Dragon: Fear and Power

by Martin Arnold

Overview

From the fire-breathing beasts of North European myth and legend to the Book of Revelation’s Great Red Dragon of Hell, from those supernatural agencies of imperial authority in ancient China to the so-called dragon-women who threaten male authority, dragons are a global phenomenon, one that has troubled humanity for thousands of years. These often scaly beasts take a wide variety of forms and meanings, but there is one thing they all have in common: our fear of their formidable power and, as a consequence, our need either to overcome, appease, or in some way assume that power as our own.

In this fiery cultural history, Martin Arnold asks how these unifying impulses can be explained. Are they owed to our need to impose order on chaos in the form of a dragon-slaying hero? Is it our terror of nature, writ large, unleashed in its most destructive form? Or is the dragon nothing less than an expression of that greatest and most disturbing mystery of all: our mortality? Tracing the history of ideas about dragons from the earliest of times to Game of Thrones, Arnold explores exactly what it might be that calls forth such creatures from the darkest corners of our collective imagination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780238975
Publisher:	Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date:	07/15/2018
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Martin Arnold is a reader emeritus in Old Northern studies at the University of Hull, UK. His books include The Vikings: Culture and Conquest and Thor: Myth to Marvel.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Origin of Dragons 7

1 Dragons in Greek and Roman Mythology 13

2 Dragons in the Bible and Saints' Lives 43

3 The Germanic Dragon, Part 1: Old Norse Mythology and Old English Literature 77

4 The Germanic Dragon, Part 2: Sagas of Ancient Times 97

5 Dragons in Bestiaries and Celtic Mythology 119

6 Asian and East Asian Dragons 135

7 Dragons in the Anti-establishment Folktale 171

8 European Dragons as Fictions and Facts: From Medieval Romance to the Nursery Dragon 191

9 The Old Dragon Revives: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis 225

10 'A Wilderness of Dragons' 239

11 George R.R. Martin's Dragons and the Question of Power 259

Conclusion: The Dragon and Fear 275

References 281

Bibliography 311

Acknowledgements 321

Photo Acknowledgements 322

Index 323

Editorial Reviews

"The ability to write on esoteric matters in an accessible way is something that often (surprisingly) eludes scholars of literature, but that is not the case with Martin Arnold's The Dragon: Fear and Power. This exploration of dragons covers vast distances both temporally and geographically, and yet it seems neither laboured nor superficial."

Chris Bishop

"From Norse mythology to Game of Thrones, dragons have soared through legend across continents and centuries. By turns scholarly and vivid (it's still hard not to be captivated by the stories themselves), this book travels from China to Scandinavia in a bid to track down the meaning behind the myth. Dragons, it seems, have at various times represented both authority and a threat to it."

History Revealed

"The Dragon offers a wide-ranging tour of dragons in different cultures, including readable summaries of a range of different myths. . . . Arnold writes in an engaging and vivid style, giving The Dragon the tone of an erudite conversation rather than an academic work. . . . Visually, The Dragon is impressive, with over eighty color illustrations featuring dragons from a wide range of different manuscripts and artistic sources. . . . An assured and entertaining survey of a legend that has continuing appeal."

Fortean Times

"This is a richly comprehensive survey of the representation of dragons in literature, art and folklore, both in European tradition and in Asia. I am not qualified to comment on this latter aspect, but Arnold’s account of European material seems to me admirably full. . . . The publishers are to be congratulated on a beautifully produced book, which is a joy to handle and examine."

Gramarye

"Arnold’s The Dragon explores the civilized dragon—the dragon as it has coalesced in an enduring and remarkably consistent body of legend, the dragon as it has cross-pollinated with other legends via the rise of powerful empires, and the dragon as it deals with the problems of civilization itself. In practice, this means that Arnold does not hew closely to any consistent vision of a dragon. Instead, he focuses on the best examples of dragons (or dragon-like function) within Semitic, Indo-European, and East Asian cultures, and finally in globally exported Western pop culture."

Weekly Standard

"Any reader or library interested in dragons and their impact on cultural life, past and present, be it religious, folkloric, literary, or artistic, will be entranced by Arnold’s definitive work. Eighty color illustrations depict dragons from a wide range of different manuscripts and artistic forms in a beautifully produced book from Reaktion Books."

SF Commentary

"[Delves] at length, and with admirable knowledge and insight, into contemporary media spins on [its] respective totems. . . . Thoroughly researched and richly illustrated chronicles of the folkloric and literary pedigrees of [its] subject creatures. . . . The Dragon features sumptuous color illustrations, a deep bibliography, and notes that invite the reader into independent excursions leading well beyond its pages. Author Arnold is clearly a world expert in dragon lore across genres and media. He guides the reader through a long and fascinating history of this mythical beast’s appearances. . . . Simultaneously expansive and granular. . . . A rewarding, not to mention highly quotable, resource for browsers. If you are interested in any manifestation of dragon lore—religious, folkloric, literary, or artistic—this marvelous volume should be your point of entry."

Washington Independent Review of Books

"Arnold has set himself a vast topic for scrutiny: every culture across the millennia has conjured up fantastical fire-spewing raptors, perhaps as a projection of all that humankind most fears. This social history of dragons begins in the mythologies and legends that have come to us throughout recorded history and ends in the present day, with The Game of Thrones’ Daenerys and her aggressive brood."

Toronto Star - Sarah Murdoch

"Dragons, as is proved to the hilt by Arnold’s exceptionally wide-ranging and multicultural survey, are in fact ‘a global phenomenon’ and a cross-temporal one as well. They go as far back in time as the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, and they turn up across Eurasia, from Ireland all the way to Japan. But how consistent is the dragon phenomenon? And what on earth can it mean about us?"

Literary Review - Tom Shippey