| Dragon | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Unknown |
|
First Appearance |
Beowulf (c. 700–1000 AD) |
|
Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
After his battles against Grendel's mother and Grendel, Beowulf returns home and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years pass with Beowulf in charge, when a local dragon is angered when a slave enters its lair and takes a cup from its treasure. The creature attacks the neighboring towns in revenge. Beowulf and a troop of men leave to find the dragon's lair. Beowulf tells his men to stay outside, that this fight is his alone, but the dragon proves strong and mortally wounds Beowulf. Meanwhile, his kinsman Wiglaf scolds the other members of the troop for not going in to help, before coming to Beowulf's aid. He cuts the dragon in the belly to reduce the flames, and Beowulf deals the fatal blow. In his death-speech, Beowulf nominates Wiglaf as his heir and asks for a monument to be built for him on the shoreline.
Notes[]
- Beowulf is the earliest surviving piece of Anglo-Saxon literature to feature a dragon, and it is possible that the poet had access to similar stories from Germanic legend.
- J. R. R. Tolkien used the dragon story of Beowulf as a template for Smaug of The Hobbit and the fight between Harry Potter and the Hungarian Horntail in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) by J. K. Rowling was influenced by the confrontation between the dragon and the title character in Beowulf.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Beowulf (c. 700–1000 AD)