Top Ten Dragons in Fiction
Literary dragons have been depicted as everything from cute and cuddly to alienated outsiders to the quintessence of evil. Sometimes, they symbolize great obstacles to be overcome, perhaps an early counterpart to Melville’s Moby-Dick. Other times, the writer uses the dragon for his own purposes. They have long been a useful literary trope in many variations. Here are the top ten dragons in fiction.
1) The nameless dragon of the Old English epic poem Beowulf is one of the earliest known dragons in literature, predating modern English. The dragon is little more than a felled antagonist to testify to Wiglaf and Beowulf’s combined battle prowess, but it is mentioned here due to its early appearance in literature.
2) J. R. R. Tolkien’s Smaug from The Hobbit is a commonplace, though fascinating, European dragon. He possesses all the magic, greed and vindictiveness of most primordial gods.
3) Sir Isaac Newton from Robert Heinlein’s Between Planets is but one of Venus’ wingless scientific genius dragons. They’re also affectionate toward humans. They speak to people through a kind of dragon “universal translator,” but their real names cannot be pronounced by humans. Dragons in that universe take on the names of famous scientists, such as Sir Isaac Newton, which is what the novel’s primary dragon hero calls himself.
4) Piers Anthony’s Xanth novels feature the oddly-named Stanley and Stella Steamer, the dragons of the Gap.
Sorceress Ivy befriends the Gap Dragon and dubs him Stanley Steamer. Stanley’s partner, the Lady Gap Dragon Stella Steamer, takes over for Stanley.
5) The Reluctant Dragon, in the children’s story of the same name by Kenneth Grahame, is an erudite, mushroom-munching dragon who must face his expected fate at the hands of the dragon-slayer St. George. St. George is now old, however, and not inclined to kill anything but time. He and the Dragon meet and come to an agreement to circumvent duty and fate.
6) Smarasderagd, the dragon in Avram Davidson’s “Peregrine: Secundus,” has a business arrangement where the King of Alfland keeps all the treasure and the dragon gets any fish in the kingdom that no one else wants. Pretty soon, Smarasderagd figures out he’s been had and then wants to revise their arrangement.
7) Patricia C. Wrede’s Kazul in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. She has her own household help. She’s forthright, knows what she wants, and kicks serious butt.
Norbert from the Harry Potterverse. Though dragons are expected figures in European fantasy fiction, J.K. Rowling made interesting and innovative use of them. Norbert is a fan favorite.
9) Temeraire is the Chinese dragon from the novels by Naomi Novik. In essence, this is a series of novels depiction what would have happened during the Napoleonic Wars if the good guys had an air force made of dragons.
10) Alan Dean Foster’s Spellsinger fantasy series features Falameezar-aziz-Sulmonmee, a helpful dragon with a decided Marxist bent. He is central to a good portion of the narrative. He’s always one step ahead of the humans, but that’s to be expected.
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