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LEGENDS OF THE DRAGON11/17/2022 It’s an oft-repeated story; monsters of epic proportions sweeping over the mountains on shadowy wings, belching fire and destruction. Seen as creatures of darkness and danger, sages of hidden wisdom, steeds of powerful warlords, or the very embodiment of all evil, dragons have played an important role in the folklore and literature of mankind since the dawn of recorded history. Today, the dragons seem to have been relegated to the realm of fiction, where they scorch the landscape of many a book, game, film and TV show. The modern treatment of the appearance of these creatures in old stories has been largely dismissive. While there is certainly room for skepticism in many cases, the multiple similarities of tales told by totally unrelated cultures the world over might suggest that dragons are perhaps a bit more than fantasy. This article, and those to come, will deal with the multitude of dragon legends throughout history, where they fit in historical and modern thought, and why they so persistently haunt the human memory. THE BEGINNING People have written about dragons nearly as long as they have written about themselves. The first dragon legends we find appear in the millennia old tales of ancient Sumeria. In these myths, Tiamat is the goddess who functions both as a chaotic sea-dragon and a benevolent mother-creator supposed to have given birth to many Sumerian deities. According to the epic of Enuma Elish, her husband, the god Apsu, fears that his offspring will overthrow him and so battles against them, only to be killed. Tiamat is said to have taken her dragon form to avenge her husband’s murder, only to be slain by Marduk the storm god, who uses her body to build the earth. Interestingly, Tiamat is reported to have also been the mother of all dragons, which are said to have poison in their veins instead of blood. Another Sumerian dragon tale speaks of Ninurta, the god-hero of the Sumerian poem Lugal-e, who fought and defeated the seven-headed dragon Ushum, hanging its lifeless body on the crossbeam of his chariot as a trophy after the battle. In Sumerian and Babylonian mythology, the dragon Mushussu is depicted as a scaly beast who serves the deity Marduk, having claws like an eagle, feathered wings, limbs like a lion, serpentine neck and tail, a forked tongue, and a pair of horns surmounted by a crest on its head. It may be worth noting that this description, minus the wings, is vaguely similar to that of traditional Chinese dragons. It should also be noticed that the Mesopotamian concept of the dragon is somewhat of a mosaic in nature; while it has the reptilian neck and tail, other parts of it are compared to various creatures. In some cases, the word 'dragon' is just one of a particular creature's many names, alongside 'serpent,' 'lion' or 'eagle.' The dragon Usumgallu is referred to as a "lion-dragon demon," and along with Musmahhu and Mushussu is known as a "Great Horned Serpent." While it is possible that these ancients saw a real creature and cobbled together a description based on components of more familiar animals in order to make sense of it, the composite nature of these 'dragons' does leave open the possibility that they are nothing more than fancy based quite directly on more mundane animals. Other mythical composites, such as the griffin, mermaid, centaur and basilisk all serve as examples of the tendency to patch together new animals out of existing ones.
For those who want something closer to the scaly fire-breathing horrors out of a medieval hero's quest, the search must be directed elsewhere. And that's exactly where we're going. Stay tuned, but beware - HERE THERE BE DRAGONS.
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AuthorThe Mad Poet Himself: History Lover, Medieval Enthusiast, Amateur Poet and Filmmaker, Folk Musician, and Madman Extraordinaire Archives
December 2023
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