Dragons: Virtual Special Issue 11, 2020

Virtual Special Issues of Folklore

Virtual Special Issues of Folklore are selections of articles on specific themes from our journal, hand picked by our editor Jessica Hemming. With a podcast introduction by Juliette Wood, and a bibliography of featured articles and further reading. All the articles are free to download by members of The Folklore Society.

Excerpt from the Dragons podcast

From Fafnir to Smaug, to the pearl-chasing Chinese long and the dragons that stalk the world of Internet games, these mythical creatures, whether traditional or literary, carry great symbolic value. The mound-dwelling, fire-breathing dragon in Beowulf belongs to a group of mythical beasts known throughout the world. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth novels have influenced the perception of dragons as winged, fire-breathing, reptilian quadrupeds, but, as so often with mythical animals, they come in many forms. Some are wingless, legless, or multi-headed, while the popular heraldic beast, the wyvern, has two legs, wings, and a serpentine tail. The names reveal something of their heritage. ‘Dragon’ comes from the Greek drakon (a large serpent). ‘Wyvern’ is derived from the Latin for viper (vipera), and the Germanic word, wyrm, is cognate with Latin vermis (worm).

Listen to the podcast by Juliette Wood

Download a transcript