The Roc
The immense birds in Sindbad’s voyages
A bird carries the stranded Sindbad to a valley of diamonds; on a later voyage, two parent rocs destroy his ship after the merchants kill their young.
Quick answer
The roc is an enormous bird in Sindbad’s adventures. In the Second Voyage, Sindbad ties himself to one bird’s foot to escape an island. In the Fifth, two rocs drop rocks on his ship after his companions kill their chick. This record follows Lang’s selected English version of these episodes.[1][2]
Quick facts
| Record type | Giant birds in an Arabian Nights voyage tale, in an edited literary collection |
|---|---|
| Source markers | “The Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor”: “Second Voyage” and “Fifth Voyage” |
| Name in this edition | Roc; “rocs” for the two parent birds. No individual personal name is given |
| Source realm | The islands and diamond valley of Sindbad’s voyages |
| Egg | White, smooth, and at least fifty paces around in Sindbad’s estimate (Second Voyage) |
| Actions narrated | Incubating an egg, carrying Sindbad, killing and carrying a snake; later, dropping rocks on a ship |
| Limits | No exact wingspan, plumage colour, or modern species identification supplied |
These details belong to the two named voyages, not to a universal description of rocs.[1][2]
The roc in two voyages
Second Voyage: an escape into another danger
Left behind when his ship departs, Sindbad finds a huge white object without an opening or a foothold. A bird blots out the evening light, reminding him of sailors’ stories about the roc. When it settles over the object and covers it with its wings, he recognises an egg. He binds himself to the bird’s foot with his turban and is carried away at dawn.[1]
He frees himself when the bird lands. It kills a huge snake with its beak and flies away with it. Sindbad is now trapped in a steep-sided valley strewn with diamonds and inhabited by enormous snakes. His suggestion that the snakes hide by day because they fear the roc is explicitly conjectural. The birds subsequently used by diamond merchants to lift meat out of this valley are called eagles in this edition; they should not silently be relabelled rocs.[1]
Later in the same voyage, in his account of Rohat, Sindbad describes a rhinoceros carrying an elephant on its horn, then falling helpless after being blinded by its blood. A roc carries both animals away to feed its young. This is a further marvel Sindbad recounts, separate from his own flight on the bird’s foot.[1]
Fifth Voyage: the destroyed egg
On another unnamed island the merchants find an egg with a chick’s beak already through the shell. Despite Sindbad’s objections, they break it, kill the chick, and roast pieces of it. Two parent rocs return, cry over the remains, and pursue the departing ship with a rock in each bird’s claws. The helmsman evades the first rock; the second breaks the ship apart. Sindbad survives on driftwood.[2]
Description and abilities
The account establishes scale through comparisons: a foot as large as a tree trunk, an egg measured in paces, and a bird whose arrival darkens the sky. The cloud comparison describes its silhouette and obstruction of light; it does not establish black feathers. Its beak can kill a large snake, and its flight can carry a human passenger or great burdens. The Fifth Voyage shows purposeful pursuit and rock-dropping, but no spoken language or spell-casting.[1][2]
This page retains the edition’s spellings “roc” and “Sindbad.” It does not reconstruct an Arabic spelling from an English text transmitted through French. The singular title names a kind of bird represented by several individuals, not a unique named monster.
Source realm: Sindbad’s islands and diamond valley
The first egg-island and the diamond valley are unnamed. Rohat is a later named island in the Second Voyage; the egg-island in the Fifth is again unidentified. These episodes do not support pinning the roc’s nest to a modern country or treating the places as a mapped habitat.[1][2]
The archive groups this record under Literary worlds because its evidence is the setting of an identifiable edited tale. This describes the selected textual witness, without assigning the entire Arabian Nights tradition to one author or culture.
Peril, ingenuity, and retaliation
Read together, the episodes make the bird both an opportunity for escape and a source of disaster. Sindbad’s improvised flight leads into new danger; his companions’ destruction of the egg brings the parents’ attack. These are readings of the narrated events, not claims that rocs universally symbolise rescue, vengeance, or any religious idea.[1][2]
Books and references
- 1The Arabian Nights Entertainments, “The Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor,” “Second Voyage”
Traditional tales; selected and edited by Andrew Lang. Longmans, Green and Co., 1918 edition of the collection first published in 1898. English rendering through Antoine Galland’s French, with abridgements. Project Gutenberg eBook 128 identifies this edition at the head of its transcription. Source marker: the complete “Second Voyage,” including the egg-island, diamond valley, and later Rohat passage. Public-domain text.
Read the text; choose “Second Voyage” in the contents ↗ - 2The Arabian Nights Entertainments, “Fifth Voyage”
Lang’s selection, Longmans, Green and Co., 1918 (1898), as above. Opening episode: the unknown island, destruction of the egg, and the rocs’ attack, ending with Sindbad’s escape on driftwood.
Read the text; choose “Fifth Voyage” in the contents ↗ - 3Andrew Lang, preface to The Arabian Nights Entertainments
Same edition. The closing paragraphs explain the use of Galland’s French version, collective translation credit, and editorial shortening. Used here for the selected edition’s transmission, not for the preface’s broader speculations about the origins of tales.
Read the preface and edition heading ↗ - 4Virginia Frances Sterrett, illustration of Sindbad in the roc’s nest, Arabian Nights (1928)
Image reference only, from a separate illustrated edition. Wikimedia Commons identifies the artist, subject, and publication year, and marks the reproduction public domain (PD-Art; artist died in 1931, publication before 1931).
Image provenance and rights statement ↗
