dragons

[marycatelli]

I was reading one of Limyaael's Rants, and alas, ran across the assertion:

I’ve read a few amateur fantasies where dragons lived in houses, had their own form of clothing, and used chairs. Why, though? As mentioned above, dragons aren’t the same shapes as humans, and couldn’t comfortably fit in most human houses or furniture.

Dragons have a bit more variability than that.

In "How the Dragon Was Tricked", the dragon is tricked into a coffin to test that it's large enough for the hero.  At that, this one says,

'Well, the rogue is nearly as tall as you,' replied the beggar, 'and, of course, if you can get in, he can. But I am sure you would find it a tight fit.'

and there are others, though I can't lay a hand on one at the moment, where the disguised hero makes the coffin, claiming it's for himself, and asks the dragon to test it because they are of a size.

Not unnaturally, this leads to other consequences, as in The Golden Apples and the Nine Peahens, where the dragon rides a horse:

'Now what shall we do?' said the dragon to his horse. 'Shall we eat and drink, or pursue them?' The horse replied to him: 'Don't trouble yourself; eat and drink.' When he had dined, the dragon mounted his horse and galloped after them

And in The Flower Queen's Daughter, the prince looks after the dragon's mare, and he and the princess he wants to rescue both attend the ball where the dragons dance:


In the final extreme, in the tale "Nikita the Tanner", the dragon actually, instead of eating the princess, marries her because she's a real beauty.

Now, mind you, there's the little trick of convincing readers that this is so. . . .

Comments

[bratfarrar]

In some of those stories, 'dragon' seems almost to be more a--title?--than a species descriptor. No wings or breathing of fire, or scales and tail, or anything that would suggest it wasn't a man or giant or something else that's not a dragon. Which, as you point out, doesn't do much to convince the audience that it is indeed a dragon.

Interestingly enough, we seem almost to be moving back in that direction, with what seems to be a tendency nowadays to discard all the tradition dragon traits in favor of making them more 'sympathetic'. So only the physical form remains, and that sometimes only as is convenient.

[marycatelli]

Indeed, I've read a translation of Greek fairy tales that insisted on the use of drakos, untranslated, from them, to convince the reader that it was really more like an ogre.

Moving back is only natural, if you treat them as characters. One reaches automatically for the sort of things people do to fill in how characters act.

[bratfarrar]

True, although this can wind up short-changing the character (and readers). Recently, a friend and I have been expression our frustration over this to each other in relation to a character that's ostensibly an angel, but tends to be written (especially in fanfiction, but not infrequently in canon) as a super-powered/clueless human. That is, his thoughts, motivations, and actions often don't actually make sense in light of the type of being he's supposed to be.

But as you say, one reaches automatically for the sorts of things people do, without stopping to ask whether it's actually appropriate.

[marycatelli]

I once critiqued a story in which every so often, the narrator would think to mention again that the main character was a centaur -- allegedly.

[bratfarrar]

I wonder, when I read that sort of thing, why the writer even bothered--why make a character a dragon/centaur/angel/whatever if you're not going to actually use the implications of that? Is it just for the cool factor?

[marycatelli]

To be Cool with minimal effort

[suburbanbanshee.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

The original drakon was a Very Large Snake, but also could be a shapeshifter. Or the Devil.

On the other hand, "dragon" in many languages was also an epithet for a really fierce, fast, strong warrior, and the historical association with Roman cavalry banners means that Dragons of this sort do have horses. (As do dragoons, come to think of it.)

So it's not totally strange or unimaginative.

[marycatelli]

I read a collection of Greek fairy tales where the translator left drakos untranslated so we would think of a ogre-creature, not a dragon one.