Loved by a Dragon: Topoi and Idiosyncrasies in Oral Narratives from Bulgaria
Loved by a Dragon: Topoi and Idiosyncrasies in Oral Narratives from Bulgaria

Summary/Abstract: The article offers a survey and content analysis of oral narratives featuring the motif of a love relationship between a dragon and a human female. The texts are recorded in different parts of Bulgaria in the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. I present the different interpretations of dragon’s love in Bulgarian academic tradition and comment on their aptitude to explain the diverse variations of this plot. Examining the stories, I delineate the common traditional motifs (topoi) as well as the idiosyncratic elements of this plot pattern. The conclusions refer to the multifaceted and dynamic nature of the dragon’s image in the narratives and the multitude of meanings which the motif of dragon’s love can bear and express. Having archetypal characteristics (in the Jungian sense) the image of the dragon and the motif of dragon’s love preserve their liveliness and attraction in different cultural and historical contexts and are still popular in contemporary culture and mentality.

• Details
• Contents