Famous Dragons In History

In this section we will speak about Biblical dragons. Biblical dragons are the dragons in the bible and mythology. They are also the kinds of famous dragons that we know today.

In the book of Revelations, a sign appears in the sky (it’s a woman clothed by the sun about to give birth). A dragon (with seven crowns and ten horns) waits to eat the child Michael leads his troops against the dragon. Also in the book of Revelations, God awakens a hydra-like dragon to test the faith of the people. It worked something like this. The Ten Commandments says do not worship any god before God. The dragon says if you don’t worship him above God, you die. If you do, God is disappointed. Who would you rather have upset at you?

In Greek and Roman mythology, Heracles (better known as Hercules), is very famous (he even got a movie made about him) for slaying the Hydra of Lerna on the second of his twelve labors. Zeus (or to the Romans, Jupiter), went to beautiful girl named Alcmene, and helped her to make a child (even though he was already married) named Hercules. Hera (Zeus’s wife) got upset, and tried to kill Hercules. So, when he was a man, Hera drove Hercules mad, killing his children and wife. Hera made him do 10 labors in 10 years for his jealous cousin Eurystheus.

The second of these labors was to kill the Hydra of Lerna (one of the children of the monster Echidna), a vicious monster with 9 heads, and when one was cut off; two new ones grew from the stump. 1 of the heads was made of gold and was immortal (for all those who aren’t human dictionaries, that means it would live forever and couldn’t be killed). It was so poisonous, its breath could kill (now that’s someone who needs a Tic Tac). Hercules waited at the Hydra’s swamp and waited. When the Hydra came, Hercules attacked it with his club but the heads kept growing back. He called to his charioteer and told him to burn the stumps when they were cut off. What about the immortal head. Hercules buried it under a rock, where it still hisses to this day.

The Firedrake Slayed by Beowulf

This is an eight-century poem written in Old English. It has three major stories, which tell of Beowulf's battle with three monsters, the Grendel, the Grendel’s mother and a fire drake. However, the one that we are going to talk about is the fire drake (this is about dragons after all). Anyways, one of Beowulf's servants was in trouble, so he tried to hide. By doing this, he discovered a dragon’s hoard near a burial ground close to the town. He thought that if he took a nice gold goblet he could buy himself out of the trouble he was in so he took it. When the dragon came back, it checked its treasure. After he checked, the dragon noticed that a goblet was missing. This made the dragon very angry, so angry that it attacked the villages in Beowulf’s land.

Beowulf, even though he was really old, decided that he had to rid the land of the dragon. He assembled a small band of the best warriors and went off to kill the dragon. One of the young men in the group was named Wiglaf. He begged Beowulf to help him fight the dragon, but Beowulf refused and went to face the dragon alone. When he reached the cave’s entrance, Beowulf challenged the dragon to come out so he could destroy it. The dragon tried to kill him by breathing fire, but Beowulf raised his shield and was safe. He then rushed at the dragon and struck it, but his sword broke. He tried to get his dragon, but it was too late. The dragon bit him.

Wiglaf rushed to his side and jammed his own sword into the soft underside of the dragon's jaw. The dragon let go of the old king and Wiglaf and the Beowulf attacked the dragon until it was dead. However, the dragon’s bite was poisonous so the king died. Just before though, he gave Wiglaf his helmet and ring, and Wiglaf became the new king.

Zu was a Sumerian storm god. He stole the tablets that set out the laws of the Universe. The other gods became very upset. They ordered the god Ninurta (god of the sun) to kill Zu. Of course, Ninurta, won and the tablets were put back.

In German mythology, a dwarf named Fafnir killed his father for his treasure. He took the treasure and guarded it with so much greed that he turned into a dragon. Siegfried was ordered by his foster father Regin (who happened to be Fafnir’s brother) to kill the dragon. So, Siegfried dug a hole and waited for the dragon to pass over it. When he did, Siegfried stuck his sword into the dragon’s underbelly. He then cut out the dragon’s heart and cooked it (as Regin asked), but he burnt himself. He could then understand birds. They told him Regin was going to kill him, so Siegfried killed him instead.

One day, the Lord of Lambton was fishing when a creature pulled on his line. What he found was an animal that was three feet long with black skin and a dragon’s head. The Lord then took the creature and threw it into a well. After that, he decided to go to the holy land to redeem himself of the sins he did in his childhood (when he saw himself in the worms eyes, he thought he was a sinner) while the worm grew in the well.

After a few years, the worm grew so big it could wrap itself around a hill nine times. It then attacked the town. Some of the townsmen tried to kill the worm, but none succeeded. When the Lord came back, he saw the worm, and felt that it was his duty to kill the worm (after all, he started it). However, he didn’t know how, so he talked to a witch. She told him that the only way to kill it was with a suit of armor covered in spikes, and he could only kill it beside the river that he caught it. After he did that, he had to kill the first living thing he saw, or the Lambtons would be cursed for nine generations.

He confronted the worm by the lake. The worm tried to kill him by wrapping around him. However, it got stabbed by the spikes. The Lord then sliced the dragon into very small pieces with his sword, until the worm died.

When he got home, he saw his father. He couldn’t kill his father so he killed his dog. Because of this, his whole family was cursed.

In Persian mythology, Angra Mainyu (the Father of Lies) created the dragon Azhi Dahaki to take righteousness from the world. Azhi Dahaki had three heads (with six eyes) and his body was infested with lizards, scorpions and other creatures of plague.

Azhi Dahaki went to destroy the sacred flame called The Divine glory. The fire-god Altar tried to save the flames, however the dragon challenged him by threatening to destroy the flames. The god retaliated by threatening to send flames through the dragons body. The dragon got scared and the dragon backed away. The hero (sorry, divine hero) Thraetaona took it to Mt. Demavend, around the Caspian sea (the people believe that the dragon will break free and attack all creation again-kind of like their version of the Apocalypse).

In Greek mythology, this dragon was the guardian of the Hesperides tree. He was slayed by Hercules when he tried to steal the apples for one of his tasks.