DRAGON. In the mythical history and legendary poetry of almost every nation, the D. appears as the emblem of the destructive and anarchic principle, as it manifests itself in the earlier stages of society—viz., as misdirected physical power and untamable animal passion. Like the erpent, the D. is always a minister of evil, of the principle which aims at negation, opposition, and contradiction, the object of which is to fight against order, harmony, and progress. But whilst the serpent seeks the attainment of its object by cunning and deceitful artifices—crawling on its belly, and always assuming ostensibly characteristics the very opposite of its own—the D. proceeds openly to work, running on its feet, with expanded wings, and head and tail erect, violently and ruth lessly outraging decency and propriety, spouting fire and fury from both mouth and tail, and wasting and devastating the whole land. The destruction of this disorderly element was one of the first objects of human energy, but it was an object which was unattainable by merely human means, and mankind were accordingly indebted for its accomplishment to that intermediate class of beings known as heroes in classical anti quity. As the highest ideal of human strength and courage, the task properly fell to Hercules; but it was not confined to him, for we find both Apollo and Perseus repre sented as dragon-slayers. From legendary poetry, the D. passed into art, some of the earliest efforts of which probably consisted in depicting it on the shield, or carving it for the crest of a conqueror's helmet. The D. does not seem to have been a native emblem with the Romans, and when they ultimately adopted it as a sort of subordinate symbol, the eagle still holding the first place, it seems to have been in consequence of their intercourse with nations either of Pelasgic or Teutonic race. Amongst all the new races which overran Europe at the termination of the classical period, the D. seems to have occupied nearly the same place that it held in the earlier stages of Greek life. In the .NRodungen Lied, we find Siegfried killing a D. at Worms; and the contest of Beowulf (q.v.), first with the monster Grendel, and then with the D., forms the princi pal incident in the curious epic which bears the name of the former. Even Thor him
self was a slayer of dragons (J. Grimm, Deutsche Alythologie, ii. 653). Among the Teu tonic tribes which settled in Eu land, it was from the first depicted on their shields and banners; and Dr. Piott, in his History of Oxfordshire, ascribes the origin of the very ancient custom of carrying the D. in procession at Burford, in great jollity., on midsum mer eve, to the fact of a banner adorned with a golden D. having been taken by a king of the West Saxons from a king of Mercia. The custom, however, is, said by Brand, on the authority of Aubanus, to have prevailed in Germany, and was probably common in other parts of England (Brand's Pop. Antig., i. 321). Nor was the D. peculiar to the Teutonic races. Amongst the Celts, it was the emblem of sovereignty, and as such borne as the sovereign's crest. Mr. Tennyson's Idylls have made every one familiar with "the dragon of the great pendragonship," blazing on Arthur's helmet, as he rode forth to his last battle, and " making all the night a stream of fire." The fiery D., or drake, and the flying D. in the air, were meteoric phenomena, of which we have frequent accounts in old books, and, indeed, as Brand remarks, "the •dragon is one of those shapes which fear has created to itself," and which appears in circumstances, and clothes itself in forms, as various as our fears.
In Christian art, the D. is the emblem of sin, the usual form that is given to it being that of a winged crocodile. It is often represented as crushed under the feet of saints and martyrs, and other holy personages. Sometimes its prostrate attitude signifies the triumph of Christianity over paganism, as in pictures of St. George and St. Sylvester; or over heresy and schism, as when it was adopted as the emblem of the knights of the order of the D. in Hungary, which was instituted for the purpose of contending against the adherents of John Huss and Jerome of Prague.
The D. is often employed in heraldry; and other animals, such as the lion, are some times represented with the hinder parts resembling dragons. An animal so represented is said to be dragonne. See GRIFFIN. A D. without wings is called a lindworm, or lintworm, which Grimm (Deutsche Mythol., ii. 652) explains to mean a beautiful or shining