El dragón que tenía frío (The dragon who was cold): free A1 Spanish story
Level A1 (Beginner) · Fantasy · about 2 minutes
A big green dragon with one small problem: he is always cold.
In the app you can tap any word for its meaning, listen to natural narration with each word highlighted, and switch between Latin American and Spain Spanish. Read it in the app, free.
The story in Spanish
En una montaña alta vive un dragón verde. Se llama Rufo y es muy grande. Pero Rufo tiene un problema: siempre tiene frío.
Los otros dragones echan fuego por la boca. Rufo no. Abre la boca y solo sale un poco de humo. Por eso, en invierno, tiembla día y noche en su cueva.
Un día de mucha nieve, Rufo baja al pueblo. Las personas tienen miedo y cierran las puertas. Solo una abuela no cierra su puerta. Se llama Carmen y tiene noventa años. —¿Tienes frío, dragón? —pregunta. —Mucho —dice Rufo, triste.
Carmen sonríe y busca su lana. Durante una semana, teje y teje. Al final, tiene una bufanda enorme, de todos los colores. Rufo se pone la bufanda. —¡Qué calor! —dice. Por fin tiene calor dentro… y de su boca sale fuego, mucho fuego.
Ahora, cada invierno, Rufo visita el pueblo. Enciende las chimeneas de todas las casas. Las personas ya no tienen miedo. Le dan sopa caliente, y Carmen teje una bufanda nueva para él cada año.
English translation
On a high mountain lives a green dragon. His name is Rufo and he is very big. But Rufo has a problem: he is always cold.
The other dragons breathe fire from their mouths. Not Rufo. He opens his mouth and only a little smoke comes out. That’s why, in winter, he shivers day and night in his cave.
One very snowy day, Rufo goes down to the village. The people are scared and shut their doors. Only one old woman doesn’t shut her door. Her name is Carmen and she is ninety. “Are you cold, dragon?” she asks. “Very,” says Rufo sadly.
Carmen smiles and goes to get her wool. For a week, she knits and knits. In the end, she has an enormous scarf, in every color. Rufo puts on the scarf. “How warm!” he says. At last he is warm inside… and fire comes out of his mouth, lots of fire.
Now, every winter, Rufo visits the village. He lights the fires in all the houses. The people are not scared anymore. They give him hot soup, and Carmen knits a new scarf for him every year.
More free Spanish stories
- Caperucita Roja (Little Red Riding Hood): A1 Beginner. A girl in a red cape, a basket for her grandmother and a very hungry wolf.
- El rey Midas (King Midas): A2 Elementary. A rich king gets exactly the gift he asks for, and then he gets hungry.
- El misterio del cuadro (The mystery of the painting): A2 Elementary. In a tiny museum, a painting changes a little every night, and only the guard notices.
- La llave mágica (The magic key): A2 Elementary. A cheap old key opens one door, once, to the place you most want to be.
- El perro que no ladraba (The dog that didn't bark): A2 Elementary. Every night, a neighbor hears strange noises. Every night, the dog stays quiet.
- La carta dentro del libro (The letter inside the book): B1 Intermediate. A bookseller finds an old love letter and goes looking for its owner.
- Don Quijote y los molinos de viento (Don Quixote and the windmills): B1 Intermediate. A knight who has read too many books, a patient squire and thirty or forty “giants”.
- El último tren (The last train): B2 Upper intermediate. Two strangers share the midnight train and a conversation neither expected.
- La Liga de los Pelirrojos (The Red-Headed League): B2 Upper intermediate. Sherlock Holmes and the strange job that only red-haired men could get.
- El faro (The lighthouse): C1 Advanced. A lighthouse that was switched off decades ago starts shining again every Thursday.
- El corazón delator (The Tell-Tale Heart): C1 Advanced. A man who insists he is not mad, and a heartbeat that will not stop.