Dragons

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.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Kelsey Granger No other episodes
  Post Doctoral Researcher in Chinese History at the University of Edinburgh
• Professor Daniel Ogden No other episodes
  Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter
• Juliette Wood 12 episodes
  Associate Lecturer in the School of Welsh at the University of Wales

Reading list

• Revisiting the Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Heroic Legend
  Paul Acker and Carolyne Larrington (eds.) (Routledge, 2013) Google Books →
• The Penguin Book of Dragons
  Scott G. Bruce (ed.) (Penguin, 2022) Google Books →
• The Good and Evil Serpent: How a Universal Symbol became Christianized
  James H. Charlesworth (Yale University Press, 2009) Google Books →
• A Maid with a Dragon: The Cult of St Margaret of Antioch in Medieval England
  Juliana Dresvina (Oxford University Press, 2016) Google Books →
• The Medieval Dragon: The Nature of the Beast in Germanic Literature
  Joyce Tally Lionarons (Hisarlik Press, 1998) Google Books →
• Dragons, Serpents, and Slayers in the Classical and Early Christian Worlds: A Sourcebook
  Daniel Ogden (Oxford University Press, 2013) Google Books →
• The Dragon in the West
  Daniel Ogden (Oxford University Press, 2021) Google Books →
• Beowulf and the Dragon
  Christine Rauer (D.S. Brewer, 2000)
• Snake to Monster: Conrad Gessner's Schlangenbuch and the Evolution of the Dragon in the Literature of Natural History
  Phil Senter et al. (Journal of Folklore Research, 2016)
• British Dragons: Myth, Legend and Folklore
  Jacqueline Simpson (Wordsworth Editions, 2001) Google Books →
• Dry Spells: State Rainmaking and Local Governance in Late Imperial China
  Jeffrey Snyder-Reinke (Harvard University Press, 2009)
• The Animal and the Daemon in Early China
  Roel Sterckx (State University of New York Press, 2002) Google Books →
• Chinese Thought: From Confucius to Cook Ding
  Roel Sterckx (Pelican Books, 2019) Google Books →
• The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays
  J. R. R. Tolkien (HarperCollins, 2007) Google Books →
• The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition
  Christopher Walter (Routledge, 2003) Google Books →
• Fantastic Creatures in Mythology and Folklore: From Medieval Times to the Present Day
  Juliette Wood (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018) Google Books →
• Art of the Dragon
  Yang Xin, Li Yihua, and Xu Naixiang (Shambhala, 1988)

Related episodes

• The Evolution of Crocodiles
  
  16 Sep, 2021 590 Animals (Zoology)
• The Druids
  
  20 Sep, 2012 290 Other religions
• Merlin
  
  30 Jun, 2005 390 Customs, etiquette and folklore
• The Mabinogion
  
  10 May, 2018 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism
• Feathered Dinosaurs
  
  26 Oct, 2017 560 Fossils and prehistoric life
• The Fisher King
  
  17 Jan, 2008 390 Customs, etiquette and folklore
• The Unicorn
  
  28 Oct, 2010 390 Customs, etiquette and folklore
• Fairies
  
  11 May, 2006 390 Customs, etiquette and folklore
• The Celts
  
  21 Feb, 2002 930 History of the Ancient World
• Beowulf
  
  5 Mar, 2015 820 English and Old English literatures

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: m002dzy4

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002dzy4

Auto-category: 398.2454 (Folklore and mythology of specific kinds of legendary creatures)