Dragon

The motif, embellishing the earliest Glagolitic books, reveals itself as a meaningful, polysemic image and partakes in a visual paradigm, which the decorators abode by. In this paper the author proceeds with a theme taken up nearly fi fteen years ago, now exploring in detail the artistic specifi city of the repetitive zoomorphic or, rather, teratological motif. Previously it has been identifi ed as a dragon head but the persisting ambivalence in the notions of the snake/serpent and the dragon cannot be ignored. As it has been applied most of all to the decorated initials, some interpretations of the twofold symbolism of the letter – as a ‘picture’ in itself and as a message related to the text – are off ered on examples from the codices Assemanianus and Psalterium Sinaiticum.

Ombeline et le Dragon
Par Amandine Marshall (texte) et Fabien Rypert (illustrations)

Malheur au royaume du puits aux trois lanternes ! Un dragon sème la terreur et dévore les provisions des habitants ! Le roi Éon et son armée n’ont pas réussi à le retrouver. Mais la princesse Ombeline n’a pas dit son dernier mot : armée de son armure et de son épée, elle part à la recherche de ce méchant dragon qui fait peur à tout le monde…

Cycle d’ateliers « La magie dans l’Orient juif, chrétien et musulman : recherches en cours et études de cas » organisé par Ayda Bouanga (CéSor-EHESS) et Jean-Charles Coulon (IRHT-CNRS). Chaque séance réunira plusieurs chercheurs pour présenter des travaux sur une thématique générale commune afin d’ouvrir un espace de discussion et de débats.

Dragons have always been present in the imaginary of mankind, since ancient myths about the creation of the world. The figure of the dragon is rooted in every culture, be it the evil serpent symbol of the devil typical of Western, Christian culture, or the benevolent creature that is bringer of rain in the Eastern tradition. Perhaps because of their importance in all the cultures of the world, dragons have also played a consequential role in fantasy literature, and indeed since J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937), this creature has been a recurrent character in many works of the genre.
In this dissertation, the role of the dragon will be analyzed, especially in postwar fantasy fiction. More specifically, it will be shown how this mythical creature passed from being considered no more than a beast to be slain to a real icon of this literary genre. If in the ancient Western narratives, indeed, the dragon was regarded as a representation of chaos to be annihilated by a god or hero in order to restore a social balance previously subverted (Lionarons 1998), nowadays it is not necessarily seen as an enemy, but also as an advisor, an ally or even an inseparable companion for the main character of a novel.
We will focus mainly on some literary works that can serve as examples of such a transition, but we shall start by briefly analyzing the literary dragons in Beowulf and The Saga of the Volsungs, for they contributed enormously in shaping Tolkien’s Smaug: a dragon that, in turn, would have a great influence on all subsequent fantasies. Then we shall examine the role of dragons in Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea sequence (1968-2001), noting how in her later novels they become protectors of order and no more agents of chaos. We will continue by examining the bond between dragons and their riders in Anne McCaffrey’s The Dragonriders of Pern series (1967-2012), the dragons depicted in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series (1983-2015) – seen as imaginary beasts that can acquire shape and substance only if we truly believe in them – and finally their role in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (1996 ff.).
During our survey, we will compare the role of dragons to that of other fantasy creatures who underwent a similar evolution in the same period, such as the werewolf and the vampire, and we shall notice how all these literary monsters are nothing but different projections of our selves (Du Coudray 2006, Browning and Picart 2009). In conclusion, we shall see how in contemporary fantasy dragons can play at least five different roles: ‘the evil enemy to be slain or subjugated’; ‘the wise warden of order’; ‘the shapeshifter’; ‘the inseparable ally and life-long friend’; and finally ‘the wild but tameable beast’.
We shall focus mainly on literary works, but we will also make some references to other media, such as the main representations of dragon in cinema and role-playing games (RPGs).

A pesquisa analisou as possíveis influências visuais que levaram os membros da máfia japonesa Yakuza a selecionarem o repertório de suas tatuagens. Com a verificação da recorrência das principais iconografias encontradas como dragões, peônias e flores de cerejeira, a pesquisa se concentrou em mostrar a relevância dos designs das tatuagens dos yakuzas em diálogo com os padrões tradicionais da arte japonesa no ukiyo-e e no baralho hanafuda. A busca pelas fontes da iconografia revelou a circulação e a transferência de imagens entre a China e o Japão, aspecto que se tornou latente após a grande verificação de elementos chineses como o dragão e a peônia presentes nas tatuagens dos gângsteres. Desse modo, pôde-se concluir, a partir da iconografia das tatuagens da Yakuza, a conexão entre a estética japonesa que possui grande influência da China.

Behemoth and Leviathan have been interpreted in numerous ways over the centuries. In this book I start with Leviathan's pre-biblical emergence in the third millennium BCE and continue, with Behemoth later entering the picture, until modern times. I treat both popular and academic interpretations, not exhaustively--an impossibility--but the major threads of interpretation, especially literary and iconographic.

Характерным явлением для современной городской культуры стал поиск брендов и соответствующее целенаправленное конструирование локальных знаков с опорой на фольклорную
культуру. Как «возрождение архаики» и «местный феномен» последние десять лет артикулируется внимание к одному из персонажей белорусской мифологии – цмоку. Цмоку (дракону)
возведен памятник, проводился ежегодный фестиваль «В гостях у Лепельского цмока», обсуждалась и инициатива по закреплению за цмоком права быть туристическим и даже национальным
брендом Беларуси. В статье анализируются символические средства и дискурсивные стратегии, которые использовались для создания бренда, изучаются механизмы изобретения новых традиций, стратегии их легитимации, рассматривается роль медиа в этом процессе.
Отдельное внимание уделяется вопросам христианского и дохристианского в многослойной семантике образа цмока, проводится соотнесение архетипа змея с его более поздними интерпретациями. Фольклорный материал свидетельствует о приоритетах, связанных со змееборческими мифами и так называемой практической мифологией, воплощенной в сюжете о духе-обогатителе. Постулируемая организаторами фестиваля апелляция к произведению В. Короткевича на деле свидетельствует о незнании и непонимании литературных образов. Пример с «поисками цмока» показал, как обращение к глубоким реконструкциям вплоть до воспроизведения архетипа и вообще архаизация фольклорного факта в современных общественно-
культурницких проектах направляется не на исследование прошлого, а на объяснение и, особенно в случае лепельского фестиваля, оправдание настоящего. Подобным проектам присуща
субъективная интерпретация и переосмысление выбранного элемента, что, в свою очередь, приводит к присвоению новых значений, не присущих ранее. Не прошлое определяет масштаб
сегодняшних новых фестивалей, оно лишь переписывается в соответствии с новыми социальными обстоятельствами и требованиями.

Desde Escitia a la Península Ibérica, de la Edad de Bronce -si no antes- a los primeros siglos de nuestra Era, diversos seres antropomorfos, humanos o mitológicos, han sido representados luchando contra el grifo -id est, la grifomaquia- a lo largo de milenios y kilómetros con distintos significados, muchos de los cuales aún suponen una incógnita para la arqueología...

The figure of the dragon seems to be magnetic for human imagination and flourishes even these days. In the present article I explore the biological and psychological reasons why dragons were initially created in the human mind. Although I focus on the Mediterranean dragon figure as it evolved over time, the theories I suggest here for the reasons for the creation of dragons hold globally. I discuss the origins of the dragon figure in snakes, explain the reasons for the various kinds of imagined dragons, and categorize the different dragon prototypes that developed in the Mediterranean region. This article provides basic information that can be the foundation for further study of the subject.

Este artículo pretende analizar cómo la figura del dragón del relato infantil "The Reluctant Dragon" (1898), del inglés Kenneth Grahame, se aparta de sus concepciones negativas de los géneros medievales del romance y la hagiografía desde una caracterización humanizada, expresada tanto en el uso refinado del lenguaje como en la tendencia a la afectación, al espectáculo y a la paz. Este perfil de la criatura condicionará las decisiones del resto de los protagonistas, el Niño y San Jorge, ante las expectativas de los pueblerinos, que anhelan presenciar un duelo entre el caballero y el dragón como una diversión desprovista de la complejidad de sus sentidos originales. El desarrollo de este conflicto y su pacífica resolución permiten interpretar este cuento como una reescritura con matices humorísticos de la leyenda de San Jorge y el dragón, que reinventa los arquetipos de ambos y que cuestiona los estereotipos malignos y benignos asociados tradicionalmente a cada uno a través de personajes con voluntad e intereses propios.

Palabras clave: dragón, arquetipos, estereotipos, caracterización

In the context of this issue, some extremely interesting sites from the island of Euboea, Greece, which are called «dragon houses», should be mentioned. These are Megalithic structures that
apparently overlap the earlier rock sites of open-air sanctuaries, and despite the controversy over their
exact dating, they undoubtedly had a cultic purpose and preceded the classical Greek Temple. They are
covered in the technique of corbeled vault by adding orthostats about 2 meters long. The expensive and
labor-intensive technique of construction, unattainable for the later population, provoked in folklore the legend that they were built by Dragons, from which comes the name «drakospita» from Greek - a dragon house, which corresponds to the legends from mountain Strandzha in Bulgaria where the folklore name of some Thracian dolmens is «Zmeiovi kashti» which mean the same - a Dragon house.
I can confirm that on the Balkans and especially in Bulgaria certain folklore reminiscences lead us to some very specific locations most often related with the pagan religion. The presence of architectural
elements at such places is quite rare, on the other hand they hold the signs and characteristics of open air sanctuaries.

In this essay, Fáfnir from the Old Norse tale 'Fáfnismal' will be compared to two dragons, the Beowulf Dragon and Smaug. Through comparison, different narrative roles will be laid bare, proving there is more than 'a single, medieval, interpretation'  of a dragon possible.

Il racconto epico e la leggenda agiografica sono i generi narrativi che maggiormente tramandano l’idea che tra la sfera naturale e quella soprannaturale esista una complementarità speculare; in questo senso il paesaggio, ma in genere tutto lo spazio -  come del resto il tempo,  l’al di qua dei viventi e della sensorialità ordinaria,  è innervato di potenzialità cratofaniche.  In questa prospettiva si analizzano le selve e i luoghi disabitati, la numinosità del mondo animale, l’ordine antropico e il disordine naturale. Ci si sofferma sulla ambiguità delle acque e sulle figure chiamate a presidiarne la salubrità come l’arcangelo Michele o sui simboli del loro disordine, come i draghi, evocando le cerimonie idonee a domarli o a ucciderli al fine di ripristinare l’ordine necessario alla presenza umana

The epic tale and the hagiographic legend are the narrative genres that best illustrate the idea that a complementarity exists between the natural and supernatural spheres; in this perspective the landscape, but generally space and time beyond ordinary sensoriality, are filled with cratophane potential. This essay analyzes the human perception of forests and uninhabited places, the numinous nature of the animal world, the anthropic order and natural disorder. This work focuses in particular on the ambiguity of water and on the figures called to protect its salubrity, as opposed to the monsters, symbols of natural chaos, such as the dragon.

Erratum: la référence à Aarne et Thompson 1981 doit naturellement être remplacée par: Thompson, Stith. 1955–1958. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folk-Tales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediæval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books and Local Legends I–VI. 2nd rev. edn. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

In the days of the epic poem Beowulf, a king’s strength was determined by his will, competence, wealth, and power. He had to rule over entire tribes of people and had to be willing to put down any rebellion. But he was human, for he needed warriors to fight for him and counselors to advise him. Even in old age, a king had to set for himself and his people a good example and prove himself worthy of continuing a line of successors. It was a time within the poem when danger manifested itself in the form of monsters and enemy tribes, when the tribes needed a figure to inspire and lead them.

Chimère est emblématique des créatures hybrides : véritable assemblage de trois animaux réels,  « lion par devant, dragon par derrière et chèvre par le milieu»  pour reprendre la description d’Hésiode dans sa Théogonie, elle est un hapax, il n’y a qu’une seule Chimère qui a une histoire particulière et c’est donc de cette créature spécifiquement dont il sera question dans cette étude.

In this article an inclusive definition has been given to the term ‘dragon’, which covers two and four-footed dragons, and dragons without feet such
as serpents and snakes, many-headed hydra, and kylins. Where possible, the words for ‘dragon’ in ancient and modern local languages are given. This approach is based on the late  Professor Sir Harold Bailey’s self-evident principle that if there is a word for ‘dragon’, then the idea or object must have existed.

Published in Renate Bauer and Ulrike Krischke (eds.). 2011. Fact and Fiction: From the Middle Ages to Modern Times. Essays Presented to Hans Sauer on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Englischen Philologie 37.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 197-215.

One of the most famous antique carpets, the Dragon and Phoenix rug now in Berlin: Museum fur Islamische Kunst, inventory # I. 4, has been unconvincingly and vaguely attributed to the 15th century as the work of Qaraqoyunlu Turkmen Dynasty.  This is in part due to late 19th and early 20th German scholarship that assumed rugs from the Near East were automatically the work of Islamic craftsmen and women, particularly Turkmen and later Ottoman, but with no precise documentation.  This general undocumented supposition also applied to Oriental carpets depicted in hundreds of Renaissance Italian paintings, although all of them are presented in a Christian context, particular associated with the Virgin Mary.  The author presents firm documentation involving both historical but especially earlier iconographical examples of the dragon-phoenix motif in Armenian art of the late 13th century, borrowed directly from the source of this coupling of animals, China during the Yuan Mongol Dynasty.  He suggests that its most convincing provenance is Armenia perhaps as early as the 14th century.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar a mitografia do dragão, traçando as suas origens, e procurando a sua essência. Procurei as representações simbólicas em culturas diversas de diferentes épocas, revelando a universalidade do símbolo. Depois procurei compreender os significados implícitos, descobrindo a sua polivalência simbólica em redor de quatro temáticas: mudança, fecundidade, malignidade e voracidade aquática. Finalmente, tentei encontrar as ligações teóricas entre a análise psico-sociológica e o conhecimento do cérebro. Concluí com a hipótese de que o mito do dragão, como elaboração neocortical, representará uma luta contra os nossos impulsos do complexo reptiliano.

The objective of this study was to analyze the mythography of the dragon, tracing its origins, seeking its essence. I searched for the symbolic representations in different cultures of different times, revealing the universality of the symbol. Then, I tried to understand the implicit meanings, discovering its symbolic versatility around four themes: change, fertility, malignancy, and water voracity. Finally, I tried to find the theoretical links between the psycho-sociological analysis and knowledge of the brain. I concluded with the hypothesis that the myth of the dragon, as a neocortical development, represents a struggle against our impulses from the reptilian complex.

HOLY WATERS: RELIGIOUS DEVOTION
AND HEALING PRACTICES IN A BALKAN
CONTEXT
In this article I discuss the veneration of waters and the related healing
practices in interdisciplinary context and in diachronic perspective in
Balkan milieu. I endeavor to delineate the main cultural models which
influence the pattern of contemporary religious culture in one of its
particular aspects: the healing practices with water. Those models are
the religious systems of Antiquity in their Greek-Roman and Thracian
variants; the culture of folklore; and Christian doctrine and practice.
For the purposes of analysis I draw on a broad range of diverse material:
published research, folklore texts, popular religious literature,
an ethnographic film, images, internet sources and personal fieldwork
including observations and interviews. In the final part I also consider
a particular case: the Church of the Annunciation of Mary of the Fish
in the small town of Asenovgrad in Southern Bulgaria. This case gives
me an interesting example of the interweaving of universal and local
in the devotion to a water source and in the ritual practices performed
there. It also gives me grounds to suggest the term crypto-cult to denote
a specific form of cultural interaction observed there. By outlining
and summarising the versatile expressions of water devotion and
healing rituals I point out some characteristic features and tendencies
of these phenomena and argue that despite their specifics, Antiquity
tradition, folklore and Christianity operate with similar attitudes and
patterns.

The figure of the dragon seems to be magnetic for human imagination and flourishes even these days. In the present article I explore the biological and psychological reasons why dragons were initially created in the human mind. Although I focus on the Mediterranean dragon figure as it evolved over time, the theories I suggest here for the reasons for the creation of dragons hold globally. I discuss the origins of the dragon figure in snakes, explain the reasons for the various kinds of imagined dragons, and categorize the different dragon prototypes that developed in the Mediterranean region. This article provides basic information that can be the foundation for further study of the subject.

Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series enters an ongoing dialogue about the nature of language; in it, she proposes a language spoken by dragons and wizards, “the Old Speech,” a language fundamentally unlike our human languages. It is a language in which it is impossible to lie, a language which is simultaneously descriptive and generative: to say the name of a thing is to have the thing come to be. This Old Speech is what the ancient poetic unity of language—to use Owen Barfield’s terms—might look like: a language in which the Tao, the underlying reality of a thing, is named in every word, a language in which every word is a narrative and true. However, dragons, not the titular, and ostensibly central, wizards, are the true poets of Earthsea; the dragons are the ones who see with a poet’s eye and who are actually capable of wielding the Old Speech in its ancient, unified, fully poetic sense, a sense which encompasses all shades of meaning and existence and narrative in one word. Le Guin’s Old Speech, then, can best be understood as a true language of Barfieldian ancient unity, and the dragons are not liars but poets practicing their art.

The mythology of Babylonian Creation Epic, “Enuma Elish” suggests that goddesses, nature, and chaos represented forces to conquer similar to the Garden of Eden Epic. In both the “Enuma Elish” and the “Garden of Eden,” the centerpiece is either god overcoming the serpent – or – Marduk overcoming the snake/dragon (Tehom the deep). (MG: X1-XV, 298; FAD: 16-17; RGS.)

Published in Fanfan Chen and Thomas Honegger (eds.). 2009. Good Dragons are Rare. An Inquiry into Literary Dragons East and West. (ALPH 5). Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang, 27-59.
Summary: Prof. Tolkien noted: ‘There are in any case many heroes but very few good dragons.’ (Monsters 17) Modern readers may wonder what he meant by ‘good dragons’ – certainly not virtuous or ‘morally good’ dragons, which are, basically, a modern invention. As Tolkien himself points out, a ‘good dragon’ is a beast that displays the typical characteristics of draco without becoming a mere (allegorical) representa¬tive of draconitas (i.e. the vice of avarice). Yet ‘death by allegory’ is not the only danger literary dragons have to face. My paper looks at the symbolic and narrative functions of dragons in Germanic literature throughout the ages. As will be shown, most dragons before (but also after) Tolkien do not live up to their full literary potential as protagonist, but remain either allegorical figures of evil, devices for testing the hero’s qualities, steeds, or Disney-pets. It is only such dragons as Smaug in The Hobbit or Chrysophylax Dives in Farmer Giles of Ham who live up to Tolkien’s idea of what a ‘good dragon’ should be: a dangerous protagonist in its own right partaking in the rich symbolism of the different traditions without being reduced to these ‘symbolic’ functions only.

La tesi tratta della figura del drago nella narrativa francese di epoca medievale, a partire dalle sue radici storiche classiche e bibliche. Lo studio sviluppa le relazioni di scontro tra draghi e cavalieri sia dal punto di vista della morfologia dei racconti sia da quelli della struttura della società cortese e delle aspirazioni mistiche medievali.

Türbesi Ordu ili, Kabataş ilçesi, Kuzköy Mahallesinde bulunan ve bölgede Şeyh Halil, Şidlü Dede, Sütlü Baba gibi adlarla bilinen Şit Abdal, bölgenin maddi ve manevi fethinde büyük rol oynayan Horasan erenlerinden ve Abdalân-ı Rûm’dan olup 1395 tarihli şeyhlik beratına göre Hızırü’r-Rûm’un oğlu ve Bâyezid-i Bistamî halifelerindendir. Şit Abdal, fetih hakkı olarak Bayramlu’nun Fidaverende bölgesindeki Kuzköy’de yerleşmiş ve köyün mülküne sahip olmuştur. Burada kurduğu zaviye ile geniş bir bölgede kısa bir sürede saygın bir mevkie ulaşmıştır. Bölgenin Türkleşmesinde ve iktisadi açıdan kalkınmasında önemli bir yere sahip olan Şit Abdal’dan günümüze 1395 tarihli Arapça şeyhlik beratı, fonksiyonu tam olarak belirlenemeyen işlemeli, oval bir taş ile bakır taslar, üzerinde yazı ve üç adet tutamacı, içerisinde balık deseni olan bir tencere ile makalenin konusunu oluşturan ejderha başlı demir bir asa ulaşmıştır. Ejderha motifinin genel olarak Çin’den geldiği düşünülse de İslâm öncesi ve sonrasında Türk sanatında yaygın bir motif olarak kullanılmıştır. Anadolu’da ve Türk dünyasında çeşitli örnekleri bulunan ejderha, bazen kanatlı, ayaklı, kulaklı, ağzından ateş püsküren ve vücudu balık pulları ile donanmış bir hayvan olarak tasvir edilmekte iken bazen de ayakları ve kanatları olmayan kulaklı yılan olarak işlenmektedir. Türk mitolojisinde yer-su ve gök kültleri ile ilgili olan ejderha, bolluk ve bereketin aynı zamanda yeniliğin ve koruyuculuğun simgesi olmuştur. En eski zamanlardan itibaren Türkler ejderhayı tanımlarken, luu, büke, nek yılan, evren ve ejder ifadelerini kullanmışlardır. Ejderha motifini ise hemen hemen sanatın her dalında işlemişlerdir.

Il saggio indaga le radici culturali e l’uso agiografico della figura del drago soffermandosi in particolare sul tema della sauromachia nella tradizione agiografica italiana. Particolare attenzione è dedicata al trasferimento di questo simbolo dalla semantica del potere imperiale – Costantiniano in particolare -  a quella pontificale, attraverso l’attribuzione a papa Silvestro di una sauromachia. L’autore richiama poi la casistica italiana dei santi uccisori di draghi e il progressivo assorbimento di quel topos negli usi folklorici e nella tradizione liturgica.


The essay investigates the cultural roots and the hagiographic use of the dragon, focusing in particular on the theme of the killing of dragons in the Italian hagiographic tradition. Particular attention is paid to the transfer of this symbol from the semantics of imperial power - Constantinian in particular - to the pontifical one, through the attribution of a ‘sauromachy’ to Pope Sylvester. The article then focuses on the Italian saints slayers of dragons and the progressive overlap of that topos from folkloric uses to liturgical tradition.

Bu çalışmada, Hz. Ali ile yedi başlı ejderhanın mücadelesini anlatan Ejderha Destanı’nın şahsî kitaplığımızda bulunan bir nüshası neşredilmiştir. Söz konusu metin üzerine daha önce yapılan çalışmalar hakkında bilgi verildikten sonra çalışmamıza kaynaklık eden nüsha tanıtılmıştır. Yazmanın dil ve imlâ özellikleri gösterilmiş, transkripsiyonlu metni ve dizinli sözlüğü hazırlanmıştır. Notlar bölümünde Salur Kazan, Sarı Saltuk ve Hz. Ali’nin ejderha ile cenklerini anlatan metinler arasındaki benzerlikler ortaya konulmuş, Hz. Ali ve Sarı Saltuk’un ejderhayla cenklerini anlatan metinlerin Salur Kazan’ın ejderhayla cenginden ilham alınarak oluşturulduğu sonucuna varılmıştır.

The Meriç / Mecidiye Bridge, which has a special place among the Edirne bridges in the Ottoman period, is the subject of our study. The existing bridge, which was decided to be built during the reign of Sultan II. Mahmud in 1833, was built by Sultan Abdulmecit between 1842-1847. The stone bridge on the Meriç River is particularly noticeable with figured stone ornaments on its piers.  The double dragon figure, which is on the first arch of upstream facade, has an importance due to the application period and bridge.  Additionally, on this facade, there is a star and crescent relief and three rows of stone bird perches, which are in form of ledge, make the structure special. In this study, the bridge was studied together with its historical and architectural features. In particular, the symbolic meanings of the figures on the piers of the bridge are emphasized by making descriptions of dragon figures, star and crescents, and the stone perches which are some kind of bird houses. The examples were evaluated in terms of the Anatolian Seljuk period animal figure tradition and the use of the figurative stone ornamentation in the Late Ottoman architecture.