Have you ever made up a magical creature in your daydreams? What would your creature be like? Would it be gentle or fierce? Friendly or unfriendly? Would it have magical powers? Maybe it would have a mix of parts from different animals, like the body of a bull, the head of a lion, and the feet of an octopus.
Okay, that would be pretty weird! But people all over the world, for all of human history, have imagined strange and magical creatures. And oddly enough, cultures from every part of the world have all come up with legends of fierce, snake-like creatures with magical powers. Some of these creatures are even gods. Many have wings and claws. Some are benevolent and helpful, some are evil and destructive. Some hoard treasure and breath fire.
Of course, I’m talking about dragons, and other, similar mythical creatures. Dragon-like creatures come up again and again in stories from different parts of the world, from ancient Babylonia, to China and Southeast Asia, to medieval Europe, and from the Americas, both ancient and modern. These different dragons have different features, but all are snake- or lizard-like with parts of other animals squished into one. Some are good, some evil, but all are fierce, strong, and magical.
Dragons in Various Cultures
Folklore in India, Malaysia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian cultures tells of Nagas – snake-like dragons that usually have no arms or legs, some with many heads. The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl was a feathered serpent, and looks a lot like a dragon in some artwork. The Ancient Egyptians had many snake-gods, as did other African cultures. And the powerful Hawaiian goddess Kiwahawine is a dragon with reddish hair who sometimes shape-shifts into a human woman.
Ancient Greece had its share of dragon creatures too. One of the more famous is Ladon, who Hercules fought in order to steal the golden apples he guarded for the goddess Hera.
Later, in ancient Rome, a naturalist named Pliny the Elder passed on the knowledge that a dragon could strangle an elephant with their tail. No one knows where he heard this, but he may have gotten confused by second-hand stories of pythons, snakes that can squeeze their prey to death.
Philostratus, a Greek philosopher from the 3rd century CE gave descriptions of several kinds of dragons. Mountain dragons are fast and fierce, he says, with glittery golden scales. He claims they have a longer tail than plains dragons, along with bushy beards. Marsh dragons he describes as sluggish and lazy, with black scales on their backs. He was convinced that India was full of dragons, and that Indians knew how to enchant dragons by weaving magical cloaks and lulling them to sleep. The eyes of a dragon were supposedly made of stone, and rings set with this stone would have magic powers.
But the best-known dragon legends today are probably the ones based on Chinese and medieval European stories. Early natural scientists in both Europe and China wrote about dragons as though real but still magical. Chinese scholars grouped them with other animals that had scales, like snakes and lizards.
Misunderstandings About Dragons
Like unicorns, dragons were also subject to cases of mistaken identity. In the past, people who unearthed dinosaur bones often thought they were dragon bones. This was before scientists were careful and methodical about reconstructing skeletons and dating them, which made them realize they were real, non magical, but extinct animals. It’s easy to see why people might confuse dinosaur bones for dragon bones though: both have sharp teeth and claws, long tails, and an overall shape similar to a lizard. Still, in ancient Chinese medicine, these “dragon bones” were used to treat madness, kidney problems, and diarrhea, among other ailments
Other animal fossils were also mistaken for dragons. From the middle ages on, the town of Klangenfurt, Austria was home to legends about a “lindwurm” – a dragon–that once lived in surrounding marshes. This dragon roamed the countryside, picking off people and farm animals. The local king ordered his knights to kill the dragon, and after several valiant attempts, they finally did. The skull of the dragon was put on display in the town hall. Centuries later, in the 1500s, a sculptor commemorated the event by creating a statue of the dragon, based on this skull. Only later did people realize that the skull actually came from an extinct ice age creature, the elephant-like Wooly Mammoth!
There are slight differences between dragons in legends from different areas–wyverns have two legs and wings, while knuckers have four legs and lived near water, but European dragons mostly follow the mold of the Klangefurt dragon: menacing and powerful. The early medieval English poem Beowulf kicks off this trend, telling of a dragon who burned down homes with his fiery breath. The “wurm” part of the name “lindwurm” comes from an old English word that meant dragon or snake. Maybe this is why medieval Europeans often associated dragons with snakes and evil. In Christian teachings, the devil appeared to Eve in the Garden of Eden as a snake.
Tales of knights fighting dragons who have been terrorizing towns and farms, like in Klangefurt, were popular throughout the middle ages in Europe. Another famous story tells of St George, the dragonslayer. In a typical plotline, a dragon was terrorizing a village, breathing fire on people and farm animals. The villagers decided to sacrifice one sheep each day to the dragon, to keep him happy, but eventually, they ran out of sheep. Next, they started choosing a child at random each day to give to the dragon. One day, the king’s daughter was selected to be that child. Lucky for her, St George was passing through town that day, and was horrified to learn what was happening. He offered to slay the dragon so that no more children would need to be sacrificed. As he struggled against the dragon, he noticed a weak spot in its armor. He plunged his sword into this spot, under the dragon’s arm, and killed him, saving the princess.
This story was probably made up by Christian soldiers called crusaders long after the real St George was dead. It’s very similar to other dragon stories of the middle ages, and dragon tales were very popular at the time. They were on coats of arms for many kingdoms and countries, banners, and coins, as a symbol of strength. And some people believed they were real for a long time: a scientist from the 17th century describes dragons winging throughout Africa, bludgeoning other large animals to death with their tails. My guess is that this guy never actually went to Africa, just like Philostratus probably never traveled to India.
The dragons of Chinese folklore are a bit different from European dragons. Though they are fierce and magical, Chinese dragons, called “lung”, are benevolent and helpful. These four-legged creatures with scales, horns, claws, and fiery eyes, lived near water, such as streams, rivers, and oceans. In fact, lungs were originally divine beings who controlled water and rainfall.
Other accounts from Chinese authors talk about four types of dragons. The Celestial Dragon, Tianlung, guards the home of the gods in heaven. You can see Tianlung as a group of stars coiled around the north star at night. In the west, this constellation is known as Draco, which also means dragon. Then there are the Dragons of Hidden Treasure, who guard buried treasures, creating volcanic eruptions when they burst out of their underground lairs. The Earth Dragon controls waterways, while the Spiritual dragon controls rain and winds. The Earth and Spiritual dragons were especially popular. In later folklore they morphed into “Dragon Kings” who lived in the oceans, sending rain, and protecting ships at sea.
Modern Dragons
In modern times, dragons have remained very popular. You can still see an ancient ritual in many places around the world where people hold Chinese New Year’s parades: the dragon dance. People line up, holding a colorful and elaborate dragon costume above them as they wind and dance their way along the parade route.
Many books, movies, and comics also feature dragons. Maybe you’ve read The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien, where Bilbo Baggins helps defeat the dragon Smaug, in a way very similar to St George; or the Chronicles of Narnia, where a character learns an important lesson when he is accidentally transformed into a dragon. More recently, series like Tui Sutherland’s Wings of Fire series and How to Train Your Dragon, by Cressida Cowell, put a more modern spin on traditional dragon lore. The dragons in these series may look like medieval European dragons, but they aren’t all evil. Wings of Fire has dragons from different tribes, each with its own customs and powers, learning to cooperate, overcome their fears, and solve big problems. How to Train your Dragon follows a Viking boy and his dragon as they team up to overcome challenges, with plenty of silliness along the way.
If you were making up your own version of a dragon, what would it be like? Helpful and benevolent, like the lung from ancient China? A fire-breathing terror who guards a treasure hoard, like the ones from medieval Europe? Or one of the more modern versions? What magical powers does it have? So many people throughout the ages have imagined different versions of these fascinating creatures. As you go to sleep tonight, try to imagine what your dragon-friend would be like!
Sources
https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythic-creatures/dragons/european-dragons
https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythic-creatures/dragons/natural-history-of-dragons
https://www.britannica.com/event/Crusades
https://www.britannica.com/topic/long
https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/draco-constellation/
https://www.stgeorgessociety.org/news/2018/3/30/saint-george-the-man-the-myth-the-legend
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dragons_in_mythology_and_folklore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81ga