Famous Dragons

Hi Everyone,

If dragons evoke images of enormous, fierce, bloodthirsty creatures, there's a reason.  Tales of their prowess are found all over the world.

In Japan's oldest book, the Kojiki, Yamata no Orochi was a very big Japanese ddragon with eight heads.  It's eyes were red and its belly was always covered in blood.  Pine and cypress trees grew on its back and it was so immense that it covered acres.  Yamata was slain by the warrior Susanoo by cutting off all of its heads. 

Yu is a golden dragon from Chinese mythology who was a rain god. 

Zu is an ancient dragon from mythology of Mesopotamia, Sumer and Babylong.  It is said that Zu stole the Tablets of Law and threatened to plunge the world into chaos.

And what about famous dragons in literature.  J.R.R. Tolkien's Glaurung in his Middle Earth saga was known as The Deceiver.  There is also a long-worm in the Grey Mountains known as Scatha the Worm.  And in The Hobbit, we have Smaug, a classic European-type dragon who hoards treasure and burns innocent towns.  In Beowulf there is an unnamed dragon at the end of the Old English epic.  Euflamm was the dragon slain by King Arthur.  Lewis Carrooll wrote about the Jabberwocky in Through the Looking Glass.  The Jabberwocky was a fearsome dragonlike beast with jaws that bite, claws that catch and eyes of flame.  In the twentieth century there were many books written about dragons.  E. Nesbit wrote the Book of Dragons in 1900.  Lena Leonard Fisher wrote The River Dragon's Bride in 1922 about a river dragon invented by greedy priests.  In 1925 E. Nesbit wrote a story about the last dragon on earth who is tired of being expected to fight a prince for a princess.  Skipping forward to the 1950s, Ray Bradbury wrote The Dragon, a short story about two knights out to fight a dragon, who kills them, only to learn that the dragon was a steam train.   Anne McCaffrey wrote the Dragonriders of Pern series in the 1960s.  Gordon R. Dickson wrote the Dragon Knight series in 1970s.  Piers Anthony's Xanth novels showcases the Gap Dron.  Michael Ende wrote the Neverending Story in 1979 which featured Falkor the luckdragon and Smerg, an evil dragon.  Shimmer was a dragon princess created by Laurence Yep in the Dragon Series in 1982-1992.  Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis wrote the Dragonlance universe in 1984 where Cyan Boodbane, a green dragon existed among many others.  Horbert was Hagrid's baby dragon in the Harry Potter series.  The list goes on and on and I noticed more and more dragon books appearing in the 2000 decades.

Dragons have been made famous in song as well.  Who can forget Puff the Magic Dragon?  This song was made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary but has been performed by countless other artists.  Albi, from the Flight of the Conchords song "Albi the Racist Dragon".  There is Consummate The Dragon song by Shai Hulud. 

Last but not least is Draco.  The constellation in the northern sky who's name is Latin for dragon.  Legend claims Draco was a dragon killed by the goddess Minerva and tossed into the sky upon his defeat. 

Dragons are fascinating creatures that capture our imaginations.  Can you think of any others?

darcy