In Romanian folklore, the balaur is a many-headed dragon-like creature fought by heroes in fairy tales.
The balaur is one of the major monstrous beings of Romanian folklore. Stories commonly describe it as a huge serpent or dragon with multiple heads, wings, fins, or other unusual features. Its exact appearance varies between regional tales and literary retellings, so there is no single universal physical design.
In heroic narratives, a balaur often guards a treasure, abducts a princess, or threatens a community. The hero must overcome it through strength, cleverness, or the aid of a magical object. Some Romanian tales also distinguish balauri from zmei, another class of supernatural adversary that is often more humanoid.
The term is sometimes rendered simply as “dragon” in English translations, but balaur is a specifically Romanian folkloric category. It should not be confused with the Slavic Zmey Gorynych, despite the shared motif of a multi-headed monster defeated by a hero.