- Origin
- France
- Source
- The Drac: French Tales of Dragons and Demons
- By Felice Holman and Nanine Valen
- Drawings by Stephen walker
- Scribner's Sons: New York, 1975
- The Story
- The Drac is more than a dragon -- he's a powerful enchanter. He can
make himself invisible and has a taste for human flesh and blood. He
lures a young new mother to his underwater home to nurse Drac's frail
child. She does this for seven years, made to forget her life as a
human being. By accident, she sometimes rubs the magic balm made from
human fat and water cresses which enables the Drac to be invisible.
The woman sometimes, after rubbing the balm on the little Drac child's
eyes (which is her nightly responsibility), forgets to wash her hands and
in this way gains the ability to see the true form of the Drac when he is
in disguise or invisible. When the woman is released back home,
everything in the past seven years is made like a dream to her. When
next the Drac comes in town and is spotted by the woman, this powerful
sorcerer casts a spell so that the woman loses her ability to spot Drac.
This is the story told by the woman.
- Comments
- Drac is described as an enormous and lizard like monster who is
More than just a monster. It is a evil sorcerer and a demon. It is naked
as a worm, willowy as a lamprey, with two fins of transparent blue lace
on his back, webbed feet like the flamingo of the Camargue, and long
greenish hair which floated like algae on the waves. The Drac in this
story dwells in the river Rhone. Aside from the power of shapeshifting,
The Drac also can make himself invisible.
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Introduction/Index