With Peter Jackson’s second Hobbit film coming out this week, Smaug is flying right toward us with flames billowing from his maw. J.R.R. Tolkien put years of thought and research in his dragon, shaping the idea of what that “Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities” should be, and setting a standard of intelligence and charisma that all dragons since have had to reckon with.
Thinking about Smaug made us want to look back at some of our other favorite fire-breathers. If there was a fantasy-animal Olympics (and there really, really should be) they would stand uncomfortably close to unicorns on the top of the podium, edging over a few inches at a time to try to claim the whole spot. They can fly, they can breathe fire, they are often hyper-intelligent, sometimes telepathic, and even the cute ones could probably kill us all in a second. But we desperately want them all to be real. (And they totally could be! Look, look at these facts!)
What would The Hobbit be without Smaug the Terrible lurking at the end of the quest? A mean-spirited story about a hobbit helping a group of dwarves to loot an abandoned home. What would a Dungeons and Dragons campaign be? Just dungeons, that’s what, and it would suck. In the Potterverse, when Rowling wants to show us just how serious the Triwizard Tournament is, she brings dragons in for the first challenge. (Plus, isn’t Charlie the coolest Weasley, showing up covered in scars and burns, hinting at a reckless and amazing world beyond the scope of Rowling’s books?) In Dragonlance, the story is driven by the quest to become Heroes of the Lance, in order to defeat evil dragons. And with all due respect to both Tyrion and The Red Wedding, is there a greater moment in Game of Thrones than Daenerys rising from the ashes of her husband’s corpse, her dragon children on her shoulders?
Of the more traditional “man vs. dragon” films, there is only one that achieves the level of insanity we like in our movies, and all of us here agreed that we couldn’t make it through this post without mentioning the napalm-breathing, shirtless-Christian-Bale, dragon-tooth-collecting-and-shirtless-Matthew McConaughey grade-A cheese miracle that is: Reign of Fire.
As we wait patiently (or not) for Smaug to appear on the big screen this Friday, the Tor.com staff wants to share our own favorite dragons from literature and film!
Gina:
Kazul, Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles
Kazul is mostly awesome because she is the King of the Dragons despite being a girl (and a grandmother!) and has excellent taste in princesses, which extends to teaching them Latin, permitting them to catalog the treasure, and getting involved in their magical and cooking experimentation (even when it involves soufflés and hens teeth).
Leah:
Haku, Spirited Away
Dragons are, as author Max Gladstone says, “The blood-splatter of fantasy.” And flying scenes, I think, are the blood splatter of a good Miyazaki movie. Combining those two makes for something special, and I’m going to end this analogy now because I’m creeping myself out. Anyway. While Spirited Away is an extraordinary movie from beginning to end, for me it is the scenes of Haku’s flight that achieve the greatest beauty. The asame care that Ghibli puts into all of it’s plane scenes is evident here in Haku’s fluidity, flashing scales, and the breaths that shows both the effort and exhilaration of flight. and the And naturally, it’s during one of the flying scenes that Chihiro tells Haku his true name, and frees him from Yubaba, transforming his illusory freedom into real freedom.
Sarah:
Figment, Epcot’s Imagination! pavillion
Okay, so Figment may not really be a dragon (he is instead an amalgamation of various animal and human traits, crafted by the Dreamfinder), and is definitely a rather transparent merchandising ploy on the part of Disney, but what does it matter? His journey through Art, Literature, the Performing Arts, and Science is by turns hilarious, exhilirating, and terrifying—and isn’t that everything a dragon should be? And as a bonus, he looks adorable in a tuxedo jacket.
Emily:
Kilgharrah, Merlin
Fans affectionately call good old Kilgharrah the “Slash Dragon,” and for good reason—no one ships Merlin and Arthur and their epic destiny the way he does. He’s also John Hurt, so that’s an added layer of fabulous. While the Great Dragon started out as a prisoner of King Uther, and something of a tenuous teacher, once he is freed (and lays siege to Camelot for a while to let them know they were super wrong to keep him locked up), he becomes Merlin’s true guide. A lot of times the answers that he offers are not the ones that Merlin wants, but that’s how that wise guide gig works, right?
Ran and Shaw, The Firebending Masters, Avatar: The Last Airbender
If you could learn firebending from anyone, you would obviously pick them. Because they are dragons and also because they understand the true source of fire’s power on a level that the rest of us common folk aren’t really privy to. Without Ran and Shaw there’s no way that Zuko could have made a full turn-around and let go of his rage. There’s also no way that Aang could have finally gotten over his firebending block. And they taught those boys what was what by making them dance! Be right back, I’m off to join the Sun Warriors.
Draco, Dragonheart
This dragon is Sean Connery. I’m pretty sure that’s a game, set, and match? Actually, this movie had quite the impact on me as a kid: when people died on film I was typically unmoved, but when mythical creatures, robots or aliens bit the dust, Tiny Emily was in tears. Draco’s friendship with Bowen—after Bowen stops being an entitled jerk, that is—warms the heart, and he just looked gorgeous. Particularly when you consider how CGI wasn’t quite so advanced back in the day. I believed every second of his computer-generated performance. I also may or may not have coerced friends into playing Dragonheart with me because I wanted a dragon to hang out with so badly.
To the stars, Bowen. To the stars.
Bridget:
Falkor, The Neverending Story
Luckdragons, in general, are pretty awesome. They’re basically giant slacker-y optimists made of air and fire who let their exceptional good luck guide them in any situation, which makes them incredibly mellow for a creature who can fly and breath fire. Luckdragons won’t sink on you in the Swamps of Despair (sorry, Artax), and they’re intensely loyal—even when Bastian Balthazar Bux starts drinking his own Kool-Aid and behaving like a full tilt diva in the second half of the novel, Falkor returns from banishment to save him and allow Bastian to return home. And in the 1984 movie version, of course, he helps Bastian gleefully terrorize a bunch of bullies: a truly seminal moment in magically delicious revenge fantasies for an entire generation of nerdy, book-loving kids. Let’s face it: vengeance-by-luckdragon is still the most fun brand of justice there is.
Irene:
Toothless!!! How To Train Your Dragon
Combining the majesty of dragons with the hilarious self-seriousness of cats results in possibly the most adorable creature ever committed to film.
Leah Withers already wrote about her favorite dragons—you can read all about Laurence Yep’s Dragon Quartet here!
You know there’s only one way this can end, right? We have to pay homage to the mightiest dragon of all, whose legend can be spoken in just one awe-inspiring word. Cower before TROGDOR.
While, some of these are great dragons, I’m sad that you didn’t include the (arguably) greatest of the literary dragons… those of Pern.
Anne McAffery may not have been the first to have dragons and humans as companions, she did it the best. A world that needs dragons (and their human companions). Ramoth and Lessa’s epic journey through time, when no one knew it was even possible. Canth and F’Nor’s journey to another planet. And Ruth, who always knew when he was.
Pern was my first real introduction to dragons and for all of Smaug’s power, the riches and knowledge of the dragons of Shadowrun, and cuteness (and inner strength) of Toothless… there will never be a dragon I want more than my own bronze.
All great but I grew up reading all the books of McCaffery’s Pern so I cant see leaving them out. When you mentioned telepathy I thought for sure you were going to mention them.
Glad to see thar Patricia Wrede and the enchanted forest got some love. Those books are hilarious.
The lack of Vermithrax Pejorative, the greatest movie dragon ever, makes this list a complete and utter fail. This dragon is mentioned by almost every major Hollywood effects designer as influencing how they see dragons.
By the way, the dragon that every effects designer mentions after Vermithrax Pejorative is Maleficent (in her dragon form). That is also not on this list.
This list is wrong because it is a list of your favorite dragons. It should be a list of MY favorite dragons. Epic fail!
Reign of Fire is one of those movies where, if you let yourself get past the “Dragon Apocalypse what?” of the premise, it’s a fun movie. If it’s on cable and we land on it, we almost always end up watching. (huh, imdb claims that Jack Gleeson is in it uncredited).
Also, not just reading the Pern books, but I think ,for me, Michael Whelan’s art for the books is probably just as much of a favorite. One of the first non-kid books I remember reading is Dragonquest with that beautiful painting of Canth in flight. Pern dragons that don’t look like his always look ‘wrong’ to me.
My only problem with the book art is that Anne specifically says that her dragons (and fire lizards) have two tails. Otherwise, it’s great art.
Comments up the chain have already put in a vote for the dragons of Pern, so I’m going to cast mine in for Naomi Novik’s Temeraire, closely followed by Iskierka! I adore both of those dragons immensely–Temeraire for his campaigning for the rights of all dragons, as well as the delightful mental imagery of Laurence reading him mathematics texts and Temeraire understanding them better than he does. And Iskierka for being her delightful fire-breathing self.
Gotta put in a plug for Robin McKinley’s Maur in The Hero and the Crown, too!
Another one worth mentioning, I think, is Morkeleb from Barbara Hambly’s Dragonsbane.
I recently read Lucius Shepard’s stories of Griaule, a somewhat unconventional and gigantic slumbering dragon, even if it isn’t always certain where the dragon stops and the land begins… Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea books have good dragons and I also rather liked the Draco nobilis from Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!.
Mayland Long is my favorite dragon.
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/01/the-tea-the-statue-the-dragon-and-you-ra-macavoys-lemgtea-with-the-black-dragonlemg
Pern, as some have mentioned would be on my own list of dragons. As would Melanie Rawn’s dragons from her Sunrunner books. And the dragons in Earthsea are quite interesting as well.
But my favorite is Glaurung from Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. The first of Morgoth’s wingless, fire-breathing dragons, Glaurung rampaged through the First Age causing more death and destruction than just about anyone. Add to that the harm he brought to Hurin’s children makes him the most memorable of dragons for me. At least on the dark side of things.
Totally missing from this list is Temeraire of Naomi Novik’s amazing Temeriare series! Come on, you take the Napoleonic Wars and add Dragons to the mix and you got something truly amazing!! And they have entire crews on them like a gunship! But Dragon-ship! I love this series and it totally should have made the list!
The first Great Wise dragon I remember encountering was Granamyr, from the He-Man comics, and that was followed up by the emotive Pit Dragons of Jane Yolen. And Smaug, of course, but he was far more SCARY than anything else at that age.
I’m with Irene above – Toothless is probably one of the most charming dragons I’ve seen in years, though I still remember the awe of running in a 40man raid into Onyxia for the first time back when I played WoW. Blizzard definitely *got* dragons well.
I quite like the image of the swampdragons from Discworld. And the greatest of them all, Errol.
I’ll certainly second the commenters who’ve mentioned Vermithrax from Dragonslayer and the dragons of McCaffrey’s Pern series. A couple of other personal favorites would be….
Disney’s Reluctant Dragon: I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen the original short film, but I owned a record album as a youngster which included the Dragon’s charming and enjoyable song:
I just won’t fight; I’d rather play;
I know I shan’t get hurt that way;
Here we go gathering nuts in May;
Whoops, I’m reluctant!
Also, while there are no true dragons in Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar novels, she and Andre Norton created a particularly impressive race of dragons in their collaborative novels beginning with The Elvenbane (which is, coincidentally enough, a Tor book).
Also, the dragon that Yake Singh Brown works with in Gerrold’s Chess With A Dragon.
I still think Orm Embar (Earthsea) is one of the coolest dragon names ever, and Tehanu and Dragonfly (also Earthsea) combine awesome draconicness with being awesome kickass ladies.
My own personal favorite dragon will always be Joel Rosenberg’s Elegon from the Guardians of the Flame series. Wise, young, moral, a bit of a coward and yet willing to eat the occasion slaver; what’s not to love.
Well, I suppose my nym gives you a hint … but since others have pointed out how great Ursula LeGuin’s dragons are, I’ll put in a vote for R.A. McAvoy’s Tea With the Black Dragon, and another vote for Temeraire and Morkeleb as well. Oh, and forget the Disney version; the original Reluctant Dragon is Kenneth Grahame and always worth a reread.
I stopped playing Warcrack a few years ago but I thought the WoW dragonlore was pretty interesting. I was particularly fascinated by Malygos, a blue dragon aspect of magic that was driven insane by something or other whatever he was a fun boss fight.
The dragon in the Neverending Story is called Fuchur. Why do Americans have to change names? Another interesting dragon by Michael Ende is Frau Mahlzahn in Jim Knopf.
Tiamat! From the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
No mention of Dragon Slayer?? And you call yourselves experts on fantasy… Everyone that works at Tor is under 30, right?
Ok, if you liked Reign of Fire watch Dragon Slayer. Similarly, it’s a flawed movie but last 10 minutes are worth the price of admission. You’ll also see where RoF FX “borrowed” their dragon design from.
@8 I’ve read nearly every Pern novel and I don’t remember anything about dragons having two tails. Now, the tip of the tail is supposed to be forked, in theory, and that probably isn’t represented in the cover art. But two tails? I don’t think so.
Anyway, count me in for another vote for Pern dragons as being sadly missing from this article.
A few contemporary dragons that could also figure in this list would be Saphira, or one of the other dragons from the Dragon series, and the dragon from Dragonball!
Yep, I too must add my voice for McCaffreys Pern novels… And give a heartfelt vote for Morkeleb the Black from the Dragonsbane series. Vastly different dragons but both immensely powerful and intelligent.
Interestingly, Micheal Whelan did the art for both… And he captured their very different physiques exquisitely.
The dragon from John Gardner’s Grendel has always been a favorite of mine.
The title of this list doesn’t preclude non-movie dragons, so how about dragons in the art world. Randy Spangler has a series of paintings featuring his Dragglets. They are featured on posters, puzzles, etc. Check out his website.
I started my adventure in Pern with the Harper Hall books, and fell in love with the fire-lizards, which are basically miniature dragons. Here’s a vote for Beauty, Farli, and Zair, as well as Ruth, who is the most awesome dragon ever.
Mushu from Mulan gets some mini-dragon love too, as do baby Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion.
How about the amazing dragons in the Realm of the Elderlings books? Tintaglia and Icefyre are the coolest, but some of the younger ones are great too. And don’t forget the stone dragons!
I always liked Tiamat, from Dungeons and Dragons lore and also from the D&D cartoon.
Certainly the Pern novels should not be overlooked, but my personal favorite is Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. Patrick O’Brian AND dragons! Novik includes so my kinds of dragon’s as well: acid spitters, fire breathers, little fast couriers. The series takes you all over the world and is a great adventure.