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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the Balkan etiological text of the Golubac horsefly, arising from a slain demon, in Serbian and Romanian traditions. Drawing on 19th–21st-century sources, it explores its distribution, narrative patterns, genre transformations, and contemporary media and tourism contexts.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the enduring Balkan motif of insects arising from the head, blood, or body of a slain demon, focusing on the case of the so-called Golubac horsefly—a large biting fly named after the town of Golubac on the Danube. In Serbian and Romanian traditions, this etiological narrative is closely linked to the hero’s combat with a supernatural adversary, most often a dragon (balaur). The Danube region offers the densest concentration of attestations, with Romanian sources developing the motif across multiple folklore genres, including legend and ballad. By contrast, Serbian-language accounts present more reduced forms of the same plot in terms of motif, structure, and narrative elaboration.

Drawing on records from the 19th and 20th centuries as well as recent fieldwork in Serbian, Vlach, and mixed communities in Serbia and Romania (2007, 2017, 2018), the paper explores the areal distribution, narrative patterns, and genre transformations of this etiological text. Special attention is devoted to its current status in media representations and its appropriation within cultural tourism discourses. The study reveals the Golubac horsefly narrative as a living text, maintaining its core identity while dynamically negotiating changes in context, genre, and audience.