The Origins of the Dragon

Think about a mythical beast that can often be found in fantasy novels… at least one of your thoughts will almost certainly be a dragon. While there is no physical evidence of any fire-breathing winged lizards ever existing, the motif of the dragon permeates so much of our culture from East to West, that it is as if it were a real creature who once walked the earth.

Here is some of the story behind the myth of the dragon.

The word ‘dragon’ first appeared in the English lexicon in the 1200s. It stems from the word ‘draconem’ or ‘draco’ in Latin which means ‘giant snake’. Original representations of dragons are very serpent-like. You can find images of dragons in almost every culture across the globe, and so there is much dispute about the actual origins of the creature.

One theory is that dragons represent an innate fear that humans are born with: a fear of snakes and large predators, such as birds of prey. According to this theory, the winged, snake-like creature is therefore an amalgamated representation of our evolutionary fears in the form of a generic monster.

Another theory is that people discovered fossils of dinosaur bones and were inspired to create images resembling giant lizards. And yet another is that people would have seen and heard stories of real giant lizards, such as crocodiles and komodo dragons and the stories became elaborated over time.

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