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In European mythology, a dragon is a serpent-like creature. It is sometimes known by the Nordic word, ormr (Old English wyrm) Though a winged creature, the dragon is generally to be found in its chthonic lair, a cave that identifies it as an ancient creature of earth, like the mythic serpent, that was a source of knowledge even in Eden..
The dragon of the modern period is typically depicted as a huge, scaly, horned, dinosaur-like creature, with leathery wings and the ability to breathe fire. It typically protects a cavern filled with gold and treasure and is usually associated with a great hero, who attempts to slay it. Many modern stories represent dragons as being extremely intelligent creatures, some with the ability to use magic. Dragon's blood often has magical properties: it enabled Siegfried to understand the language of the Forest Bird. Often dragons are extremely ancient. Some are helpful and wise, whom heroes can consult for advice, while others are greedy and guard a huge hoard of treasure.
(Until we get a more detailed discussion, please see http://www.draconian.com/whatis/whatis.htm .)
Western dragons descend from Roman dragons. John's Book of Revelation describes Satan as "a great dragon, flaming red, with seven heads and ten horns." Much of John's literary inspiration is late Hebrew (compare Bel and the Dragon) and Greek (a dragon guarded the Golden Fleece in the Alexandrian epic Argonautica) but John's dragon, like his satan, are both more likely to have come originally through Persia. Perhaps our distinctions between dragons of western origin and Chinese dragons (q.v.) are arbitrary. A later Roman dragon was certainly of Iranian origin: in the Roman Empire, where each military cohort had a particular identifying signum, (military standard), after the Parthian War of Trajan in the east, the cohorts returned with the draco that they borrowed from their Parthian enemies: a large dragon fixed to the end of a lance, with large gaping jaws of silver and with the rest of the body formed of colored silk. With the jaws facing into the wind, the silken body inflated and rippled. This signum is described in Vegetius Epitoma Rei Militaris, 379 CE (book ii, ch XIII. 'De centuriis atque vexillis peditum'):
It is irresistible not to give this Romanized Parthian dragon a distant Chinese origin.
Dragons of Slavic mythology hold mixed temperaments towards humans.
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The most famous dragons in Norse mythology and Germanic mythology, are
Jormungand, a form of cobra so big that the earth-disc can be encircled by it; Grendel and his mother, the dragons encountered by Beowulf; and Fafnir, who was killed by Siegfried. Fafnir turned into a dragon because of his greed -- many scholars believe that dragons in western cultures usually represent greed. Many European stories of dragons have them guarding a treasure hoard. Both Fafnir and Grendel guarded earthen mounds full of ancient treasure. The treasure was cursed and brought ill to those who later possessed it.
Though the Latin is draco, draconis, it has been supposed by some scholars, including John Tanke of the University of Michigan, that the word dragon comes from the Old Norse draugr, which literally means a spirit who guards the burial mound of a king (compare Tolkien's 'barrow-wights. How this image of a vengeful guardian spirit is related to a fire-breathing serpent is unclear. Many others assume the word dragon comes from the ancient Greek word derekesthai, meaning 'sharp eyed', referring to the dragon's legendarily keen eyesight. In any case, the image of a dragon as a serpent-like creature was already standard at least by the 8th century when Beowulf was written down. Although today we associate dragons almost universally with fire, in medieval legend the creatures were often associated with water, guarding springs or living near or under water.
Other European legends about dragons include "Saint George and the Dragon", in which a brave knight defeats a dragon holding a princess captive. This legend may be a Christianized version of the myth of Perseus, or of the mounted Phrygian god Sabazios vanquishing the chthonic serpent, but its origins are obscure. Saint George is the Patron Saint of England. Meanwhile, across the border, a red dragon is represented on the Welsh flag. Due to this clash of symbolism, there are very few George and the Dragon pubs in Wales.
The tale of George and the Dragon has been modified for modern works, with Saint George portrayed as 'an effette [sic] wally who faints at the sight of the dragon' in a play [1] and a poem by U. A. Fanthorpe based on Paolo Uccello's painting, which hangs in the British National Gallery. In the poem, Saint George is a thug, the Maiden considers the relative sexual merits of the dragon and saint, and the Dragon the only sane character. Certainly, Uccello's fifteenth-century painting, in which the Maiden has the dragon on a leash, is itself not the most conventional representation of the story.
It is possible that the dragon legends of northwestern Europe are at least partly inspired by earlier stories from the Roman Empire, or from the Sarmatians and related cultures north of the Black Sea. There has also been speculation that dragon mythology might have originated from stories of large land lizards which inhabited Eurasia, or the sight of giant fossil bones eroding from the earth may have inspired dragon myths (compare Griffin.
As is common elsewhere, Catalan dragons are fire-breathers, and the dragon-fire is all-consuming. Catalan dragons are also capable of emitting a fetid odor, which can rot away anything it touches.
The Catalans also distinguish a víbria or female dragon, basically a dragon with two prominent female breasts and with two claws and an eagle's beak.
Dragons in modern times
Roman dragons
and in Ammianus Marcellinus, xvi. 10, 7. ((Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898: 'Signum') Dragons in Slavic mythology
Dragons in Celtic mythology
The story of Merlin and the dragons
(needs work)Dragons in Germanic and Norse mythology
Dragons in Catalan mythology
Dragons are well-known in Catalan myths and legends, in no small part because St. George (Cat. "Sant Jordi") is the patron saint of Catalonia. Like most dragons, the Catalan dragon (Cat. "drac") is basically an enormous serpent with two legs - or, rarely, four - and sometimes a pair of wings. As in many other parts of the world, the dragon's face may resemble that of some other animal, such as a lion or bull.Dragons in Fantasy fiction
Fantasy fiction authors whose works have featured dragons as major plot elements include:See also
External links
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