The Penguin Book of Dragons

Edited by Scott G. Bruce

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Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics

On sale Oct 12, 2021 | 384 Pages | 9780143135043

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Two thousand years of legend and lore about the menace and majesty of dragons, which have breathed fire into our imaginations from ancient Rome to Game of Thrones

A Penguin Classic

The most popular mythological creature in the human imagination, dragons have provoked fear and fascination for their lethal venom and crushing coils, and as avatars of the Antichrist, servants of Satan, couriers of the damned to Hell, portents of disaster, and harbingers of the last days. Here are accounts spanning millennia and continents of these monsters that mark the boundary between the known and the unknown, including: their origins in the deserts of Africa; their struggles with their mortal enemies, elephants, in the jungles of South Asia; their fear of lightning; the world’s first dragon slayer, in an ancient collection of Sanskrit hymns; the colossal sea monster Leviathan; the seven-headed “great red dragon” of the Book of Revelation; the Loch Ness monster; the dragon in Beowulf, who inspired Smaug in Tolkien’s The Hobbit; the dragons in the prophecies of the wizard Merlin; a dragon saved from a centipede in Japan who gifts his human savior a magical bag of rice; the supernatural feathered serpent of ancient Mesoamerica; and a flatulent dragon the size of the Trojan Horse. From the dark halls of the Lonely Mountain to the blue skies of Westeros, we expect dragons to be gigantic, reptilian predators with massive, bat-like wings, who wreak havoc defending the gold they have hoarded in the deep places of the earth. But dragons are full of surprises, as is this book.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Contents

Ancient Enemies: Monstrous Snakes in the Greco-Roman World
·        The Hydra of Lerna: From Apollodorus’s The Library
·        Medusa, Mother of Monsters: From Lucan’s Pharsalia
·        Cadmus and the Dragon of Ares: From Ovid’s Metamorphoses
·        The Death of Laocoön: From Virgil’s Aeneid
·        The Dragon of Bagrada River: From Silius Italicus’s Punica
·        Dragons Against Elephants: From Pliny’s Natural History

Satanic Serpents: Dragons and Saints in Early Christianity
·        Biblical Beasts: From the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament
·        The Guardian of Heaven’s Ladder: From the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity
·        Descendants of Darkness: From the Acts of Philip
·        The Dragon Became Her Tomb: From Venantius Fortunatus’s Life of Marcellus
·        Coiled Couriers of the Damned: From the Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great
·        The Monster of the River Ness: From Adomnán of Iona’s Life of Columba

Guardians of the Hoard: The Wyrms of Northern Literature
·        The Terror of Nations: From the Beowulf Poem
·        Sigurd, Slayer of Fáfnir: From Völsunga saga
·        Winged Dragons of the North: From the Saga of Ketil Trout and the Saga of Þiðrek of Bern

Books of Monsters: Dragon Lore in Medieval Europe
·        A Treasury of Ancient Dragon Lore: From Isidore of Seville’s Etymologies
·        Dark Age Creature Catalogues: From the Marvels of the East and the Book of Monsters
·        You Crushed their Heads Upon the Waters: From Hrabanus Maurus’s About Everything
·        Remembering a Pannonian Dragon: From Arnold of St. Emmeram’s Concerning the Miracles of St. Emmeram
·        God’s Fiery Vengeance: From Henry of Tournai’s Concerning the Miracles of St. Mary of Laon
·        Bone Fires and Dragon Sperm: From John Beleth’s Summa on Ecclesiastical Offices
·        The Prophecies of Merlin: From Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain
·        The Devil is the Largest Serpent: From the Medieval Bestiary Tradition
·        Hunting Monsters in Kara-Jang: From Marco Polo’s The Travels of Marco Polo

Draconic Demons and Ogres: Dragons in Byzantium
·        A Theologian Contemplates the Nature of Dragons: From Pseudo-John of Damascus’s On Dragons
·        Why Dragons Fear Lightning: From Michael Psellos’ On Meteorological Matters
·        A Demon in Disguise: From the Martyrdom of Saint Marina
·        The Treasury Dragon of Constantinople: From the Life and Martyrdom of Saint Hypatios of Gangra
·        The Terror of Trebizond: From the Life of Saint Eugenios
·        The Ogre-Dragon’s Pitiless Heart: From the Romance of Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe

Dragons and their Slayers in the Later Middle Ages
·        The Dragon and the Lion: From Chrétien de Troyes’ The Knight with the Lion
·        A Dragon with the Devil Inside: From The Captives
·        Four Saintly Dragonslayers: From Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend

Antichrist Ascendent: Dragons in Early Modern Literature
·        The Dragons of Fairyland: From Edmund Spenser’s The Fairie Queene
·        A Farting Dragon Burlesque: The Dragon of Wantley
·        The Great Serpent Returns: From John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Gods and Monsters: Dragons of the East
·        The Dragon of Drought: From the Rigveda
·        A Black Wind from the Sea: From Al-Masudi’s Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems
·        No One Ever Escapes My Claws: From The Book of Kings by Abolqasem Ferdowsk
·        The Eight-Headed Serpent of Koshi: From Ō No Yasumaro’s Records of Ancient Matters
·        Chief of the Scaly Creatures: From Li Shizhen’s Collected Interpretations
·        My Lord Bag of Rice: A Japanese Folktale
·        The Fisherman and the Dragon Princess: A Japanese Folktale

Here Be Dragons: Monstrous Habitats in Early Modern Thought
·        Strange, Yet Now A Neighbour to Us: From A Discourse Relating a Strange and             Monstrous Serpent or Dragon
·        A World Full of Dragons: From Edward Topsell’s The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents
·        Dwellers Below: From Athanasius Kircher’s Subterranean World
·        The Last American Dragons: Excerpts from Early American Newspapers

Terror Tamed: Domesticated Drakes in Childrens’ Literature
·        A Lizardy Sort of Beast: Kenneth Grahame’s The Reluctant Dragon
·        Your Kindness Quite Undragons Me: Edith Nesbit’s The Last of the Dragons