Draconomicon — A Sourced Book of Dragons
The cultural index
Origins
Begin with a tradition and its sources. Forms, powers, habitats, and symbols are secondary ways into the records, not universal dragon species.
Browse published dragon records by tradition in the catalogue below.
Across the records
Forms
Descriptions belong to particular editions; a shared shape does not establish a shared cultural identity.
- Worm or drake
The saga profile distinguishes its uncertain anatomy from later art.
- Winged fire-drake
See the form described in Hall’s translation.
- Eight heads and eight tails
The Kojiki describes a single body extending over valleys and hills.
- The serpent of the golden apples
Apollonius’s account does not specify a hundred heads.
- Wingless, footless armorial serpent
Vinycomb’s Visconti guivre; the child’s position is described differently in two passages.
- Winglessness and a conflicting caption
Vinycomb’s definition and illustration use the name differently.
- Two-legged heraldic figure
Boutell’s wyvern; early blazon did not always preserve the distinction.
- Wingless flight
Werner’s account describes sea rulers who swim and fly.
- The red and white dragons
Colour is specified; wing and limb counts are not.
- Part beast, part fish
Caxton’s Tarasconus has a lion-like head and serpent-like tail; its wings do not establish flight.
- Winged serpent with hard scales
Llano’s prose summary does not assign a fixed colour or leg count.
Across the records
Powers
Read abilities within the stories that describe them.
- Reuniting a severed body
Henderson’s Lambton Worm is defeated where the river current prevents reunion.
- Venom and speech
Fáfnir speaks with Sigurd and breathes venom.
- Fire
The stolen cup awakens the hoard-guardian’s destructive anger.
- Water and weather
Werner associates the kings with rain, wind, and storms.
- Fiery breath in a prophetic encounter
Both of Geoffrey’s fighting dragons breathe fire.
- Poisonous breath at Silene
Caxton describes venomous breath, without fire.
- A river threat subdued
Resistance to weapons gives way to Martha’s holy water and cross.
- Different ways to defeat a Cuélebre
Brañaseca’s heated stone is fatal; the Salinas version cools it in the sea.
Across the records
Habitats
These are source settings, not a biological habitat classification.
- Gnita-heath
The hoard and the route to water.
- Spindleston Heugh
The landscape of Jacobs’s Northumbrian tale.
- Undersea palaces
The courts described in Werner’s compilation.
- Headwaters in Izumo
Tori-kami on the River Hi in the Kojiki’s divine narrative.
- The garden of Atlas
The Libyan setting in Apollonius’s poem, kept separate from other accounts.
- Beneath Yggdrasil
The world-tree setting in the Eddic accounts.
- Mount Erir in Cambria
The drained pond beneath Vortigern’s tower site.
- The great pond beside Silene
The saint’s legend locates the encounter in its province of Libya.
- The Rhône wood
Martha’s encounter lies between Arles and Avignon.
- Asturian caves and the mar cuajada
Local settings remain distinct from the aged serpents’ legendary destination.
Across the records
Symbols
Themes below are readings of specific narratives, not meanings shared by every tradition.
- A proposed baptismal interpretation
Millington’s explanation as quoted by Vinycomb; not an established origin of the arms.
- Greed and cursed wealth
The hoard’s danger continues after Fáfnir’s death.
- Transformation and recognition
Margaret must be recognised and released from her spell.
- Strategy and discovery
Intoxicating drink defeats the serpent; a sword is found inside a tail.
- A guardian mourned
The Hesperides grieve after Heracles’s victory.
- Cosmic decay
Read the profile’s discussion of the world-tree and the dead.
- Divine authority
Read the cultural limits of Werner’s account.
- The Britons in Merlin’s prophecy
Geoffrey explicitly gives the red dragon a political meaning.
- Deliverance and conversion
George’s victory is tied to the city’s baptism in this account.
- Deliverance and local memory
The defeat precedes Martha’s settlement and explains the place-name in the legend.
- Guarded wealth and dangerous feeding bargains
Themes in Llano’s selected accounts, not universal symbolism.
Dragon records
19 records
Aži Dahāka
Aži Dahāka in the Ābān Yasht: a sourced profile of the three-headed antagonist, his rejected prayer, and the boon granted to Thraetaona.
Dragon · Zoroastrian mythic cosmos; his sacrifice is placed in BawriBeowulf’s Dragon
A sourced reference profile of the fire-dragon in Beowulf, including its stolen cup, barrow hoard, battle with Beowulf and Wiglaf, and Old English source.
Dragon · Old English heroic poetryCuélebre
The winged treasure-guarding serpent in Aurelio de Llano’s 1922 Asturian folklore collection, with distinct local accounts and their conflicting endings.
Dragon · Asturian local folklore as collected and presented by LlanoFáfnir
A sourced reference profile of Fáfnir, the dragon of the Völsunga Saga, with book citations and reading notes.
Dragon · Old Norse heroic legend; the Sigurd cycle.Guivre
The guivre in John Vinycomb’s 1906 heraldic study: the Visconti serpent and child, with its conflicting origin legends and symbolic interpretations kept separate.
Dragon · Heraldic tradition : the Visconti of Milan in Vinycomb’s British heraldic studyLadon
Ladon, guardian of the golden apples in Apollonius’s Argonautica: a sourced profile distinguishing the poem’s serpent from other Greek accounts.
Dragon · Greek mythic cosmos: the garden of AtlasLindworm
The lindworm in John Vinycomb’s 1906 heraldic study: a wingless dragon or wyvern in the definition, with conflicting illustration terminology kept visible.
Dragon · Heraldic tradition : Vinycomb’s British heraldic study, including a German-labelled illustrationNíðhöggr
A sourced reference profile of Níðhöggr, the dragon beneath Yggdrasil in the Poetic and Prose Eddas, with translation notes and citations.
Dragon · Old Norse mythologySaint George's Dragon
The unnamed dragon of Silene in Caxton’s Golden Legend: poisonous breath, the princess’s girdle, and Saint George’s victory in Ellis’s 1900 edition.
Dragon · Medieval Christian hagiography, in a historical English translationTatzelwurm
The Tatzelwurm in Doblhoff’s historical folklore survey: Salzburg’s Birgstutzen, conflicting foot counts, and separate Swiss Stollenwurm accounts.
Dragon · Alpine folklore places ; Salzburg account foregrounded, Swiss comparisons distinguishedThe Dragon Kings
A source-aware reference profile of the Sea-dragon Kings described in E. T. C. Werner’s Myths and Legends of China.
Dragon · Chinese mythology as presented by E. T. C. Werner in 1922The Laidly Worm
A sourced reference profile of the Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh from Joseph Jacobs’s English Fairy Tales.
Dragon · Northumbrian and Anglo-Scottish border folkloreThe Lambton Worm
The Lambton Worm in William Henderson’s 1879 folklore collection: the Wear-side monster, its reuniting body, and the broken vow of the Lambton heir.
Dragon · County Durham folklore in a nineteenth-century English collectionThe Peluda
La Velue of the Huisne: a source-bounded record of the anonymous Sarthe legend pamphlet, using the description quoted by the departmental archive.
Dragon · The Huisne and La Ferté-Bernard in the archive’s accountThe Tarasque
Tarasconus, the Rhône dragon subdued by Saint Martha in Caxton’s Golden Legend, read in F. S. Ellis’s 1900 edition, volume IV.
Dragon · Medieval Christian hagiography in a historical English translationThe Welsh Red Dragon
The red dragon in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s British History: Merlin’s interpretation, the fight beneath Mount Erir, and the limits of the 1842 translation.
Dragon · Medieval British legendary history; a Latin textual witnessWyvern
The wyvern or wivern in Boutell’s Handbook to English Heraldry: a winged, two-legged heraldic creature, with the limits of the historical distinction explained.
Dragon · English heraldic traditionYamata no Orochi
Yamata no Orochi in the Kojiki: the eight-headed serpent defeated by Susanoo, following Chamberlain’s 1882 translation with source and image provenance.
Dragon · Japanese mythic cosmos: Tori-kami, at the headwaters of the River Hi in IzumoZmey Gorynych
Zmey Gorynych in W. R. S. Ralston’s 1872 mythography: the name Goruinuich, its serpent context, and the limits of the source’s weather interpretation.
Dragon · Russian story traditions as discussed by Ralston
No matching records.
Bibliography
Sources
- 1The Story of the Volsungs (Völsunga Saga), with Excerpts from the Poetic Edda
Anonymous; translated by William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon. Walter Scott Press, London, 1888. See Chapters XIV and XVIII.
Read at Project Gutenberg ↗ - 2The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs
William Morris. First published 1876. See Book II, “Sigurd slayeth Fafnir the Serpent.”
Read at Project Gutenberg ↗ - 3English Fairy Tales
Collected and edited by Joseph Jacobs; illustrated by John D. Batten. David Nutt, London, 1890. See Tale XXXIII and Jacobs’s source note.
Read at Project Gutenberg ↗ - 4Myths & Legends of China
E. T. C. Werner. George G. Harrap & Co., 1922. See Chapter VII, “Myths of the Waters,” especially “The Dragon-kings.”
Read at Project Gutenberg ↗ - 5Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem
Translated by J. Lesslie Hall. D. C. Heath & Co., 1892. See Sections XXXII–XXXIX for the dragon’s hoard and Beowulf’s final battle.
Read at Project Gutenberg ↗ - 6The Poetic Edda
Translated by Henry Adams Bellows. American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923. See Völuspá 39 and 66 and Grímnismál 32 and 35.
Read at Project Gutenberg ↗ - 7The Younger Edda
English version by Rasmus B. Anderson. Scott, Foresman and Company, 1901. See The Fooling of Gylfe, sections 15–16.
Read at Project Gutenberg ↗ - 8The Handbook to English Heraldry
Charles Boutell; revised by A. C. Fox-Davies. Eleventh edition, Reeves & Turner, London, 1914. Chapters VIII, X (“Wyvern, Wivern,” p. 157, figure 315), and XIV.
Read at Project Gutenberg ↗ - 9The Argonautica
Apollonius Rhodius; translated by R. C. Seaton. William Heinemann, London, 1912. Book IV.1393–1449; context at 1380–1392 and 1450–1460. Primary account for Ladon.
Read Book IV ↗ - 10The Library
Attributed to Apollodorus; translated by Sir James George Frazer. William Heinemann, London; G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1921. Volume I, 2.5.11. A separate comparison in the Ladon record, including different geography and alternative outcomes.
Read 2.5.11 ↗ - 11Ko-ji-ki, or Records of Ancient Matters
Compiled by Ō no Yasumaro, 712 CE; translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, supplement to volume X. R. Meiklejohn and Company, Yokohama, 1882. Volume I, section XVIII and its notes.
Read section XVIII ↗ - 12Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders
William Henderson. New edition with many additional notes. W. Satchell, Peyton and Co., for the Folk-Lore Society, London, 1879. Chapter VIII, “Worms or Dragons,” Lambton narrative and commentary.
Read chapter VIII ↗ - 13The British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth, in Twelve Books
Geoffrey of Monmouth; translated by Aaron Thompson, revised and corrected by J. A. Giles. James Bohn, London, 1842. VI.17–19, pp. 127–130, and VII.3, pp. 132–133: the red and white dragons and Merlin’s interpretation.
Read the 1842 translation ↗ - 14The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints
Jacobus de Voragine; translated by William Caxton (1483); edited by F. S. Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900. Volume III, “Of S. George, Martyr,” opening Silene episode; volume IV, “The Life of S. Martha,” Rhône dragon episode.
Read volume IV and its edition statement ↗
Read the chapter and edition statement at Fordham ↗ - 15The Songs of the Russian People, as Illustrative of Slavonic Mythology and Russian Social Life
W. R. S. Ralston. Second edition, Ellis & Green, London, 1872. Chapter II, section III, “Storyland Beings,” pp. 160–161, 173–174; p. 173 records the name Goruinuich. Historical mythography, not a single teller’s narrative.
Read the source section ↗ - 16Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art
John Vinycomb. Chapman and Hall, London, 1906. “The Wyvern,” subsection “Lindworm,” pp. 99–100, including the conflicting illustration caption; p. 80 is a separate legendary reference. Guivre: “The Wyvern,” pp. 100–101; competing Milanese serpent explanations in “The Serpent,” pp. 116–118.
Read the illustrated 1906 edition ↗ - 17Altes und Neues vom „Tatzelwurm“, mit einem Schlussworte über vergleichende Sagenforschung in Österreich-Ungarn
Josef Freiherr von Doblhoff. In Michael Haberlandt (ed.), Zeitschrift für österreichische Volkskunde, I. Jahrgang 1895. F. Tempsky, Vienna and Prague, 1896. Selected opening survey, pp. 142–146; Salzburg account on p. 146. German original; historical reports and comparisons, not a single oral transcript.
Read the historical volume and title page ↗ - 18The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Sîrôzahs, Yasts, and Nyâyis
Traditional Avestan sacred texts; translated by James Darmesteter. Sacred Books of the East XXIII (1883); reading witness: American edition, 1898, as identified by Avesta.org. Ābān Yasht, Yasht 5.29–35: rejected and granted prayers.
Read Yasht 5 and its edition statement ↗ - 19Del folklore asturiano: mitos, supersticiones, costumbres
Aurelio de Llano Roza de Ampudia; prologue by R. Menéndez Pidal. Talleres de Voluntad, Madrid, 1922. “El Cuélebre,” pp. 48–50. Spanish original; general description, local accounts and collector’s comparisons kept distinct.
Read the historical text and title page ↗ - 20La Velue, légende sarthoise
Anonymous. Le Mans: imprimerie E. Lebrault, undated in the Sarthe archive notice (1889 reported in the Commons bibliography). Physical-description excerpt quoted by the Archives départementales de la Sarthe, 13 F 747, collection Louis Calendini; full pamphlet not consulted.
Read the archive’s excerpt and source notice ↗