Origins of Dragons

A dragon statue in Ljubljana, Slovenia (Wikicommons)

I can't leave the theme of mythical creatures and paranormal others behind without discussing the bedrock of some of the best fantasy series ever written -- enter the dragon!

From Tolkien's Smaug the Calamitous to McCaffery's Mnementh, a bronze dragon in the Benden Weyr, Eon's mirror dragon to the Hungarian Horntail faced by Harry Potter, some of the best stories feature the mythologies and histories of dragons. 

Friend or foe, dragons are usually ancient, sentient and wise, but also dangerous, a deadly beast of enormous strength and power. Some have a penchant for gold or young maidens, others a telepathic link to a bond mate or extraordinary powers of luck. No matter the role they play, you have to wonder where in the world they all came from. 

I mean, what corner of our ancestors' minds created dragons? Or, were they once real?

The Archetypes

According to Jung, the notion of dragons is archetypal, ie. it appears in all places, all peoples, and all times.  

Archaeopteryx fossils

For example, we have the European dragon, derived from folk traditions that filtered down from Greek and Middle Eastern mythologies. Then there's the Chinese dragon, with counterparts in Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries. 

Of course, the Americas have their feathered, winged serpents, Australia the Rainbow Serpent. Dragons of Africa include the Great Healing Serpent Masingi to the dangerous Wadjet, who ate the souls of the unjust. It's hard to imagine every culture in the world thinking up these creatures long before there was any kind of trade, exchange or internet to share ideas.

The Theories

One theory behind the global myth of dragons is based on dinosaur remains. If an ancient shaman or storyteller came upon the fossil of, say Qijianglong, they could have understandably mistaken them for dragon bones. 

Another theory, detailed in the book An Instinct for Dragons, by anthropologist David E. Jones, states evolution "embedded an innate fear of predators in the human mind." Just as monkeys exhibit a fear of snakes and large cats, Jones thinks that fearing large predators—such as pythons, birds of prey and elephants—has been selected for in hominids." 

"These universal fears have been frequently combined in folklore and created the myth of the dragon. "

Maybe, but that doesn't explain why many stories, especially from the Eastern myths, are of dragon companions, dragons as healers, or the luck and benevolence one receives from befriending one.

Our stories

Whatever the origins, dragon stories are some of our richest in the speculative fiction genre, including films like How to Train Your Dragon to Game of Thrones, and many other narratives we know and love.

Do you have a favorite dragon story? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. I think mine has to be The Dragonriders of Pern. 

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Kim Falconer's latest release comes out in 2019 - The Bone Throwers, book one in the Amassia series, writing as A K Wilder. Find her new page on Facebook - AKWilder Author and on Twitter as AKWilder.

Her latest novel is out now - The Blood in the Beginning - and Ava Sykes Novel.

Learn more about Kim on Facebook and chat with her on Twitter. Check out her pen name, @a.k.wilder on Instagram, or visitAKWilder on FB and website.

Kim also runs GoodVibeAstrology.com where she teaches the law of attraction and astrology. 

Kim posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month, hosts Save the Day Writer's Community on FB and posts a daily astrology weather report on Facebook. 

Wedding Bells In Fantasy Fiction

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TIME Commemorative Edition

So how about that wedding, then? I'm sure you know the one I mean: the handsome prince, the beautiful bride, the glittering ceremony, and of course the dress, the veil, the train, the tiara, the rings, the cake...And the kiss!

All the stuff of fairytale romance, in fact, which is probably why so many of us love a royal wedding. :-)

Although it did get me thinking, mainly along the lines that although romance abounds in Fantasy fiction, with happy-ever-after, couples-getting-together endings, there are relatively few actual weddings. 

The Red Wedding - no happy-ever-after here

By which I mean weddings of the Happy-Ever-After kind and definitely not the Red Wedding—and others of similar kind, such as Daenarys' child marriage to Khal Drogo—in George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones series.

Generally, though, a happier romantic story ends with the promise of a wedding—or in these less traditional times, with the couple intending to live together. Perhaps the reason books don't spend a lot of time on the weddings is because it's the promise and hope for the future that's the true culmination of the romance.

Nevertheless, here are some weddings that have actually taken place in Fantasy fiction.
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Aragorn and Arwen: The Return of the King

I remember this wedding really taking me by surprise, back in the day, because unlike the film there had not been much, if any, build up to the fact that Aragorn and Arwen loved each other enough to get married. But get married they did, in both movie and book:

"Upon the every eve of Midsummer...the riders came to the gates of Minas Tirith...Last came...Elrond...and beside him upon a grey palfrey rode Arwen his daughter...Then Elrond laid the hand of his daughter in the hand of the King (Aragorn)...and all the stars flowered in the sky. And Aragorn...wedded Arwen Undómiel in the City of Kings upon the day of Midsummer..."
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Sybel and Coren: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld

There's a wedding, too, in Patricia McKillip's World Fantasy Award-winning novel, between the warrior Coren and the wizard, Sybel --- although it is by no means the end of their story:

"Rok married them that evening in the hall lit with candles... "Coren." She looked up at him and saw in the red-gold wash that lit his face a deep flame of laughter that had not been there before in his eyes. She smiled slowly, as though she were accepting the challenge of it. "Sybel."
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Harry (Angharad/Harimad-Sol) and Corlath: The Blue Sword

This is very much a wedding in the traditional fairytale style:  the enemy has been defeated and the heroine and hero are young and victorious and in love.

"The city was decked with flowers, and long trailing cloaks of flowers ...were thrown around Corlath's shoulders and Harry's...and the ceremony was performed in the glassy white courtyard before Corlath's palace. People were hanging from windows and balconies...and lining the walls, and crowded into the courtyard itself until there was barely sapce for the king and queen..." 

A far cry from the Red Wedding indeed...

(The Blue Sword is a Newbery Honor Book.)

Aravis and Cor: The Horse and His Boy

Some weddings are somewhat more humorous in mention, but nonetheless give the story a sense of completion, as with Aravis and Cor (Shasta) in CS Lewis's The Horse and His Boy:

"Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I'm afraid, even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently."

As with all good writing, the reader gets the feeling that there's more to this marriage than the surface of the words might suggest. In any case, it still beats a Red Wedding, hands down.

Hild and Cian: Hild

Nicola Griffith's Hild (a World Fantasy Award finalist) also ends with a wedding between Hild and Cian, who have been childhood friends and allies. While there may be more to their relationship, and the marriage is outwardly one of political contrivance and convenience, there is also love there...

"What mattered was the truth, rising like birdsong, like the scent of flowers opening to the sun, of her wyrd. Cian's hand beneath hers. It had always been so. It had always been meant to be so. Fate goes ever as it must."

As for my books—no, no weddings there, not yet at any rate, although a wedding is certainly heralded at the end of Thornspell.

The books I've mentioned are only a sample of the weddings that I hope you, dear readers, can point to. If you have a favorite, or better yet, favorites, please do share with a comment. :-)

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Helen Lowe is a novelist, poet, interviewer and blogger whose first novel, Thornspell (Knopf), was published to critical praise in 2008. Her second, The Heir of Night (The Wall Of Night Series, Book One) won the Gemmell Morningstar Award 2012. The sequel, The Gathering Of The Lost, was shortlisted for the Gemmell Legend Award in 2013. Daughter Of Blood, (The Wall Of Night, Book Three) is Helen's most recent book and she is currently working on the fourth and final novel in The Wall Of Night series. Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog and is also on Twitter: @helenl0we