A voivode, named Dragos, lived in that part of Romania that is called Maramures. He was hardworking, a good ruler and a skillful hunter and craftsman. He liked very much hunting bison, bears, deer, wild boars and wolves.
When he was hunting, he heard that his brothers, the Romanians from the Eastern part of the Carpathian Mountains, from the valley of Siret and Prut rivers, suffered a lot because they were robbed and killed by the Tartars. At that time, they were a nation that lived only in wars and from what they took from other nations. It was known that anyone could not compete with them in riding. They were fighting with curved swords called scimitars and with archery bows. On their heads, they wore big hats, made of sheepskin, and defended themselves with round shields of iron. The Tartars’ leader was called khan or khan-Tartar.
With the brave men of Maramures, Dragos crossed the mountains to the East, to help his brothers fight the Tartars. Through the mountains, on their way came an aurochs or a bison, bigger than a bull with spiky horns with a thick neck, strong hoofed, with long black hair, wide and fierce eyes, and wide nostrils.
Molda, Dragos’ dog, felt the bison first. She ran after him, barking sharp. But no matter as fierce as the Bison was, Dragos spotted it with the arrow and stung it with a spear. Injured, covered in blood, the beast ran through the forest with high trees. It also crossed a river with deep water; Molda ran and ran after it trying to catch the beast. But the river was too deep and the waves were fast, and poor Molda drowned.
On their horses, Dragos and his mighty men crossed the river, hit the bison right between the horns and finally knocked him down. Dragos was very happy of this victory, but he felt sorry for the loss of his dog. Pained, Dragos commanded that the river to be called Moldova River, and he went on further downstream, studying those lands that no traveler had not discovered until then.
Then Dragos went even further and helped the Romanians from that part of the country to drive away the villains Tartars. When he returned from the battle, victorious, the Romanians elected him as a ruler and invited him to lead that part of the country, which they called Moldova, the same as the name of the river , about the name of his dog.
Beyond the legend, the Voivode Dragos founded in 1359 the first independent country called Moldova with the support of the Hungarian king who wanted to strengthen the protection against the Tartars.
And the seal of the new country was a head of a Bull.
Now, Moldova is East part of Romania .
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