Why Dragons Loom So Large in Cultures Around the World
When people are asked about their knowledge of mythology, sometimes they will talk about the divinities from their region of the world, their country’s folktales, or even some story about a creature either good or evil that has some relevance to their ancestral history. Interestingly, when it comes to the creatures talked about, some version of the prototypical dragon can be found in every corner of the world. Even more amazing is the degree to which they have characteristics in common that transcend the vast distances and times between the cultures in which they were created.
As an American who is a fan of the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons and has seen the Hobbit movies and the fourth Harry Potter movie, the dragons were generally portrayed as large scaled, serpent like creatures that are rare, powerful and, most of all, dangerous to any man that might dare to cross them. In roleplaying games and stories like the Hobbit, dragons often have a benevolent or malevolent intelligence, though often the latter, and are general integral to the campaign or story. Even in fiction like the Harry Potter novels, which portrays dragons as more bestial, passion driven creatures than rational thinking beings, all seem to agree that these creatures should only be tangled with in the most dire of circumstances.
