Dragonslayer
A dragonslayer is a person or being that slays
Aarne–Thompson classification system.[1] They continue to be popular in modern books, films, video games and other forms of entertainment. Dragonslayer-themed stories are also sometimes seen as having a chaoskampf
theme - in which a heroic figure struggles against a monster that epitomises chaos.
Description
A dragonslayer is often the hero in a "
Þóra borgarhjörtr
, whom he later marries.
There are, however, several notable exceptions to this common motif. In the legend of Saint George and the Dragon, for example, Saint George overcomes the dragon as part of a plot which ends with the conversion of the dragon's grateful victims to Christianity, rather than Saint George being married to the rescued princess character.
In a Norse legend from the
Fafnir - a dwarf who has been turned into a dragon as a result of guarding the cursed ring that had once belonged to the dwarf, Andvari. After slaying the dragon, Sigurd drinks some of the dragon's blood and thereby gains the ability to understand the speech of birds. He also bathes in the dragon's blood, causing his skin to become invulnerable. Sigurd overhears two nearby birds discussing the heinous treachery being planned by his companion, Regin. In response to the plot, Sigurd kills Regin, thereby averting the treachery.[2]
Mythologists such as Joseph Campbell have argued that dragonslayer myths can be seen as a psychological metaphor:[3]
"But as Siegfried [Sigurd] learned, he must then taste the dragon blood, in order to take to himself something of that dragon power. When Siegfried has killed the dragon and tasted the blood, he hears the song of nature. he has transcended his humanity and re-associated himself with the powers of nature, which are powers of our life, and from which our minds remove us.
...Psychologically, the dragon is one's own binding of oneself to one's own ego." [4]
Dragonslayer characters
Antiquity
- Enki
- Ninurta
- Inanna
- Marduk
- Ra
- Teshub
- Indra
- Garuda
- Janamejaya
- Uttanka
- Baal
- El (deity)
- Yahweh
- Michael
- Daniel
- Apollo
- Zeus
- Jupiter
- Perseus
- Heracles
- Heros
- Saint George
- Vahagn
- Tarḫunz
- Cadmus
- Rostam
- Fereydun
- Garshasp
- Yu the Great
- Erlang Shen
- Li Ji
- Eurybarus
- Mwindo
Medieval and early Modern legend
- Guy of Warwick
- Baldr
- Beowulf
- Sigurd or Siegfried
- Dietrich von Bern
- Tristan
- Margaret the Virgin
- Heinrich von Winkelried
- Gawain
- Dobrynya Nikitich
- Skuba Dratewka/Krakus
- Drangue
- Susanoo
- Nezha
- Lancelot
- Făt-Frumos
- Fráech
- Bayajidda
- Bahrām Gūr
- Iovan Iorgovan
- Prâslea the Brave
- Greuceanu
- Haymon
- Wada Heita Tanenaga
- John Lambton
- Mamadi Sefe Dekote (Africa)
- Benzaiten aka Saraswati
- Teodosio de Goñi
- Piers Shonks
- Dieudonné de Gozon
Tolkien's legendarium
- Túrin Turambar
- Eärendil
- Fram
- Bard the Bowman
References
- ISBN 0-520-03537-2.
- ISBN 0-520-23285-2.[page needed]
- ]
- ]
Further reading
- Bauman, Richard. "A Sixteenth Century Version of The Dragon-Slayer". In: Fabula vol. 11, no. Jahresband, 1970, pp. 137-143. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabl.1970.11.1.137
- Davis, S. (1953). "Argeiphontes in Homer--The Dragon-Slayer". Greece & Rome. 22 (64): 33–38. S2CID 163106261.
- d'Huy, Julien. (2013). "Le motif du dragon serait paléolithique: mythologie et archéologie". In: Préhistoire du Sud-Ouest. 21. pp. 195–215.
- d'Huy, Julien. (2014). "Mythologie et statistique. Reconstructions, évolution et origines paléolithiques du combat contre le dragon". In: Mythologie française. pp. 17–23.
- Hart, Donn V.; Hart, Harriett C. (October 1960). "A Philippine Version of 'The Two Brothers and the Dragon Slayer' Tale". Western Folklore. 19 (4): 263. JSTOR 1497353.
- Jagiełło, Mieszek (2021). “Thoughts on the Symbolism and Origin of Apollo’s Fight Against the Pythian Snake”. In: Classica Cracoviensia 24 (December): 25-39. https://doi.org/10.12797/CC.24.2021.24.02.
- Järv, Risto (2002). "The Three Suitors of the King's Daughter: Character roles in the Estonian versions of The Dragon Slayer (AT 300)". Folklore. 22 (20–22): 33–48. .
- Markus-Takeshita, Kinga Ilona (2001). "From Iranian Myth to Folk Narrative: The Legend of the Dragon-Slayer and the Spinning Maiden in the Persian Book of the Kings". Asian Folklore Studies. 60 (2): 203–214. JSTOR 1179054.
- Ramsey, Jarold (1999). "Ti-Jean and the Seven-Headed Dragon: Instances of Native American Assimilation of European Folklore". Reading the Fire: The Traditional Indian Literatures of America. University of Washington Press. pp. 222–236. JSTOR j.ctvcwn26j.18.
- Róheim, Géza (1940). "The Dragon and the Hero". American Imago. 1 (2): 40–69. JSTOR 26300857.
- Róheim, Géza (1940). "THE DRAGON AND THE HERO (Part Two)". American Imago. 1 (3): 61–94. JSTOR 26300866.
- Simpson, Jacqueline (1978). "Fifty British Dragon Tales: An Analysis". Folklore. 89 (1): 79–93. JSTOR 1260098.
- Smith, Karen P. (2006). "Serpent-Damsels and Dragon-Slayers". In Csonka-Takács, Eszter (ed.). Christian Demonology and Popular. Vol. 2. Central European University Press. pp. 121–138. JSTOR 10.7829/j.ctt2jbmrh.10.
- van der Schaaf, Baukje Finet; Ditzel, Ruth; Kooper, Erik (1994). "The 'Lai de Tyolet' and 'Lancelot and the Whitefooted Stag': Two Romances Based on a Folktale Motif". Arthuriana. 4 (3): 233–249. S2CID 162109364.
- Vaz da Silva, Francisco (2003). "Iberian Seventh-Born Children, Werewolves, and the Dragon Slayer: A Case Study in the Comparative Interpretation of Symbolic Praxis and Fairytales". Folklore. 114 (3): 335–353. JSTOR 30035123.
- Witzel, Michael (2008). "Slaying the Dragon across Eurasia". In Hot Pursuit of Language in Prehistory. pp. 263–286. ISBN 978-90-272-3252-6.
External links
Media related to Dragonslayers at Wikimedia Commons
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