What is it about dragons that so fascinate us? In our earliest stories, they were the embodiment of evil; their reptilian features exaggerated so that they became substitutes for the snake that offered temptation to Eve and brought about the fall from grace.
In every story of good triumphing over evil, purity over darkness, the dragon has taken a place of honour as the literal snake in the grass. Who hasn't heard of at least one story of a prince rescuing a princess from the bestial clutches of the dragon? At the very least, dragons have come to represent the evil that greed for wealth, at the expense of all other things, can bring about.
It's only been in recent years that the dragon has undergone rehabilitation by authors. Revising our depictions of them as the personifications of evil, to beings deserving of our reverence and not our revulsion. Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series, (whose first title, Dragonflight was published in 1968) was probably the first major reclamation project for the dragon. There may have been other books or popular stories before them that painted dragons in a positive light, but as far as I know, these were the first ones that postulated a whole society based around the dragon.
It's easy to see how it would be possible to both worship and fear dragons, and for the exact same attributes. There's their size to start with, which is usually massive, their ability to fly, and of course that whole fire-breathing thing. Individually, those are all pretty intimidating, but finding it in one package, you're either going to run away screaming or prostrate yourself in front of it in the hopes of it not biting you in half.
While there is no doubt that dragons will continue to find their home in the fantasy genre of literature, more and more sophisticated devices are being created to introduce them into the storylines. Authors are continuing to expand their role beyond that of hero or villain to something far more complex, and suited to the nature of this beast that has come out of our collective unconscious down through the ages.
Touched By Venom, the opening book to Janine Cross's new series, The Dragon Temple Saga, is a foray into this newer territory. Ms. Cross has created a world where the dragons are both the focal point for human existence, and the tool for a religious elite to exert control over a conquered people.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!