Overview

Dragons have been something I've been highly interested in throughout my life. Whether in books, movies, plays, or any other sort of art, they've never ceased to fascinate me. Luckily, I had the privilege to study them this semester; I learned a great deal more about their origins, meanings, and context than I'd known before. This page just provides a brief summary of dragons and how they were often depicted in Renaissance literature.

The word dragon entered the English language in the early 13th century from Old French dragon, which in turn comes from Latin draconem meaning "huge serpent, dragon," from the Greek word drakon, meaning "serpent, giant seafish". The Greek and Latin term referred to any great serpent, not necessarily mythological, and this usage was also current in English up to the 18th century. Although dragons occur in many legends around the world, different cultures have varying stories about monsters that have been grouped together under the dragon label. Some dragons are said to breathe fire or to be poisonous, such as in the Old English poem Beowulf. They are commonly portrayed as serpentine or reptilian, hatching from eggs and possessing typically scaly or feathered bodies. They are sometimes portrayed as hoarding treasure. Some myths portray them with a row of dorsal spines. European are more often winged, while  having a variable number of legs: none, two, four, or more when it comes to early European Literature.

Dragons also have various symbols and meanings. When compared with the East's meaning and symbolism of a dragon, it becomes quite clear how different each culture perceived this mythical creature. In Renaissance context, dragons were often associated with ideas that stemmed mostly from fear. Disorder, chaos, greed, evil and even Satan himself are interpretations of the European take on dragons, as opposed to the power, wisdom and majesty the Eastern cultures held for them. Just making this comparison can reveal so much about how people behaved during the Renaissance times.

Probably one of the most famous and praised stories (especially in England) of dragons was the story of St. George and the Dragon. According to the Golden Legend, the narrative episode of Saint George and the Dragon took place in a place he called "Silene", in Libya; the Golden Legend is the first to place this legend in Libya as a sufficiently exotic locale, where a dragon might be imagined. In the tenth-century Georgian narrative, the place is the fictional city of Lasia, and it is the godless Emperor who is Selinus. The town had a pond, as large as a lake, where a plague-bearing dragon dwelled that envenomed all the countryside. To appease the dragon, the people of Silene used to feed it two sheep every day, and when the sheep failed, they fed it their children, chosen by lottery. It happened that the lot fell on the king's daughter, who is in some versions of the story called Sadra.The king, distraught with grief, told the people they could have all his gold and silver and half of his kingdom if his daughter were spared; the people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, decked out as a bride, to be fed to the dragon. Saint George by chance rode past the lake. The princess, trembling, sought to send him away, but George vowed to remain. The dragon reared out of the lake while they were conversing. Saint George fortified himself with the Sign of the Cross, charged it on horseback with his lance, and gave it a grievous wound. He then called to the princess to throw him her girdle, and he put it around the dragon's neck. When she did so, the dragon followed the girl like a meek beast on a leash. The princess and Saint George led the dragon back to the city of Silene, where it terrified the people at its approach. But Saint George called out to them, saying that if they consented to become Christians and be baptized, he would slay the dragon before them. The king and the people of Silene converted to Christianity, George slew the dragon, and the body was carted out of the city on four ox-carts. "Fifteen thousand men baptized, without women and children." On the site where the dragon died, the king built a church to the Virgin Mary and Saint George, and from its altar a spring arose whose waters cured all disease.

Other stories in the Renaissance depict dragons as well. The Faerie Queen, Dr, Faustus, the Green Serpent, and Beowulf are all noteworthy examples. Dragons seemed to be pretty prevalent during this time period; however, society seemed to lose interest in them up until more recently. Modern culture has revived to dragon and tried to restore it mostly to its old European symbolism. Contemporary media hosts several mediums for dragons to once again fascinate and even fear this monstrous creature. I, though, love any dragon experience!