The Tale of the Drakon

Judah of Regensburg (attrib.)

Late 12th Century

There is a kind of demon which is called drakon in Greek. If it is hit by a sword no harm will come to it, unless [the attacker] is also born of a drakon. There was one who was born from [the union of] a princess and a drakon, a kind of demon. And that drakon, who used to have intercourse with the king’s wife, said: “I’m afraid of nothing but that…

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This story, found in the pietistic manual Book of the Pious (Sefer ḥasidim), tells of a strange series of encounters involving dragon-demons. There are no identifiable sources for this story, although some scholars have suggested that it resembles an episode from medieval stories about Alexander the Great. According to many medieval tales, some transmitted in Hebrew, Alexander was the child of a queen and a sorcerer named Nectanebus, who took the form of a dragon in order to seduce her.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval Tales and Legends

6th to 12th Century

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