Why Are We Fascinated By Dragons? A Scholar of Monsters Explains Emily Zarka, of Arizona State University, has found dragons to be a nearly universal symbol for many civilizations.
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The premiere of HBO’s prequel to “Game of Thrones, ” “House of the Dragon” will undoubtedly bring more attention to the ferocious dragon. Two-legged or four, fire-breathing or shape-shifting, scaled or feathered, dragons fascinate people across the world with their legendary power. This shouldn’t be surprising.
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Long before “Harry Potter, ” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and other modern interpretations increased the dragon’s notoriety in the 21st century, artifacts from ancient civilizations indicated their importance in many religions across the world.
As a scholar of monsters, I’ve found dragons to be a nearly universal symbol for many civilizations. Scientists have tried to come up with explanations for the myth of dragons, but their enduring existence is testimony to their narrative power and mystery.
Religions and cultures across the globe are rife with dragon lore. In fact, across the vast majority of religions, there is mythic trope some scholars call Chaoskampf, a German word that translates as struggle against chaos. This term, used by mythologists, refers to a pervasive motif involving a heroic character who slays a primordial chaos “monster, ” often with serpentine or dragonlike characteristics and a massive size that dwarfs humans.
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In the text, Tiamat, the female primordial deity of salt water and matriarch of the gods, births 11 kinds of monsters, including the dragon. While Tiamat herself is never described as a “dragon, ” some of her children, or “monsters, ” include several different kinds of dragons with explicit references to her dragon children. Iconography later evolved so that her appearance began to take on serpentine features, linking her image to another famous clawed mythological predator, the dragon.
The presence of the dragon in China, where it is called Long is also ancient and integral to various cultural, spiritual and social traditions.
Provide justification for imperial dynasties. Different kinds of these aquatic, intelligent, semidivine beings form a hierarchy in ancient Chinese cosmology and appear in creation myths of various indigenous traditions.
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When Jesuit missionaries reintroduced Christianity in China in the 16th century, the dragon’s existence was not contested. Instead, they became associated with a more Westernized explanation – the Devil.
Dragons also appear in Anatolian religions, Sumerian myths, Germanic sagas, Shinto beliefs and in Abrahamic scriptures. The creature’s repeated and important presence across global religions and cultures raises an interesting question: Why did dragons appear at all?
A long-proposed theory is that there are natural explanations for dragons. That’s not to say the beasts of myth existed in real life but rather that fossils, living animals and geological features existing in the natural world inspired their creation.
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scientist Carl Sagan wrote a book on the subject, arguing that dragons evolved from a human need to merge science with myth, the rational with the irrational, as part of an evolutionary response to real predators. His thoughts are an expansion of proposed ideas beginning in the 19th century or earlier as newly discovered fossils were linked to representations of dragons across the globe.
Full or partial remains of numerous extinct species may explain the physical attributes of dragons. In 2020, two scholars, DorothyBelle Poli and Lisa Stoneman, even proposed that the fossilized remains of Lepidodendron, a plant with a scalelike resemblance, may be behind the global presence of dragons.
Human encounters with flying lizards, oarfish, crocodiles, Saharan horned vipers, large snakes and certain species of lizards and birds have also been proposed as possible explanations for dragon lore, given their physical resemblance to different dragons.
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Scholars have also cited natural geologic processes as explanations for dragon lore – particularly when they are associated with natural disasters. Fire-breathing dragons, for instance, might be an explanation for mysterious fires that observers attempted to rationalize as a dragon’s flame. Natural gas vents, methane produced from decaying matter and other sources of underground gas deposits can produce a blaze if accidentally lit. Before the mechanics of combustion were understood fully, such events were deemed indicators of a dragon’s presence, providing a cause for the seemingly implausible.
One enduring reason dragons continue to appear in our world could be because they represent the power of nature. Stories about people taming dragons can be seen as stories about the ability of humans to dominate forces that cannot always be controlled.
To gain control over a dragon underscores the problematic idea that humans are superior to all other animals in nature. Dragons challenge the concept of human biological supremacy, raising questions about what it means if humans were forced to reposition themselves as lesser members of the food chain.
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More importantly, I believe, the beauty, terror and power of the dragon evokes mystery and suggests that not all phenomena are easily explained or understood.Many of the characters of the series own their own dragon, and the showrunners managed to differentiate the creatures from each other surprisingly well, as the dragons range in size, color and personality. Most importantly, they came across as real animals, that exist in that world, rather than flashy props.
Director Greg Yaitanes recently revealed that he made sure to watch one of the best instances of dragon-flight ever put to screen, Dreamworks
Definitely covered a lot of action sequences that you didn't want to be in comparison to. Although, meme-makers have already had fun splicing the two properties together.
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Film, because there was a sense of scale to the dinosaurs that I don't think any of the subsequent films ever recaptured. [Director Steven Spielberg] knew he wanted to frame for height, and I took a lot of cues off what made the dinosaurs look so big and so interesting.”
, as one of the beasts, Vhagar, is the largest by far, and dwarfs the other dragons in scale; she’s pretty much a kaiju, who barely fits on the screen. While the other dragons have a lithe, almost snakelike appearance, Vhagar is thick and chunky, instantly distinguishable from the others.
Vhagar is also quite old, a relic from the early days of Aegon’s conquest, having belonged to one of his sister-wives, Queen Visenya.
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Hence, Vhagar is viewed by the dragon-riding nobility as a considerable prize, and is tamed by young Aemond Targaryen, in a memorable sequence that sees the determined child take a leap of faith, gaining the dragon’s trust, and losing his eye in the process.
In a later scene, the teenage Aemond attempts to intimidate his royal rival, Lucerys Velaryon, who is riding Arrax, a pipsqueak compared to the others. During the scene, both boys lose control of their dragons, prompting Arrax to panic and spew flame, which results in Vhagar taking a bite out of the two, instantly killing both boy and dragon.
The dragons are neatly incorporated into the story, as living status symbols, fussed over in the way that the nobility of old might have fixated over horses, or more recently, corgis. They also match the personalities of their riders, to some degree.
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Rhaenyra Targaryen rides Syrax, who is bright yellow, younger, but ferocious. The dragons are not simple palette swaps, as one might expect, but all have their own distinctive features; even their faces can be differentiated from one another.
The series also manages to depict the creatures as lethally dangerous, barely under their rider’s control, but with a certain flash of intelligence.
, the dragons seem almost akin to cats, predators who are choosing to ally themselves with humans, but could easily turn and take a bite out of their riders, if they decided. They seem to be imbued with more life and personality than Daenerys Targaryen’s pets.
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The series finale sees Daemon Targaryen attempt to russle up some more dragons for his family, as they will prove crucial in the upcoming war; Aemon taming the gargantuan Vhagar was seen as a considerable win, like acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Daemon enters Dragonstone to search for the riderless dragons who dwell there, and comes across Vermithor, who is distinguished by jumbled rows of jagged teeth. Surely, the formidable creature will play a major part in the upcoming Dance of Dragons.Perhaps some of you know the ‘dragon’ series of books by Marie Brennan. They are very enjoyable fantasy novels, describing the consecutive adventures of a woman in a fictional world resembling late 19-century Earth quite a bit. There are of course disparities, such as the existence of dragons.
The protagonist is a young woman, or she is at the start of the first book; in later volumes she is older. She wishes to study Natural History, not at all a proper endeavour for a young woman in her rather Victorian world. To find out more about her and her adventures, you should read the books for yourself, because this post mostly deals with the cover art of one the books: 'Within the sanctuary of wings'.
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