Will there be dragons?

[Barry Arrowsmith]

Dragons are popular, dragons are fun - in the abstract, 
that is.
Kids love 'em, or the idea of them - monstrous, scaly, 
flying flame-throwers, what could engage the imagination
of a blood-thirsty little 'un more?

The treatment dragons get in legend, fiction and especially
art, tends to be ... patchy. There are some weird and 
wonderful depictions out there, usually of St George doing 
his stuff, with things from the size of a house down to the 
Pistrucci representation. Titchy thing. Hardly worth polishing
your armour for. No wonder George won. In fairness, it had 
to be fitted onto the reverse of gold sovereigns 0.75 inches
across, so perhaps he was forced to think small. Still, it 
does call to mind Pratchett's swamp dragons - small, dim, 
harmless and liable to explosively self-destruct at the 
slightest provocation. You don't think that copies of his 
books slipped through a time-warp back to 1816, do you?

Fantasy writers soon put things in their true perspective. 
After all, if you want to paint someone as really heroic, he'll 
need to face down something a bit more impressively sized
than a pig with a goose-neck. As a consequence Diana 
Wynne Jones, in her ''Tough Guide to Fantasy Land' can assert: 

"Dragons  are very large [...] They are always very old [...] They
are quite like people, provided you can get their attention. 
They are very wise and can do magic of a type not known to
other magic users. But they do not have human emotions. 
This can cause misunderstandings [...] the relationship can 
be a bit edgy. This is because dragons can, if they want, 
eat people."

Sounds more like the description of a fearsome aunt from 
Wodehouse than a species of killer lizard, but perhaps I'm 
out of date.

And what's with the fashion for inter-species chatter?
Never did get to grips with that. Why would dragons want to 
talk to humans anyway instead of getting on with dragonish 
things for dragonish reasons? And age-old wisdom and 
philosophising thrown in for good measure. Ugh. It's irritating
enough having know-it-all mages acting smugly omniscient
while swanning around the fantasy tales without the livestock 
getting in on the act as well. Personally, if dragons have to 
communicate, I'd prefer the ones that look the hero in the eye 
with the words "Ah! Lunch!" 

(Note:  McCaffreys lot on Pern aren't proper dragons - they 
came out of a test-tube, a deliberate GM breeding programme -
though how you invent a telepathic beastie when your own 
species isn't telepathic even amongst themselves defeats me. It's
to up the slush-factor during those heart-warming 'impressings' 
that occur with depressing regularity, I suppose.) 

And why make them magical? They've enough going for them 
already -  big verging on ginormous, more or less impervious 
scales, able to fly intercontinental without a break, big teeth, 
claws, a touchy disposition and with a built-in pest-zapper. 
Isn't that enough? 

Happily, with Jo, it is.
None of the flaming philosophers, arcane arsonists, nor 
inscrutable incendiarist types here, thank you very much. And 
not a dietary preference for chubby sacrificial maidens and/or 
a gold fixation in sight for the flammenwerfing reptiloids in HP. 
(Though as explained in a previous post, the gold bedding thing
is a misunderstanding. In short, in olden days gold was portable
currency, dragons ate people wearing their life savings (who says
you can't take it with you), and gold being a notoriously inert 
element, it survived the journey through the chemical hell of the
dragon digestive system to be expelled at the distal end. 
Dragons therefore sleep on their own droppings. Most unhygienic.)

No, Jo gives us the full monte of short-tempered ravening monsters 
who just want to be left in peace to snack on cattle and unwary 
travellers and any interferring busybody who pokes their nose into
dragon affairs is liable to find that it's reduced to a dribble of ash
down their shirt-front.
No short-changing of mayhem-addicted readers or infliction of
insipid fluffiness here.
Splendid.

But are they to feature in book 7, that's the question.
Be nice if they did, but rumours (unsubstantiated? dunno) say not,
which would be a pity. Crispy wizards scattered around the fringes
of the Last Battle would add that little extra something, not so 
much a blaze of glory as a blaze of gory. 
Mmm! Yes please!

OK. If no dragons, so be it, disappointing as that may be - but 
what about dragon's blood? Will that have a role to play? Many 
hope so, convinced that among the 12 properties of dragon's 
blood is a little something of plot significance. In Norse 
mythology being dipped in dragon's blood makes one impervious
to weapons, but since there aren't many weapons as such in the 
WW, that's not much help. 

One small thing, though - dragon's blood is 'greenish'.
And green is such an important colour in the Potter books.

Kneasy

P.S.
Calling Sally Gallo!
What happened with your ponderings over dragon's blood?
Seem to recall it's been, what, a year or more?
Any conclusions?


P.P.S.
Re: BNF.

>Dave:
>It's an ancient fandom curse. Big Name Fan. The normal fate of a
>BNF is to be torn to pieces by all the other BNFs.


Ah. Thank you (I think).
Do you mean literally, or just my posts?
'Cos that's been happening for years... no change there, then.
Psst! What's the counter-curse?


>Pippin:
>Big Name Fan, ie, someone who has achieved recognition for his
>fandom.
>The proper response of course, is to deny that one is any such 
>thing <g>

BNF? Me? Nah, just a humble scribbler, a dewy-eyed ingenue toiling
away on the boards, undeserving of reward or recognition, surprised
and grateful if the newest of neo-fans deigns to notice his 
insubstantial offerings. 
The acknowledgement? Probably an editorial error.
Like that, you mean?