Big, fire-breathing dragons. They’re just
beasts from fairy tales and fantasy fiction, right? That’s basically true, but those
stories only tell a fraction of the dragon’s vast history. And I’m here today to tell
you that dragons are real…Sort of. We like dragons because let’s be honest,
they look cool. Many of us have pets, and the dragon is the ultimate fantasy—something
beautiful yet ferocious, both loyal and capable of protecting us. Dragons have been a part of human culture
for thousands of years. Countless countries and cultures have integrated
stories of large serpentine creatures into their oral storytelling, art, and literature—but
why? Early discoveries of inexplicable natural
phenomenon let our imagination run wild. The mystifying nature of the dragon can most
probably be accounted for by human encounters with an astounding creature; like a large
aquatic animal floating just below the surface. An abnormally large snake, even an aggressive
Komodo dragon became legendary monsters. In the 13th Century, Marco Polo famously claimed
to encounter “huge serpents” with two legs and sharp teeth while traveling in China,
writing “The jaws are wide enough to swallow a man. The teeth are large and sharp and their
whole appearance is so formidable, that neither man, nor any kind of animal can approach them
without terror.” Now, it is generally believed that these “dragons”
Polo spoke of were in fact... just crocodiles. Dragon myths are in part a response to these
encounters and there is a rich history to them that spans across many cultures. Each
dragon is unique to the time and place of its creation. This is why there is no one “type” of
dragon. Not all breathe fire, some don’t even have wings! Or feet! This is a dragon. But so is this. Even these
guys are all considered dragons. But what accounts for such wide differences
in appearance? While there are examples of dragons all across
the globe, from the benevolent, shape shifting dragons of China to the feathered Mesoamerican
dragon-god, for now let’s just focus on those most common in fantasy literature — the
Classical dragon and one of my personal favorites, the Wyvern. The wyvern is a dragon frequently associated
with the United Kingdom. It’s distinct from other types of dragons because its reptilian
body possesses wings but only two legs. George R. R. Martin adopted the wyvern-style
of dragon. Khaleesi's reptilian children have very long necks and tails, large wings, and
only hind legs. Martin considered biology alongside myth when
crafting Drogon and his siblings, arguing that living or dead, from bat to pterodactyl,
“No beast in nature has four legs AND wings.” Well, tell that to the creators of the “Classical
dragon.” Recognizable by their four legs and powerful wings, this form of dragon is
the one most commonly seen today. So how do we explain these differences? Before paleontology existed, skeletal remains
were not always recognizable as the bones belonging to long dead animals. The prehistoric marine reptiles Plesiosaurus
were large, long-necked creatures with four long flippers. Plesiosaurus fossils easily
could have been mistaken for the two wings and two legs of a wyvern, or even the four
legs of a classical dragon. Even today we find more evidence that previous
cultures encountered reptilian fossils. In 2015, an ancient fossil was discovered that
appeared serpentine and has four legs. And a recent discovery in China revealed this
two-legged dinosaur with a pair of bat-like wings. I told you dragons were real! J.R.R. Tolkien had his own taxonomic system
for dragons. He classifies the creatures by their capacity to breathe fire and how they
move around. His writings depict dragons with and without wings, with legs and without,
and only some capable of breathing fire. His most famous dragon, the clever, treasure-guarding
“wicked worm” Smaug, checks off multiple boxes in Tolkien’s taxonomy. Like many authors
today, Tolkien combines different dragon myths to create the most terrifying beast imaginable. The most iconic trait of the dragon its ability
to breath fire, but where did this attribute come from? The development of fire-breathing dragons
could have been a result of the geological features of Northern Europe, specifically
the presence of natural gas vents. A wayward lightning strike or dropped torch
by a miner could have provided the spark that sent a tongue of flame or wave of noxious
gas to the surface. Not having a way to explain this natural phenomenon, we filled in the
gaps with a supernatural explanation—the fire-breathing dragon. This may also partially explain why dragons
are associated with guarding treasure, often below ground or in dark caves. Miners would
have been likely trying to deter thieves with scary stories of a monstrous creature protecting
their own fortunes. Depictions of the dragon as a fire-breathing
creature appear as early as the 10th century, when the gates of hell were said to be the
flaming mouth of a demonic beast. So what can we make from thousands of years
of stories and images of dragons? What can these tales teach us? The dragon represents a human appreciation
and respect for the power of nature. They remind us to tread carefully across rivers,
to avoid dark caverns, and to humble us in the presence of beasts stronger than ourselves. The dragon is legendary—it doesn’t really
matter so much whether or not it existed. What does matter is that in an age when nature
was mostly unexplained, dragons were a way to make sense of a world that seemed much
more mysterious.
That was way better than I thought it would be.
Really informative and interesting!