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Ancient Nordic Dragons
In ancient norse mythology dragons were quite apparent. They made appearances in the epics over and over again. Even Beowulfs last battle was against a dragon. Beowulf was a great warrior in the land of the Danes and Geats. He defeated Grendel and Grendel's Mother early in his life. Fifty years have passed and Beowulf was eighty. As a payment to the king of the Danes he decided to fight the Dragon. Unfortunately, the fire breathing dragon melted Beowulfs sword. So Beowulf had to fight bare handed. But the dragon was poisonous and bit Beowulf causing him to die.n.
A famous Norse story was of the dragon Fafnir and Sigurd the dragonslayer. As usual with dragon tales there are several versions of the story. This one starts with the telling of the order of the world and the great serpent Nidhogger which lives at the foot of the tree of life Yggdrasil. Of his kind come the dragons. But the Norse believe that a dragon can be a state of mind also and this tale explores the evils of the human condition.
Once
there were two brothers named Regin and Fafnir. They were dwarves. Fafnir
was recruited by the gods to kill an enemy of the gods Otter. Having done
so he was rewarded by an immense hord of gold. But Fafnir's excessive delight
and greed for this gold slowly turned him into a great dragon.
The brother Regin wanted this gold and so persuaded Sigurd (also called Siegfried
in some tales) to kill this evil dragon. Together they dug a hole and as Fafnir
walked across it Sigurd stuck his sword into the dragon’s unprotected
belly and killed him.
It was apparently good luck to eat of certain parts of the dragon and so after Regin cut out the dead creatures heart Sigurd cooked it. As he was taking the heart out of the fire Sigurd burned his fingers and put them into his mouth. The dragons heart had magical properties and even this little taste of the heart allowed the hero to understand the speech of the birds.
The
birds told Sigurd that Regin was planning on killing him and take all the
gold so the hero loaded all the treasure onto his horse and rode away.
Other versions have the dragon giving the treasure to Sigurd for his nobility
and honesty and departing in peace. It is likely that other versions were
made into the story of Drachenstein.
There are many stories told of Jormungand by the Norse people. He is said
to be the offspring of the god of mischief Loki and his bride Angurboda. He
is also called the Midgard serpent who lives in the sea and is so long that
he encircles the whole planet and has swallowed his own tail. This is why
he is also prominent in their stories as the World Serpent. There are to many
stories and versions to tell here. But they are another example of dragon
and serpent stories told at this time.
Current day influences of dragons consist of video games like The
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.
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