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The Dragon's Laire > Laire Central > Favorite Dragons in Literature |
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oneirosuchus
 Posts: 103 (6/22/03 4:12 pm) Reply |
Favorite Dragons in Literature (posted this on my LJ, too, so several of you've probably already seen it .... I thought it might make a nice topic here, too, though.) For your perusal and comparison (and suggestion, too -- I always like suggestions!), and because I told Hida I was gonna: my favorite literary dragons. 1. Morkeleb, from Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane and following series. Definitely number one. It would take some serious spiffiness to oust him from that spot, too. Why? Because he's COMPLEX, dammit! He is a real, living, breathing character, fully as developed and refined as any human character ever was -- that's a rare thing, for beasties of the fantastic genre. Dragons tend to be bit-players, relatively flat, and fairly stereotypical. Morkeleb is none of those things, and the further into Dragonsbane -- and indeed, the further into the whole series -- you get, the fuller he becomes, and it's as much his story as it is the story of the human protagonists .... and that's a VERY rare thing. 2. Kalessin, from Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books. He played bigger part in one of them (I think it was The Farthest Shore, but I'm not 100% on that), but he never was more than a supporting (and mostly cameo) character. Pity. Actually I can't remember much of how he was portrayed, but I remember being impressed with it. I met him before I'd ever even heard of Morkeleb, and that I would have loved to see more of him. LeGuin portrays dragons pretty well, too, overall -- the first thing I ever saw by her was the short story "The Rule of Names," which was in my middle(?) school Lit. book. I was captivated, and that dragon, too -- Yevaud -- made me grin at the roundness of character. 3. The nameless dragon in "Through the Dragon's Eyes," by Bill Fawcett. I have it contained Dragon's Eye, and anthology edited by Christopher Stasheff. To date, this has remained my favorite short story ... and a favored quote comes from it. "What does a dragon need to wonder about?" [the knight asks] .... "To learn enough to ask the right questions." Hmm.... who else. I suppose -- 4. Draco, from DragonHeart. Of course, you say. It's to be expected. Honestly, though, I wasn't all that impressed with the movie. Thrilling to see them give a dragon good screen time, yes, etc, but some of the acting was way overdone, and imho, the novelization made much more sense, storywise, although I don't think that it was very well-written. The premise etc. is the same, but there are some slightly different details in the book (which, as I understand, is closer to what the man actually wanted, as the same guy did the screenwriting and novelizing). One of best things about it, though, was that the book began and ended with the same quote on a page by itself, standing alone -- "This is the tale of a knight who slew a dragon and vanquished evil." Such different meanings, in front and in back. I had not seen the movie when I read it first. And that's all that spring to mind, really. Yeah, I've read McCaffrey. I was crazy for her when I was younger, but honestly, she turns me off these days, for reasons not limited to her zealous protection of trademark. I like her sci-fi better -- The Death of Sleep, and some of the brainship books. I'd like to get my hands on a copy of Tea with the Black Dragon, because I've heard that's pretty nifty, but I've yet to manage it. I don't recall that The Glass Dragon, by Irene Radford, impressed me much -- know I read it, but I really don't remember anything about it. I do recall being entertained by Don Callander's Dragon Companion, but it doesn't stand out in my mind as a pillar of exemplary dragon portrayal and things to make you think some. Hm. And that's about all I can think of, really. So, how about you folks? Agree/disagree? Things I oughta check out? I'd love to hear your opinions! -- |
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dracothrope
Tail-Chaser Posts: 85 (6/25/03 3:43 pm) Reply |
Re: Favorite Dragons in Literature
Heh, I can remember being all "I must read them ALLLLL!" in grade 4-6 about Anne McCafferey's dragonrider series. I dunno, I think they're kind of aimed at younger folks or something? I haven't even bothered to read the latest one. I don't really care for them anymore.
Is the "Through the Dragons Eyes" one about the scientist who becomes a dragon? I've been wanting to read that one forever, and can't seem to find a copy anywhere! Hmm... I don't really recall any dragon characters who've really stuck out at me. I managed to read the second novel from the Dragons Bane thing, and everything was too confusing so I ended up just putting it down. Go me for figuring out it was the second one half-way through! I've got out this book right now called The Ultimate Dragon, and it's a series of short stories featuring dragons. I haven't started it yet, but I'm hoping to find one or two good ones in there.... And that's about it. |
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oneirosuchus
Posts: 107 (6/25/03 4:08 pm) Reply |
Re: Favorite Dragons in Literature Nooo, "Through the Dragon's Eyes" is traditional knight-and-dragon tale. Medieval times. The knight is a young Templar. ... I just found a list today, that I'd made during my freshman year of college. I'd found a list of books somewhere (probably AFD) with dragons, and written down some names and authors of ones I didn't know. I've read a couple of them by now, but there are still a number of them left to be read. I was just browsing at amazon, matter of fact... 
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Marivs
 Posts: 8 (8/8/03 9:57 am) Reply |
Re: Favorite Dragons in Literature Let me tell about certain very interesting and exotic dragon: he is from the series of fantasy books by Andrzej Sapkowski, written in Polish and not yet translated to English... The series of books consists of 5-volume "The Witcher's Saga" and many loose stories, all is about the witcher, ie. a person mutated and trained to slay monsters... During his many travels the witcher meets Villentretenmerth, a golden dragon, probably the only such creature in the world. He is a very powerful dragon: incredibly agile, capable of telepathy, and able to turn into a human. Villentretenmerth's occupation is to protect dragons from humans, so he's kind of a witcher, too... Oh, and don't worry: the human witcher considers dragons harmless, therefore he refuses to kill Villentretenmerth, even though he's promised a high price... |
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dracothrope
Fire-Breather Posts: 111 (8/8/03 8:00 pm) Reply |
Re: Favorite Dragons in Literature Wooh, that sounds interesting! It'd be nice if it were translated... is the series done in a kind of myth/fairy tale style? |
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Marivs
Posts: 9 (8/9/03 3:42 am) Reply |
Re: Favorite Dragons in Literature No, fairy tales are usually sweet stories intended for children, and the stories by Sapkowski are nothing like those... They are much more complex, slaying monsters is actually just a background to more important things: intrigues, politics, wars, and destiny... And there's no a happy ending... Oh, one of the short stories has been translated, if you're interested you can download it from here: www.thewitcher.com/articl...rticleId=4 |
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dracothrope
Fire-Breather Posts: 113 (8/12/03 2:39 pm) Reply |
Re: Favorite Dragons in Literature o.o... yes... happy endings... Woops, I didn't mean like Cinderella fairy tales. >_< What's the word for the ones where Little Red Riding hood gets eaten in the end, or gruesome things tend to happen that you'd think would shock children to death? |
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oneirosuchus
Posts: 119 (8/14/03 7:25 am) Reply |
Re: Favorite Dragons in Literature Umm... I know what you're talking about, dracothrope, but I can't remember, either. :P Seems like it's a play on the Grimm Brothers' name, though ... rats. -- |
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dracothrope
Fire-Breather Posts: 117 (8/14/03 10:10 pm) Reply |
Re: Favorite Dragons in Literature Yeah! That's what I was thinking of... *nods* Something like that. |
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pengryphon
 Posts: 3 (8/18/03 5:30 pm) Reply |
Re: Favorite Dragons in Literature Lets see here. A Flight of Dragons. It's an interesting book about the scientific view of dragons. A Dragon and a George by Stephen Lawhead. (this will be edited.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Pengryphon~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Resident Black Gryphon Dance as Though no one were watching, Sing as if no one were listening, And Live every day as if it were your last.----Irish Proverb |
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