The Serpentine Roots of Dragons Across Cultures

Melvyn Bragg and guests explore dragons, literally and symbolically potent creatures that have appeared in many different guises in countries and cultures around the world.

Sometimes compared to snakes, alligators, lions and even dinosaurs, dragons have appeared on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia, in the Chinese zodiac, in the guise of the devil in Christian religious texts and in the national symbolism of the countries of England and Wales.

They are often portrayed as terrifying but sometimes appear as sacred and even benign creatures, and they continue to populate our cultural fantasies through blockbuster films, TV series and children’s books.

With:

Kelsey Granger, Post Doctoral Researcher in Chinese History at the University of Edinburgh

Daniel Ogden, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter

And

Juliette Wood, Associate Lecturer in the School of Welsh at the University of Wales. Producer: Eliane Glaser

Reading list:

Paul Acker and Carolyne Larrington (eds.), Revisiting the Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Heroic Legend (Routledge, 2013), especially ‘Dragons in the Eddas and in Early Nordic Art’ by Paul Acker

Scott G. Bruce (ed.), The Penguin Book of Dragons (Penguin, 2022)

James H. Charlesworth, The Good and Evil Serpent: How a Universal Symbol became Christianized (Yale University Press, 2009)

Juliana Dresvina, A Maid with a Dragon: The Cult of St Margaret of Antioch in Medieval England (Oxford University Press, 2016)

Joyce Tally Lionarons, The Medieval Dragon: The Nature of the Beast in Germanic Literature (Hisarlik Press, 1998)

Daniel Ogden, Dragons, Serpents, and Slayers in the Classical and Early Christian Worlds: A Sourcebook (Oxford University Press, 2013)

Daniel Ogden, The Dragon in the West (Oxford University Press, 2021)

Christine Rauer, Beowulf and the Dragon (D.S. Brewer, 2000)

Phil Senter et al., ‘Snake to Monster: Conrad Gessner’s Schlangenbuch and the Evolution of the Dragon in the Literature of Natural History’ (Journal of Folklore Research, vol. 53, no. 1, 2016)

Jacqueline Simpson, British Dragons: Myth, Legend and Folklore (first published 1980; Wordsworth Editions, 2001)

Jeffrey Snyder-Reinke, Dry Spells: State Rainmaking and Local Governance in Late Imperial China (Harvard University Press, 2009)

Roel Sterckx, The Animal and the Daemon in Early China (State University of New York Press, 2002)

Roel Sterckx, Chinese Thought: From Confucius to Cook Ding (Pelican Books, 2019)

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (first published 1983; HarperCollins, 2007)

Christopher Walter, The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition (Routledge, 2003)

Juliette Wood, Fantastic Creatures in Mythology and Folklore: From Medieval Times to the Present Day (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018)

Yang Xin, Li Yihua, and Xu Naixiang, Art of the Dragon (Shambhala, 1988)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio production

Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Melvyn Bragg and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.