Which Creature Is Fit for a King?
DRAGONS (FROM THE LATIN DRACO—JUST like Draco Malfoy) are probably the
best-known magical creatures in literature. Usually dangerous and
terrifying, they are often the most challenging foe a hero can
face. Literary critics John Clute and John Grant note this rule of
ancient epics: “To kill a dragon is often to become a king.” As a
result the dragon is the symbol of many real and fictional kings,
including the legendary King Arthur, whose last name, Pendragon,
means “head of the dragon” or “chief dragon.” His golden helmet
bore a dragon design.
However, as some heroes discover, dragons are
often misunderstood. Though they can be frightening, they can also
be benevolent.
UGLINESS IS ONLY SKIN DEEP
Many people fear dragons simply because of
their appearance. This description from about A.D. 600 was taken
very seriously:
J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The
Lord of the Rings, called dragons the trademark of fairy tales
and myths.
Dragons on family
crests.
The dragon is the largest of all serpents and of all living things upon earth. It has a small face and narrow blow-holes through which it draws its breath and thrusts out its tongue. Being dragged from caves it rushes into the air, and the air is thrown into commotion on account of it. And it has its strength not in its teeth but in its tail, and it is dangerous for its stroke, rather than for its jaws. It is harmless in the way of poison, but poison is not necessary for it to cause death, because it kills whatever it has entangled in its folds. And from it the elephant is not safe because of its size. It grows in Ethiopia and in India, in the very burning of perennial heat.
It is easy to see why the dragon is often a symbol of destruction. That idea goes back thousands of years. In the New Testament, the Lord warns, “I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”
BRITISH DRAGONS
Dragons play a big part in the legends of Harry’s
homeland. For instance, they foretold one of the most important
moments in British history. According to an official chronicle, the
year AD 793 began with “dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the
Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully. Whirlwinds and
immense sheets of light rushed through the air, and fiery dragons
flew across the sky. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by
a great famine: and not long after, invading heathens made
lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island
[Lindisfarne].” Those “invading heathens” were Norsemen from
Scandinavia. True to what
had been foretold, their ships were decorated to look like dragons.
They continued to dominate Britain for hundreds of years.
In both Europe and Asia, comets and meteors were
sometimes taken to be flying, fire-breathing dragons.
Legend has it that St. George slew the dragon at
what is now Dragon’s Hill in Berkshire,
England. It’s said no grass can grow where the dragon’s blood was
spilled.
Not surprisingly, the saint later adopted as the
patron of England, St. George, is famous for slaying a
dragon—symbolically defeating the foreigners. In The Faerie Queen, a famous poem written during the
reign of Queen Elizabeth I, poet Edmund Spenser describes the
dragon faced by the “Red-Cross Knight”:
His body was monstrous, horrible, and vast, Swollen with wrath and poison and with bloody gore;
And over all with brazen scales
was armed, Like plated coat of steel, that nothing might pierce
it,
Nor could his body be harmed
with dint of sword, nor push of pointed spear.
His wings were like two sails
in which the hollow wind
Is gathered full, and work
speedy way.
His huge long tail, wound up in
hundred folds,
Spread across his long
back.
Spotted with scales of red and
black,
It sweeps all the land behind
him,
And at the end two
stingers:
Both deadly sharp—sharper than
steel, by far.
His deep devouring
jaws
Gaped wide, like the grisly
mouth of hell, And in either jaw were three rows of iron teeth In
which, still trickling blood and raw guts, Recently devoured bodies
did appear.
THE GOOD SIDE OF DRAGONS
But dragons are not always enemies of humans.
Especially in Asia, the dragon is benevolent—though sometimes
bossy. Most importantly, it is a symbol of leadership.
The Asian calendar is divided into twelve-year
cycles, with each of those years associated with a particular
animal. People born in the Year of the Dragon are said to be the
best leaders, combining a strong will with a generous nature.
WHAT’S INSIDE A DRAGON’S BRAIN?
Some authorities say a magical gemstone, called
draconite, can be found inside a dragon’s head: “There is cut out
of the dragon’s brain a stone, but it is not a stone unless it be
taken while the dragon is alive. For if the dragon dies first, the
hardness vanishes away with his life. Men of excellent courage and
audacity search out the holes where the dragons lie. Then watching
until they come forth to feed, and passing by them with as
much speed as they can, they cast them herbs to provoke sleep. So
when the dragons are fast asleep, the men cut the stones out of
their heads, and getting the booty of their heady enterprise, enjoy
the reward of their rashness. The kings of the East wear these
although they are so hard that no man can devise to imprint or
engrave anything in it. It has a pure natural whiteness.”
In the last half of the twentieth century, the
years of the dragon in the Asian calendar were roughly equivalent
to these years on the Western calendar: 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988,
2000.
In ancient legend, the blood of dragons was also
magical. This fits with a fact noted on Dumbledore’s Famous Witches and Wizards trading card, that one of
his achievements was figuring out the twelve uses of dragon’s
blood.
See also: Potter,
Harry
