The Dragons Are Singing Tonight

This Wednesday (January 16) is Appreciate a Dragon Day. One of the odder holidays, perhaps -- but one I whole-heartedly approve of, given my affection for dragons.

For being a mythical creature, dragons have quite the geological range. Virtually every culture has a variation of the dragon legend in their mythology. Western tradition tends to tells stories of fire-breathing, maiden-eating monsters that must be conquered and slain, while Eastern mythology generally views dragons as benevolent beasts who are symbols of good fortune.

The stories themselves may differ wildly, but dragons themselves are present in stories and legends everywhere. Historians have guessed that discovering fossilized remains of dinosaur bones may have led to early cultures devising myths about dragons. Nowadays, we know dragons to be imaginary -- but that's done little to relax their hold on our collective imagination.

I've been a fan of dragons since middle school, when movies like Dragonheart and books like Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles captivated me with their weird, wild, wonderful dragon characters. 

Here's five of the most memorable:

-- Smaug

Legends of dragons have been around for centuries. But for fans of modern high fantasy, Smaug might be considered the "original" dragon. Appearing in J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, Smaug fits in with many of the dragons of Western mythology: a cruel, greedy, evil beast, who spends his days lying atop his hoard of treasure in the cave inside the Lonely Mountain. The treasure, incidentally, was stolen by Smaug, having originally belonged to the dwarven residents of Lonely Mountain. Smaug chased the dwarves out of their home and has lived in the Mountain (with its treasure) ever since -- at least until a group of dwarves decide to reclaim their homeland, with the help of the hapless Bilbo Baggins.

Last December saw the release of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The first in a trilogy of films, Smaug's presence is suggested but not really shown. Expect that to change in this year's sequel The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which will feature the dragon, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, in all of Smaug's menacing glory.

-- Ramoth

We've talked before about Anne McCaffrey, the sci-fi author whose most famous creation was the Dragonriders of Pern. The series centers on a group of specially-chosen men and women who are telepathically bonded to the dragons they ride, and who are charged with protecting the people of Pern.

The first book in the series, Dragonflight, tells the story of dragonrider Lessa and her golden dragon, Ramoth. Published in the 1960s, the book was groundbreaking on a number of levels -- not the least of which was the portrayal of a strong female character in Lessa. But dragon Ramoth was groundbreaking, too: here was a dragon who was one of the good guys.



-- Falkor

To be fair, he doesn't really look all that much like most people's idea of a dragon. In fact, Falkor the Luckdragon -- from the Neverending Story books and films -- is unusual in a number of ways.

Covered in fur and scales, Falkor is wingless but still capable of flying. He can breathe fire (the flames are blue), but his most magical trait is his boundless good luck. He's there to help story heroes Atreyu and Bastian on their quest to save Fantasia, and his luck never seems to fail them.

-- Temeraire

This "alternate history" series posits a highly unusual "what-if" -- what if there were dragons during the era of the Napoleonic Wars?  

In Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, dragons not only exist, they also comprise the aerial fleets of European and Asian nations. Captain William Laurence of the HMS Reliant finds himself forced into Britain's Aerial Corps alongside his dragon, Temeraire (who he names after a French ship of the same name). Laurence and Temeraire -- the latter of whom turns out to be a highly unusual kind of dragon -- quickly find themselves caught up in the politics and intrigue of their time, making this historical fiction with a highly fantastical twist, indeed. This original series has been on my reading list for years.

-- Secoh

Secoh merits a place on this list simply because he's a favorite of mine. He appears in Gordon R. Dickson's Dragon Knight series, which centers on the adventures of Jim Eckert. Jim is just your average twentieth-century financially-struggling historian -- until he's whisked back in time to medieval days and promptly finds himself surrounded by magicians, sandmirks, talking wolves, and dragons.

One of those dragons is Secoh, a "mere-dragon" who's only half the size of the average dragon. Half-starved and constantly bullied, Secoh is a sniffling, cowardly sort of dragon -- at least until the wise old dragon Smrgol gives him something new to think about:

"Don't give me this nonsense about being only a mere-dragon! Mere's got nothing to do with what kind of dragon you are. You're a DRAGON! Get that straight, once and for all time! And a dragon ACTS like a dragon, or he doesn't act at all!"

That's good advice, I think, for any dragon to follow.

Click here to read Jack Prelutsky's poem "Once They All Believed in Dragons."

-- Post by Ms. B