Thanks to Tolkien, Disney, Netflix, and others, dragons are more popular than ever. But were they ever real? I spent a considerable amount of time searching for a single historian, paleontologist, herpetologist, Uber driver, or bartender who is willing to consider that dragons ever actually walked on the surface of this planet. We do accept their presence in alcohol or fever-induced hallucinations or as Jungian archetypes buried in someone’s subconscious, but that’s as far as we are willing to go.
Nada!
Har aldri skjedd!
Still, I’m a sucker for hopeless possibilities, such as the actual existence of dragons (and faeries and fauns for that matter), and at this point, I’m close to pleading with St. Jude, the patron of lost causes, to help me make my case.
My premise
So, here is what I’m thinking: I’m going to focus on a specific species of dragon (the firedrake) within the genus. I’ll discuss other types of dragons in literature, where they were found, and how they differed from one another. I’m proposing that dragons (specifically firedrakes) may well have lived in the past. Not tens of thousands of them, but maybe a few dozen or a few hundred—a small population existing over a span of time that may not have exceeded a few millennia. They may have vanished in some natural catastrophe or pestilence or been hunted to extinction by heroes such as Beowulf. And it only takes one or two specimens of a strange creature (such as a two-headed calf, much less a dragon) to fire the imagination of people for generations. That being said, the fewer there were of a species, the less likely it is that fossilized remains will be found. Too convenient, you may think. But I remember how a decade before I was born fishermen off the coast of Africa caught a coelacanth, a fish thought to have become extinct 65 million years ago. And voilà! Of course, there were fossilized remains of this fish, but it had gone undetected since the end of the Cretaceous period. And while the coelacanth thrived in that remote period, so did the Thanatotheristes degrootorum, whose existance was only discovered sixteen years ago (2020)! The fossilized remains of this dragon-sized dinosaur were never found before because in the rock structure of Alberta, Canada (its habitat), it is not easy to excavate remains of Cretaceous beasts and as there are so few Mesozoic monster remains to be found around that site, there was little incentive to search there for one species or another. What if this were true of dragons Perhaps a dying dragon would use its waning strength to look for some deep Innsjø or lake: cavern or volcano caldron, in which to die? Some as yet inaccessible location?
You can say I have no evidence, but you cannot of course prove me wrong (e.g. the black swan hypothesis).
“I risked my life often when I was young. Now I am old, but as king of the people I shall pursue this fight
for the glory of winning, if the evil one will only
abandon his earth-fort and face me in the open.”
Beowulf, Seamus Heaney, Trs. Lines 2511-2515. Photo credit: Bloodfilth (Deviant Art).
Nidhögg
Norse mythology speaks of a “world tree” that has a vague correspondence with the Tree of Life in Genesis. However, the more you learn about this tree—called Yggdrasil—the less it resembles the Biblical Tree of Life. Therefore, we should consider Yggdrasil mainly as a tree from which life flows, without delving deeply into the obscure details.
We can think of this tree symbolically, in that people will someday be able to gather there (as mentioned in Völuspá and Revelation 22). Additionally, we can conceive of each of us having our own personal Yggdrasil, or a branch of the global Yggdrasil, although that notion is not supported by Scripture. If the roots of the tree are healthy, then the branches are healthy; likewise, this applies to the world and to our lives. But here’s the rub—and where the dragon enters.
The dragon is called Nidhögg (also known as Nidhöggr, a name whose meaning is uncertain, but possibly translates to “biter below,” as described in the following sentences). Like most dragons, Nidhögg is described with serpent-like adjectives and can be found in proximity to Yggdrasil, dwelling deep underground where the tree’s roots are the most tender. As a Germanic dragon, he is equipped with wings, as noted:
There comes the shadow-dark dragon flying,
the gleaming serpent, up from Dark-of-moon Hills;
Nidhogg flies over the plain, in his pinions he carries corpses;
now she will sink down.
History and mythology are silent about whether Nidhögg was originally capable of breathing fire; however, in contemporary stories and movie scripts, he does. He uses his sharp claws and fearsome teeth to shred and chew the root system, causing parts of the branches to die. In this sense, he represents sin and death, much like Satan did in his guise as a serpent in Eden. Eventually, Nidhögg will cause the tree to die, taking the entire universe with it. The signs of its impending death are very personal, as described in the Edda:
Brothers will fight and kill each other, parents will defile their own bed; Harsh weather in the world, universal adultery, time of axes, time of swords, shields are split, time of storms, time of wolves, before the world crumbles; No one will spare anyone.
As this is happening, the appearance of the trees begins to change from vibrant green to brown leaves, as the branches themselves start to die. Likewise, Nidhögg can be viewed as an archetype of Satan, who also seeks a person’s vulnerabilities to attack for the purpose of bringing sin, ruin, and death upon the unsuspecting individual. Conflict with one’s family, adultery and other sexual sins, combative relationships, and so forth must surely fit within the prophecies of the seeress (völva).
This is the time when “man shall have no more reverence for man,” and you can be easily forgiven if you think that time is now.
Drekkaheimr (Dragon’s lair)
Medieval literature uses certain terms that could indicate the abodes of European fire dragons. These abodes might be on craggy mountaintops inaccessible to predators, near the lava tubes of active volcanoes such as Katla in Iceland, and Stromboli, Etna, and Vesuvius in Italy. Alternatively, they could be in the ruins of an abandoned city as the prophet Jeremiah 10:22 foretells. Other possibilities include mystical forests, or a remote and rocky beach where aquatic life ensures a plentiful food supply.
The Draco’s life-cycle
While there is a consensus throughout history and across cultures that the progeny of dragons emerged from eggs, there are, for the most part, only oblique references to the eggs themselves, and nothing that I could locate concerning the nesting behavior of the drakaina or whether the hatchlings were nurtured or needed to immediately fend for themselves, like newborn turtles today. These sparse remarks are shrouded more in texts concerning alchemy, mythology, and superstition, leaving next to nothing to say here. What could be said is certainly less than reliable. It is clear and certain that dragons could not
escape their diabolical reputation, perhaps because of how they are presented in the Bible and also because of the sheer, terrifying appearance of the dragon itself. While a few specific dragons, such as Nidhöggr, were capable of doing a mitzvah on occasion, they were more often considered to be a curse to be rid of or exterminated as soon as possible.
Medieval literature and epic poems, such as Beowulf, Arthurian legends, and bestiaries, suggest that the lifespan of dragons extended for centuries, certainly much longer than that of mortals in any event. Most accounts suppose that those dragons who were not slain on the spot by some hero retreated to their lair to die.
Historicity
Tablet One of the Babylonian Enuma Elish, meaning “when on high,” from the latter second century B.C., contains the first recorded note of a dragon; in this case, a goddess named Tiamat, whose name (from tiamtum) means “sea.” Of her, we learn:
Tiamat is the Mesopotamian goddess associated with primordial chaos and the salt sea, best known from the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish. In all versions of the myth following the original, Tiamat symbolizes the forces of chaos, which threaten the order established by the gods. Marduk (or Ashur in Assyrian versions) is the hero who preserves it.
She is depicted in later periods as a female serpent or dragon, based on vague descriptions of her in the Enuma Elish, but no iconography exists from ancient Mesopotamia.
Of European dragons, no more than 40% were believed to have wings capable of supporting them in flight. Asmaller minority (30% or less) could actually breather fire.
“The burning one who hunts out barrows. The slick-skinned dragon, threatening the night sky With streamers of fire. People on the farms Are in dread of him. He is driven to hunt out Hoards underground, to guard heathen gold.”
Beowulf, 2272 ff
Dragons as protectors and hoarders
There is also the popular association between dragons and treasure. One of the oldest associated legends dating back to ancient Greece and Rome is the notion that dragons are guardians — whether of the Golden Fleece that Jason sought, or the hallowed grounds of Delphi. Apollo slew the dragon at Delphi and tossed its huge carcass into a deep crevice that descended well below the ground. Over time, the wyrm (drakaina) rotted and the fumes would overcome the incumbent oracle, who would deliberately breathe them in and then prophesy in an intoxicated state. In fact, the geology of Delphi is not igneous but rather limestone, and there are hallucinogenic gasses, in particular ethylene present released even to this day, which often causes a disembodied euphoria to those who breathe it in.
In other cases, dragons were viewed as hoarders, much as corvids and bowerbirds are. It seems more a matter of prestige to the dragon than anything else.
In the Norse writings such as the Poetic Edda and the Völsunga Saga of Icelandic origin, a remarkable metaphoric transformation takes place. Fáfnir, an antagonist in both works, is a person whose obsession with wealth actually transforms him into a dragon. Those who have read C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia — specifically the third book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — may recall Eustace Scrubb, who found a hidden treasure and, in disregard of Aslan’s warnings, seized handfuls of jewels before falling into a deep sleep.
When he awoke, there was a painful gold ring around his arm. Not only that, Eustace saw his reflection and discovered he had turned into a dragon. He wept miserably — a greedy small boy stranded in a strange land, like a lost sheep. However, Aslan found him and redeemed him by cutting away the ring and the dragon’s skin, though as Aslan warned, this process would not
be without pain. When we are redeemed by Christ, we often still have addictions or horrible circumstances to work through. It can be a very painful process. But unpacking any grief, pain, anger or bitterness is important if we truly with to be free.
Where do dragons go to die?
I wondered where dragons went to die. Was there some special place like the mythological elephant burial grounds? Did the dragons of Europe return to the area where they were hatched, like salmon returning to the natal lakes and streams from which they were spawned? After all, this is why I returned to the Northeast after half a century away from home. It gives my life a sense of completeness.
The answer seems to be a logical one. Dragons usually died wherever it was that they were mortally wounded. For example, the beast slain by Sir Tristan, a knight in the court of King Mark of Cornwall and elsewhere as a knight in King Arthur’s service:
Tristan . . . once again set sail for Ireland. He knew that Ireland was being plagued by a fierce dragon, and that the king had offered the hand of his daughter to whomsoever could kill the grisly serpent. Armed with faith and hope, plus a spear and a sword, he sought out the dragon and attacked it bravely. A fierce battle ensued. The serpent defended itself with smoke and fire, then counterattacked with teeth and claws, but in the end Tristan was victorious. The dragon lay dead before him. With great effort he pried open its great jaws, cut out its tongue, put it into his shirt as a trophy, then walked away. Exhausted from the fight and poisoned by the tongue inside his shirt, Tristan nearly lost consciousness. He kept himself alive by dragging himself into a cool pond, where he lay with only his head above water. Meanwhile, the king's chief steward, who had long made unseemly advances toward Princess Isolde, but whom she had always refused, came upon the dead dragon. Seizing the opportunity, he brought back friends to witness that he had killed the dragon, thus claiming the right to marry the princess. They cut off the dragon's head and carried it to the castle as proof of his deed.
Cutting the dragon’s tongue as some sort of trophy was something that Tristan likely heard about, as it was common to many heroic stories back then. The same was true of Beowulf’s foe. In fact few dragons ever warranted a name, because they were not pets to be potty-trained or house broken. They were frightful, unpredictable, murderous monsters in league with the devil (Revelation 12:7-9).
So, the mortally wounded dragon might, if its strength did not fail it, find some cave or cove in which to slither and breathe its last breath.
The rest is mystery or myth.
Glossary
Chimera: “A fire-breathing female monster in Greek mythology having a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail.” Merriam-Webster.
Drake: A male dragon.
Drakaina: A female dragon.
Glaurung: In Tolkien literature, the father of dragons.
Naga: “A member of a race of spirits recognized in Hinduism and Buddhism that have mingled superhuman and serpent qualities, are genii of waters and rain, and live in a subaqueous kingdom”. Merriam-Webster.
Python (from the Oracle of Delphi): The python killed by Apollo. Apollo killed the python and threw it to the ground where if fell into a deep crevice in the earth near Delphi. The stench of the python’s decay lasted for centuries. The incumbent Oracle of Delphi would position herself on a tripod straddling the fissure and inhale the odor of the decaying python;s flesh, causing her to prophesize.
Wurm (Wyrms): “While ‘wurm’ and ‘wyrm’ share common Germanic roots meaning serpent or dragon, in modern fantasy they generally differ in nuance: a wyrm is a large, often magical, serpentine dragon, while a wurm is typically a massive, wingless, limbless, beast-like reptile”. Fandom.
Wyvern: “a mythical animal usually represented as a 2-legged winged creature resembling a dragon”. Merriam-Webster.
Yinglong: “Known as the Winged Dragon in Chinese mythology, is a significant figure associated with the legendary Emperor Huangdi, or the Yellow Emperor. Revered as one of the oldest dragon entities, Yinglong is characterized by immense wings and is said to take three thousand years to mature, transitioning from a small water snake to a winged dragon. In the mythological narratives.” EBSCO.
