Balaur is a Rumanian dragon similar to the Slavic dragon, Zmey: of great size, with wings and numerous heads (3, 7 or 12, depending on the legend). Balaur appears in many Rumanian fairy tales, he is an evil being - it symbolizes the Devil and it must be defeated by the hero Făt-Frumos to free the princess which it has captive.

Zmeu is another famous Rumanian dragon, similar to the serpents. It also resembles the Slavic dragons, because it can fly and breathe fire. It is a fantastic creature very common in the mythology of this region that displays clear anthropomorphic characteristics: it has legs, arms, creative capacity, uses weapons and it can fall in love with girls.

In some histories, Zmeu appears above the sky and spits fire at night. In other stories, it has a magical precious stone in his head that shines like the sun. It usually kidnaps young women with the objective of marrying them, although it is always defeated by a valiant prince. The presence of Zmeu in Rumanian traditional stories leaves always a moral: it symbolizes the destructive forces of greed and selfishness, which are finally overcome.

Zmeu is dedicated to steal objects of great value that only prince Făt-Frumos - whose name means, literally, “beautiful youth” can recover. For example, in the Ballad of the Greuceanu Horseman, Zmeu robs the sun and the moon from the sky, leaving the Humanity surrounded in darkness.

On the other hand, in the history of Prâslea and the golden apples, this dragon steals precious apples made of gold from the king. A parallelism can be established between these folkloric stories and the eleventh work of Hercules, which must recover gold apples from the Hesperides.

Some English translations refer to this dragon as a species of ogre or giant.