What is your favorite dragon from the history of literature?

BarcelonaThe dragon is one of the quintessential fantastic animals in the history of literature. Its power has fascinated millions of readers, young and old, spurred by the creativity of novelists and poets from all over, but the image it presents has been changing: the dragon can be menacing, dangerous, and violent, although also, on some occasions, benign and compassionate, and can even possess a wisdom superior to that of humans. "I am fire. I am death," proclaims Smaug, the imposing and fearsome dragon with whom Bilbo Baggins must verbally contend in The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. "Never give up, and sooner or later you will find good luck," recommends Fuixur, the majestic white dragon, to the intrepid Atreyu in The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende. For Ursula K. Le Guin, who expanded and renewed the abilities of these enigmatic animals in the Earthsea novel cycle, dragons represent the human capacity to imagine: "If dragons frighten us it is because we tend to consider the works of imagination as suspicious or even despicable," the author defended in the article Why, as Americans, are we afraid of dragons? (1974).

A magical animal or a wild beast?

The dragon guards the precious golden fleece in the 'Argonautica'

Dragons have arrived by land, by sea, and by air for millennia. In Yijing. The Book of Changes (in Catalan by Pagès, translated by Jordi Vilà), one of the quintessential Chinese philosophical and oracular texts – dated around 2400 BC – dragons have the power to "cause lightning and the thunder of storms", but they use their magic benevolently. In the Babylonian epic poem Enuma Elix (1200 BC),the dragon isa divine force that emanates from the depths of the sea – named Tiamat – and is capable of creating chaos.

In Western tradition, dragons are initially associated with the earth, perhaps because the Greek word that defines them, drákontos, means serpent and has as its main characteristic the ability to kill with a glance. It is against a serpentine dragon that the hero Jason contends in the Argonautica, an epic written by Apollonius of Rhodes in the 3rd century BC, available in Catalan by La Magrana, translated by Francesc J. Cuartero. The beast guards the precious golden fleece, which Jason must obtain if he wishes to reign in Thessaly. Aware that the dragon is invincible, because it never rests and lives coiled around the tree from which the fleece hangs, Jason teams up with Medea, who lulls the monster to sleep and allows her future husband to snatch the treasure. Just as happens in many other Greek myths, ingenuity and cunning manage to defeat a colossal force.

Save the maiden from the monster

The fruitful medieval tradition: from the legend of Saint George to 'Tirant lo Blanc'

Since, at the end of the 1st century AD, John of Patmos wrote the Apocalypse or Book of RevelationsAnother legend turned into literary matter is that of Saint George, as collected by Jacobus de Voragine in his most popular work, "

Another legend turned into literary material is that of Saint George, as collected by Jacobus de Voragine in his most popular work, The Golden Legend (1260). In this case, the notable element that Voragine adds is that the knight's great feat involves saving a maiden from being devoured by the dragon. This is the starting point of a very long literary tradition related to the legend present in many cultures: in Catalonia, Joan Amades fixes it in the Costumari català, and among the differences with other versions is the detail that, from the pool of blood shed by the monster, a rose bush full of red roses is born.

Joanot Martorell collects the element of saving the maiden in one of the many adventures he includes in Tirant lo Blanc (1490). We find it between chapters 410 and 413, and it stars the warrior Espércius on the island of Lango, which is enchanted: the goddess Diana has turned Hippocrates' daughter into a dragon, and she will only regain her human form if some knight kisses her on the mouth. Espércius's objective is not to kill the dragon, but to disenchant it. "The sun was already well up and the day clear and clean, and he saw the mouth of the cave, and here he knelt with very great devotion to the immense goodness of Our Lord," we read in the novel. The knight is terrified when he has the beast in front of him, and remains immobile, more "dead than alive," in a pious attitude. It is the dragon who kisses him and turns into the maiden she had been before the enchantment. In addition to the religious purpose of the mission, Martorell's operation also involves reconverting the mythical and fantastic figure into a more earthly being, capable of making the warrior fall in love.

From physical strength to verbal power

The visions of William Blake and Thomas De Quincey precede Tolkien's great dragon

The fearsome physical strength of dragons is present in other classics of medieval literature: a nameless dragon is the final enemy that Beowulf must defeat in the epic poem of the same name, dated in the 8th century AD, which is currently being translated into Catalan; in El cant dels Nibelungs, written in German at the beginning of the 13th century in stanzas of four verses that rhyme in pairs – in Catalan it can be read thanks to the excellent version by Joan Dalmases for Adesiara—, the hero Siegfried must face one of them, often identified with the name Fafnir, and once he has killed it, he bathes in its blood, thanks to which he will become invulnerable.

The transition towards greater literary complexity of dragons in the 20th century comes through three unsuspected paths. The first starts with William Blake, because dragons are one of the many mystical visions collected in books like The First Book of Urizen (1794), and shortly after they infiltrate as terrifying crocodiles in the state of clairvoyant daydreaming caused by opium consumption in Thomas De Quincey, as he recounts in Confessions d'un opiòman anglès (1822; in Catalan published by Bromera, translated by Enric Sòria). The second path is that of the then nascent literature aimed at children. Two of its precursors contribute to creating the archetype of the good, benign, and even enlightened dragon: Kenneth Grahame does so in Sant Jordi i el drac gandul (1898; in Catalan published by Estrella Polar, translated by Víctor Aldea) and Edith Nesbit in El darrer dels dracs i altres contes (1901; in Catalan published by Nòrdica, translated by Anna Llisterri). The third path is that of nonsense literature: the most linguistically playful dragon is the one described by Lewis Carroll in the poem Jabberwocky, included in Through the Looking-Glass (1871), the second part of the adventures of Alice in Wonderland, available in Catalan from Quaderns Crema, translated by Amadeu Viana.

When, in 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien publishes The Hobbit –in Catalan by La Magrana, translated by Francesc Parcerisas–, where the dragon Smaug appears, he has in mind the heritage of medieval monsters like that of Beowulf and that of The Nibelungenlied, but also the later variations elaborated during the 19th century. Smaug is endowed "with a bestial life" but also "with his own thought," as he acknowledges in an article included in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1983; in Spanish by Minotauro). In the hands of the author of The Lord of the Rings, the dragon is a creature as ancient and powerful as it is intelligent. When Bilbo Baggins enters his lair and finds Smaug guarding a lavish treasure, he will maintain a tense and witty dialogue in which he will have to try to resist the psychological manipulation that the animal wants to exert on him to change his mind, until the latter discovers that someone has stolen a golden cup from him and gives in to anger. "I am fire. I am death," he proclaims.

If Tolkien rediscovers dragons for new generations of adult readers, C.S. Lewis performs a similar exercise for younger readers thanks to The Chronicles of Narnia. In one of the seven novels, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1953; in Catalan by Destino, translated by Jordi Arbonès), one of the characters, Eustace Scrubb, transforms into a dragon due to his greed, and is condemned to a lonely and bitter life.

Dragons for all tastes

The wise gaze of Ursula K. Le Guin and the return to strength by George R.R. Martin

Thanks to the unstoppable expansion and consolidation of fantasy genres in literature, since the second half of the 20th century dragons have enjoyed excellent health. Anne McCaffrey inaugurates with Dragonflight (1968; in Spanish by Roca, translated by José M. Acervo) the extensive saga set on Pern, a feudal society in which riders, instead of fighting on horseback, do so mounted on the back of their dragon, with whom they communicate telepathically. Michael Ende looks towards Eastern magical dragons when creating Fuixur, Atreiu's adventure companion in The Neverending Story (1979; in Catalan by Alfaguara, translated by Francesca Martínez): together they must find the Empress and manage to stop the Nothing from forever devouring the fantasy world, of which that endearing and intelligent animal is an inextricable part. "Never give up, and sooner or later you'll find good luck," he repeats to Atreiu when he is discouraged.

One of the most transformative and influential contributions has been that of Ursula K. Le Guin, who in the Earthsea cycle, which begins with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968; in Catalan by Raig Verd, translated by Blanca Busquets), introduces wise and powerful dragons such as Yevaud, Orm Embar, and Kalessin. Le Guin's dragons, as explained in Tehanu (1990; also in Raig Verd), decided to separate from the human race, with which they formed a primal whole, because they chose to be free and follow their instincts. Humans, on the other hand, preferred to lead orderly lives. The dragons, who speak languages older than ours, help the young Ged, who aspires to master magic, and one of their most important teachings is that he will not achieve true knowledge until he learns to listen to others.

The fascination that dragons exert on many authors invites them to have them accompany them in extensive narrative cycles. Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis have done so in the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy (1984; in Spanish by Minotauro, translated by Tere Casanovas and Marta Pérez), Terry Pratchett in the Discworld series, especially through Guards! Guards! (1989; in Catalan by Mai Més, translated by Ernest Riera) and Christopher Paolini in the tetralogy that began with Eragon (2003; in Catalan by La Galera, translated by Jordi Vidal i Tubau).

Still unfinished A Song of Ice and Fire, of which George R.R. Martin has published five of the seven planned volumes –in Spanish by Alfaguara with translation by Mercè Santaulària, Esther Roig, Anna Llisterri, Imma Estany and Mar Albacar–, dragons regain the destructive capacity of the past. The saga, which begins with Game of Thrones (1998), has as one of its main protagonists Daenerys Targaryen, who manages to hatch three fossilized dragon eggs when the species had already become extinct. "I am the blood of the dragon," assures Daenerys, who will use the dragons Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion to triumph on the battlefield. Are the dragons of A Song of Ice and Fire tools of justice, or weapons of terror? Whatever the answer, they continue to be supernatural, intriguing, and impossible to control animals, just like imagination.