Dragons brings together the Western Dragon, the Chinese Long, the Norse Nidhogg and the Wyvern, four figures that share a reptilian, often winged form but differ sharply in what that form means: a hoarding menace in European legend, an imperial and rain bringing power in Chinese cosmology, a corpse gnawing serpent at the root of the World Tree in Norse myth. The label is about shape, not shared origin.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingGreat serpentine or reptilian beasts, collected by body-form. Form is the only thing the traditions gathered here share: the English word "dragon" is doing the collecting, not the traditions. 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredChinese: the long is an auspicious being of water, rain and imperial authority - invoked in rain ritual and worn by the emperor, not a monster to be slain. 3 Peoples and Traditions CoveredEuropean: the dragon of Latin and Germanic tradition, and of later heraldry, is a hoard-guarding or land-wasting monster confronted and killed by a hero. 3 Peoples and Traditions CoveredNorse: Nidhogg gnaws at the root of the world-tree Yggdrasill - a being of Old Norse cosmology and eschatology rather than of heraldry or of rain ritual. 4 Learn More
The Dragons
This group gathers dragons, the great serpentine or reptilian creatures that appear, in strikingly different roles, in mythologies across the world. In the European tradition the dragon is often a hoard-guarding menace to be slain by a hero, while in Chinese and wider East Asian tradition the dragon is an auspicious being of water, sky and imperial power.
The browser will find the dragon figures the atlas gathers from these traditions. The entries describe each creature's form, powers and mythological role, noting how sharply the dragon's meaning differs from one culture to another.
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Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books and Local Legends
Stith Thompson, Indiana University Press, 1958B0-B99, Mythical Animals
3. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005on dragons and heraldic beastsView the Source 4. Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs
John Lindow, Oxford University Press, 2001the entry on NidhoggView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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