The European Dragon is the great fire-breathing, hoard-guarding monster of European myth and legend: a vast scaled reptile, winged and clawed, that breathes fire, hoards gold, ravages the land, devours maidens and cattle, and is slain by the hero or saint — the supreme adversary of European dragon-lore, from the worm Beowulf fought to the dragon of Saint George. It is the dragon, the archetypal monster of the West.
The Great Worm
The European Dragon (from the Greek drakōn, “serpent, the one who watches”) is the most iconic monster of Western myth — the culmination of a tradition reaching from the serpent-slaying myths of antiquity through the “worms” of Germanic and Norse legend to the great winged dragons of medieval romance and heraldry. The classic European dragon is imagined as a huge reptile, covered in impenetrable scales, with a long serpentine or crocodilian body, mighty clawed limbs, great bat-like wings, a barbed tail, fearsome teeth and horns, and above all the power to breathe fire (and sometimes venom or pestilential smoke).
The Hoard and the Devastation
The European dragon is, classically, a creature of greed and destruction. It hoards treasure — gold, jewels, and precious things — lying coiled upon its glittering hoard in a cave, a barrow, or a mountain lair, jealously guarding it (the dragon Fafnir of Norse legend, the dragon of Beowulf, are great hoard-guardians). And it ravages the surrounding land: laying waste the countryside with its fire, devouring the flocks and herds, and demanding tribute — often the dreadful tribute of maidens, sometimes the king’s own daughter, to be sacrificed to it (as in the legend of Saint George and the dragon). It is the embodiment of chaos, greed, and devastation, the monster that the ordered world of men and gods must overcome.
The Dragon-Slayer
And so the European dragon exists, above all, to be slain — for the dragon-slaying is one of the great archetypal deeds of Western heroism and sanctity. Heroes win their fame and saints prove their holiness by killing the dragon: Saint George skewers the dragon and saves the princess; Sigurd/Siegfried slays Fafnir and wins the hoard (and bathes in its blood); Beowulf falls slaying the dragon in his last battle; Tristan, Lancelot, and countless knights of romance overcome dragons. In Christian symbolism the dragon became the Devil and the serpent of Eden, evil itself, trodden underfoot by the saints and the archangel Michael. As a charge in heraldry, the dragon (and its kin the [wyvern]) signified valour and power. From this vast tradition the dragon has become the central monster of modern fantasy. In the European Dragon, the West gave form to its archetypal monster — the vast, scaled, fire-breathing, gold-hoarding worm that ravages the land and devours the maiden until the hero or saint lays it low, the great dragon of European legend.