Being interested in all things Viking, especially their ships which carried a dragon-head on the bow of the ship, I want to understand where their dragon-concept comes from.
According to Wikipedia “Dragons are legendary creatures, typically with serpentine or otherwise reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. The two most familiar interpretations of dragons are European dragons, derived from various European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern mythologies, and the unrelated Chinese dragon. The English word "dragon" derives from Greek δράκων (drákōn), "dragon, serpent of huge size, water-snake", which probably comes from the verb δρακεῖν (drakeîn) "to see clearly".”
By the way, searching the internet for ‘dragon’ returns about 120.000.000 results (no kidding). Seems that even nowadays people still write about these creatures. Not that there has been a shortage of writings about them: dragons have been mentioned for centuries and have even been referred to in Illias by the Greek poet Homer around 800BC (some refer to 11th century BC) but unfortunately the Greek word used could also mean 'snake'. Earliest old English writings on dragons are dated 13th century AD in the context of medieval bestiaries and legends.
Now comes the interesting part: how come that my Nordic heroes were aware of dragons some 500 years before the earliest Old English writing?
Aha. Now that I have your attention, let me tell you what we are taught in class and how this is so NOT what happened.
History as we were meant to believe:
The Viking age was between 8th and 11th century AD, when they were mostly occupied roaming European shores and beyond. Even though Vikings have travelled as far as the Black sea and Caspian sea, have traded as far as Baghdad and were regular traders with the Byzantine emporium, dragons are not mentioned in those areas until much later. Time wise in Viking history this doesn't explain the dragon-head either as it took them 200 years to get as far as the Black sea (10th century AD) and by then their ships already had the dragon head on the bow.
Vikings also travelled west passing Greenland and an expedition under Leif Eriksson landed around 1000 AD way before Columbus in North America. The crew had a settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. No mention of dragons there either ... seems the Inuit had a reptilian dragon-like monster tale even though (living in a frigid environment unsuited for cold-blooded animals) they have never seen an actual reptile [1]
So none of their expeditions brought them closer to dragons. Mind you that their boats already had the dragon head on the bow during their expeditions in the 8th century AD.
What do scientists say?
The common ‘scientific’ hypothesis is that dragon myths might be motivated by primitive discoveries of dinosaur fossils. Another hypothesis is covered in "An instinct for dragons" by David E. Jones. Although severely bashed by Paul Jordan-Smith in 2002 for being bereft of data, clarity and logic [2], I wouldn't just through the concept away.
Jones claims that the common traits of dragons seem to be an amalgam of the principal predators of our ancestral hominids (great apes), which he names as the raptors, elephants, horses, great cats (especially leopards) and pythons. The hypothesis to which Jones conforms is that over millions of years of evolution, members of a species will evolve an instinctive fear of their predators, and he proposes ways in which these fearful images may be merged in artistic or cultural expression to create the dragon image.
Try to demonstrate and prove THAT! Ok, not everything can be empirically demonstrated but I do feel a tendency to chuckle when he mentions millions of years of evolution, and find it hard to believe that our species would still be unconsciously influenced by the nightmares of our ancestors or their earliest predecessors.
Some considerations before we continue:
Going back to my Viking heroes: no large cats, no large snakes, no elephants and yes, they had horses but those were either food or large pets. Even if Vikings would have some relatively dangerous predators on their path, Vikings had stubbornness issues so they would not run nor surrender to their fear.
Maybe the Vikings did find frozen fossils including more than just the bones and as such they may be part of the reason why the rest of us only finds just the bones: Vikings are known for their hungry nature and large meat parties ... throwing a velociraptor on the BBQ can keep a small village happy for one night, no doubt about that.
Anyhow,
The true story as I was told:
Dragons come from the land of Draconia which is situated north of Norway. In the old days Jewish astronomers associated the constellation Draco with the North Pole. The dragons being geographically close to the Vikings and the Vikings not being afraid of anything, they ended up living together.
“How could that be?” you say …
Well they had a good relationship and lived on equal terms. Dragons assisted the Vikings in transporting goods and soldiers in the air and saw this as an opportunity to expand their horizon and meet new people. In return, the Vikings cleaned the dragons regularly - similar to you cleaning your car’s windshield - wiping off flies, mud and the occasional small bird.
Even though dragons could catch their own meals, the finer cuisine required smaller animals which were more difficult for dragons to catch. This is where Vikings came in: hunting rabbits, boar and birds. Food preparation was a joint effort where dragons did most of the roasting and the eating. To this day we still remember the Vikings as wild party animals that ate tremendous amounts of food … the party atmosphere can be attributed to the Vikings but the eating would be the dragon’s doing.
Why did these dragons breath fire?
That is basically a bad habit. It is important to understand that Vikings used foul language and cursed a lot. The dragon’s upbringing was much more focused on etiquette and proper social behavior but too much contact with the Vikings made the dragons use foul language too.
One day the dragon leader noticed the change in behavior and ruled that foul language would not be accepted anymore for dragons. Instead they were allowed to breath fire which they did. Especially when under attack the dragons would use foul language whenever an arrow or spear would hurt them. Since their leader’s ruling, they started roasting their enemies which turned out more efficient as well.
So the English did see the dragons?
We should suppose they did, although the dragons tried to keep away from the battle. In the very early days of Viking conquests, they actually used the dragons to cross over to England, flying very low over the waves in the mist. At times the dragons could paddle using their feet while soaring over the sea which some decades later inspired the Vikings to build their renown ships.
Some people might have seen them soaring over the sea and those with a keen eye might not have mistaken them for fast ships. Dragons have been confronted in battle whenever there was no landing spot on a faraway beach or field and have never failed to roast the odd Celt. It is a hardly known fact that in the mid 700’s some of the dragons became ill after eating some of the Celtic food. I don’t know if the food was of bad taste or maybe just gone bad but the dragons were so startled by this that they killed all English that witnessed the event and they made sure that any others would not disclose the information at risk of being toast during the next raid.
Of course the Viking noticed this as well and for them the dragons had lost some of their magic and appeal because of their slightly sensitive stomach. So Vikings started assessing the impact on their image and decided that dragons were out and wood was in.
Wood was in?
Well, there was plenty of wood to be found in Norway and Denmark. Don’t forget that the Vikings started trading on commercial terms instead of raiding the areas and they required more transport. Inspired by the dragon form, they build their viking ships with a similar dragon head, paddles that represented the wings and a large body with a tail. From afar one would not notice the difference as the ships were very efficient and almost as fast as a real dragon.
In the beginning they used fossil dragon skulls on the bow but the ratio ships/fossils being at their disadvantage they moved to carving wood instead. Vikings did manage to keep their image of hardened soldiers and commercial traders, partly due to the carved dragon heads on the ship’s bow.
Over time (13th century?) the whispered tales of dragons got louder and someone decided to write the tale down as by then the dragons had become part of the land of legends and myths.
What happened to the dragons?
Most of the dragons returned to their northern lair and their nation turned to themselves. There have been some occasions where dragons reached out again but the Vikings were too high on their victories to accept and chased the dragons away.
Some dragons migrated to other regions hoping to start a new life, learning new skills. The most famous dragon left his Scottish lake some 20 years ago after he noticed that however good he learned to swim, the New Celts would still be chasing him with their boats. He was the last to return to the land of Draconia.
As you all know, depression and acquired stubbornness often rule each other out but in the case of dragons I wouldn’t bet on it. I believe that they are still very much alive and frustrated in their land and as it it situated near the north pole, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chandler Wobble - the ‘natural’ deviation of the earth’s axis [3] - is partly due to the dragons.
[1] David E. Jones, An Instinct for Dragons (Routledge, 2002) — ISBN 0-415-93729-9
[2] http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3732/is_200204/ai_n9025632/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_wobble
