaviae (1714–1716),[a] stated that the "zburator" meant "flyer" (Latin: volatilis), and according to the beliefs of the Moldavan it was "a ghost, a young, handsome man who comes in the middle of the night at women, especially recently married ones and does indecent things with them, although he cannot be seen by other people, not even by the ones who waylay him".[7]

A literary reworking of the myth later appeared in the romantic poem by Ion Heliade Rădulescu Zburătorul ('The Flyer/Flying Incubus', 1843), and the "incubus" with flowing black hair visiting a young girl and inducing her erotic awakening.[b][8] The myth reappears in the late romantic literature, in poems such as Călin (file de poveste) (Călin (story pages)) and Luceafărul (The Evening Star) (1884) by Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu.

The zburător (sburător [9]) myth became one of the four fundamental myths in Romanian folk poetry according to the framework of George Călinescu (1941).[c][10][9]

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ Pascu, Giorge tr. (1935), Descrierea Moldovei into Romanian.
  2. ↑ This likely inspired the vampire novel by Bram Stoker, according to Cazacu.
  3. ↑ The other three being the Trajan and Dochia myth, the mytho of Miorița (The Ewe Lamb), and the myth of Meşterul Manole.

See also

  • Firedrake (folklore) – Shooting stars and will-o-wisps thought to be fiery dragons in European folklore

References

Citations
  1. 1 2 Călin, Vera (1 January 1988), "Irony and World-Creation in the Work of Mihai Eminescu", in Garber, Frederick (ed.), Romantic Irony, John Benjamins Publishing, pp. 194–195, ISBN 963-05-4844-5
  2. ↑ Vulcănescu (1987), p. 338.
  3. ↑ Vulcănescu (1987), p. 339.
  4. ↑ Zamfir, Georgeta Blendea (2016), Mirobolant Feelings: The Darkness of Love, American Academic Press, p. 104, n16, ISBN 9781631817885
  5. ↑ Candrea, Ion Aurel [in Romanian] (1999), "Zburătorul", Folclorul medical român comparat: privire generală meidcina magică, Colecţia Plural M 26, Polirom, p. 182, ISBN 9789736831829 (in Romanian)
  6. ↑ Mackenzie, Andrew (1977). Dracula country : travels and folk beliefs in Romania. London : Barker. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-0-213-16658-8. Retrieved 10 August 2026.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  7. ↑ Candrea (1999), p. 183.
  8. ↑ Cazacu, Matei [in Romanian] (2017), Reinert, Stephen W. (ed.), Dracula: East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, BRILL, pp. 265, 299, ISBN 9789004349216
  9. 1 2 Dobre, Alexandru (1999), "Mitul literar și mitul folcloric. Precizările și sugestiile lui G. Călinescu", Revista de etnografie și folclor [Journal of ethnography and folklore], 44: 217 (in Romanian)
  10. ↑ Cornis-Pope, Marcel (2004), "The Question of Folklore in Romanian Literary Culture", in Pope, Marcel; Neubauer, John (eds.), Romantic Irony, vol. 3, Otilia Hedeşan, History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th Centuries, p. 318, ISBN 9789027234551
Bibliography
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