SOURCE: Beowulf  by Anonymous

DESCRIPTION: "In the fiftieth year of Beowulf's reign a great terror fell upon the land: terror of a monstrous fire-dragon, who flew forth by night from his den in the rocks lighting up the blackness with his blazing breath, and burning houses and homesteads, men and cattle, with the flames from his mouth. The glare from his fiery scales was like the dawn-glow in the sky, but his passage left behind it every night a trail of black, charred desolation to confront the rising sun. Yet the dragon's wrath was in some way justified, since he had been robbed, and could not trace the thief..." (Beowulf by Anoymous)

NOTES: After Beowulf has become an aged king, he must face a dragon. The creature is no poisonous and terrible all of his warriors abandon him except Wiglaf. Beowulf kills the dragon but is killed himself.

HISTORY: The dragon in Beowulf inspired many other Dragon-Knight fights. The stolen cup which sparks the dragon's reign of fire inspired Bilbo's taking of a cup from Smaug's treasure in The Hobbit.

Fantasy fiction and artwork has incorporated much of the spirit of Beowufl.

 

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