Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus

[alshainofthenorth]

No: HPFGUIDX 90517

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> Incidentally, Tolkien's dragons include "a great cold drake" (cf.
> draco) and "Scatha the Worm (= Snake), so he does make the 
association
> between snakes or serpents and dragons, but I have yet to see it in
> HP. Even if Wormtail is somehow associated with snakes instead of
> segmented earthworms (cf. Wormtongue = Snake Tongue in LOTR), I 
don't
> see a connection between Wormtail and dragons. In GoF JKR describes
> the Horntail (IIRC) as "more lizardlike than the others," but none 
of
> the dragons is referred to as snakelike.

There are a lot of different dragon species in mythology (which has 
spread to lots of roleplaying systems). Not all dragons have wings, 
and not all of them breathe fire. And it isn't always clear, for 
instance in the Greek myths, whether "serpent" refers to an ordinary 
snake or a kind of dragon. As I understand it, a dragon proper has 
wings and at least four legs, while serpents and wyrms are earthbound 
(the Germanic dragons were almost always flightless, for instance). 
The dragons in the first task all had wings, IIRC, and the other ones 
mentioned in Fantastic Beasts as well.
Among all of Tolkien's dragons, Glaurung has to be the foremost. It 
was a while since I read the Silmarillion, so I can't remember if he 
breathed fire or just was venomous and able to hypnotise his victims.