Dragonriders: Human and Dragon Teams in Fiction
Dragons are among the most fascinating fictitious beasts. They have figured in a number of myths, and even in the past century many great fantasy writers have created original works in which they figure. In this brief article I will discuss three of them.
In “the Hobbit,” the title character and twelve dwarfs are on a quest to retrieve their treasure from Smaug, the dragon who stole it. Bilbo goes into his cave as a scout and discovers the dragon’s vulnerable spot, a piece of information that proves valuable when he is killed by a human warrior. Presenting the dragon has been a major creative challenge for theater companies; I was in such a production once myself.
“The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” is Book 4 (writing order) in C. S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia.” In it, the selfish Eustace Scrubb finds himself transformed into a dragon whose lair he has invaded. Changed back into human form, he is a much nicer person.
In “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” Hagrid illegally raises a baby dragon, which he has always wanted, after the egg is given to him as a bribe. Harry then helps him give the dragon her freedom.