When you’re on a good meme, you just can’t let go! So here’s my nod to that catchy pop song, and the five dragons I would never, ever, EVER want to meet.
1) Tiamat, of Sumerian myth. Sea monster and chaos incarnate. Need I say more?
2) Hydra, from Greek myth. Nine dragon heads and so poisonous that even stepping into her footprints will kill you!
3) Smaug, from J. R. R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit. The archetypal European dragon: huge, hungry and greedy, with fiery breath and armor plates — but his intellect is what really scares me!
4) Vermithrax, of the movie Dragonslayer. Much like Smaug, though she doesn’t have as much to say.
4) The Copper, E. E. Knight’s Age of Fire. He starts as a runty outcast and works his way up to emperor of dragons, complaining and feeling sorry for himself all the way. I get enough of that from my teenagers, thanks.
Besides the interesting things my choices might reveal about me, I was struck that all my choices in the category of dragons I would want to meet were the creations of 20th Century authors. Like the sparkly vampires and woebegone werewolves of Urban Fantasy genre, dragons are portrayed in a much more sympathetic light these days.
Today’s five is slanted much more to the classic dragons of myth. Even Smaug and Vermithrax, though they spring from modern works, hearken back to the terrifying monsters that have made our ancestors shiver for millennia.
The hydra is pretty scary–I didn’t think of her when I was making my list. It sounds like there are a couple other stories I should look into that I don’t know yet; is Age of Fire a book or movie?
Age of Fire is a fairly gritty high fantasy series by E. E. Knight, who is perhaps better known for his fairly gritty Vampire Earth series. You’ll find both series in your local book store or library.
Hydra, of course, is best known for being part of the Twelve Labors of Hercules myth cycle.