We are obsessed with dragons. And by we, I mean all of humanity. As we discussed when I talked about Beowulf a few weeks ago when I still had hope and joy in my life, we have been telling stories about dragons for most of humanity and certainly for as long as we have written stories down. Some of my favorite fantasy books revolve around dragons, like Dragonriders of Pern. When I wrote my own fantasy series, I knew I had to include dragons. Hell, it’s even part of my tagline.

I write speculative fiction. That means I write about dragons, ghosts and spaceships. Sometimes I write about the ghosts of dragons on spaceships.

Dragons are unique when compared to other cryptozoological creatures. We tell different kinds of stories about them. Compare this to something like a unicorn. We all love unicorns, too. But they almost always have the same sort of tales told. They’re majestic, magical, pure. Trolls are almost always stupid and at best a nuisance. Giants are almost always evil and eat humans. But dragons run the spectrum from brainless beast to diety. So let’s look at some examples, and then discuss why this might be.

The monster

This is easily my least favorite way to write dragons, as evil and terrifying beasts that devour people and destroy livestock. They hoard gold they have no actual use for and light up anyone close to their dark and dreary caves.

We see this mostly in older fiction, but in some modern tellings as well. Though, thankfully, this depiction has fallen out of fashion. Dragons that are nothing more than gold-hoarding bottomless eating machines just aren’t much fun.

The ally

The next depiction of dragons we often see is more of an ally animal. Like a horse, dog, rat, or any other animal that we’ve formed a partnership with. Think of Lockheed in X-Men. We also see this in Dragon Riders of Pern, where even when the riders are psychically linked with their dragons, they are still treated the same as deeply loved animal allies. Clever, for sure, but not really on our level.

The Equal

Finally, we get to the sort of dragon I prefer, and the one I wrote in Woven. The dragon is just as intelligent, if not more so, than humanity. We see this a lot in modern fiction. Or, at least fiction that’s come out in my lifetime. Dragon Heart is a great example, as are most D&D dragons. I love this sort because it seems to take humanity down a peg. It reminds us that maybe we aren’t as clever as we tend to think we are.

The god

Finally, we see dragons as diety. As above humanity, with superhuman abilities. My favorite example of this is in Avatar The Last Airbender, where fire bending is taught to humanity by the dragons.

Why?

Now, this is just my opinion. But, since I have been reading the genre for my entire life and writing in it for over ten years professionally, I happen to consider this at least an educated opinion.

I think how we write dragons is a reflection of how we view nature.

Consider some of the dragon types we talked about. The monstrous dragons lived deep underground, protecting treasures. Living in coal country as I do, that feels like an apt analogy for mining. The ally dragons are likely written by people who have close and loving relationships with their pets, or who admire support animals. Those who see dragons as having at least humanlike intelligence, if not more, probably have a deep respect for nature and don’t necessarily think we’re the smartest creatures on this planet. And of course, those who are a bit more pagan leaning would likely see God in the face of a dragon.

Overall, I think it’s a theory that works. We write dragons and how we see nature. We read about dragons that remind us of how we see nature. And I think that’s pretty awesome. Fiction is essentially using lies to tell the truth. We can’t always put into words what scares us, what makes us furious, or what brings us joy. We can’t always write about the mines, our connections with animals, or our fear of the natural world in a way that others can understand. But we can write about dragons, and that seems like something that we can always get behind.

But I want to know what you think. Do you agree with my theory? Do you think it’s ridiculous? Let me know in the comments.

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