Chrysophylax

Chrysophylax Dives is the rich, crafty, and cowardly dragon of J.R.R. Tolkien's comic tale Farmer Giles of Ham (1949), who is outwitted by a reluctant farmer and ends up as his ally.

The Story

Farmer Giles of Ham is a short comic novella set in a made-up early Britain. Farmer Giles is a slow, stubborn man who becomes a local hero by accident when he scares off a giant with a blunderbuss. The giant goes home and tells the dragons that the lands to the south are full of food and have no knights worth fearing.

That news tempts Chrysophylax Dives, a dragon of ancient and imperial lineage, to come raiding. The king's knights are more interested in tournaments than dragons, so the villagers push Giles into action. The king has given him an old sword that turns out to be Caudimordax, or Tailbiter, a famous dragon-slaying blade that will not stay in its sheath when a dragon is near. Faced with that sword, Chrysophylax loses his nerve and begs for his life, promising to bring back a great ransom of treasure.

He does not come back, of course. Giles is sent to the dragon's mountain with a band of knights, most of whom are killed or flee. Giles, with Tailbiter and a sensible gray mare, corners Chrysophylax again and forces him to carry a large share of his hoard back to Ham. Giles keeps the treasure, defies the king, and becomes ruler of his own little kingdom, with the tame and grumbling dragon guarding it.

Appearance and Powers

Chrysophylax is a classic winged, fire-breathing dragon who flies, scorches the countryside, and sits on a huge hoard in the mountains. What makes him memorable is his personality. He is vain, sly, a skilled talker, and a coward when it comes to sharp swords. His name joins Greek chrysophylax, "gold-guarder," with Latin dives, "rich."

Origins and Sources

Tolkien first told the story to his children and wrote it down in the late 1930s. It was published in 1949 with illustrations by Pauline Baynes, who later illustrated C.S. Lewis's Narnia books. The tale is a playful parody of medieval romance and of scholarly arguments about place names; its mock-Latin preface pretends to be an editor's translation of an old text.

Legacy

Chrysophylax shows the lighter side of Tolkien's love of dragons. He sits between the grim Northern dragons like Smaug and the gentler comic dragons of writers such as Kenneth Grahame. The story is often reprinted with Smith of Wootton Major and Leaf by Niggle, and it appears on many lists of dragon books for younger readers.

Related

• Smaug: Smaug is the greedy, cunning fire-breathing dragon of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937), who seizes the dwarves' treasure under the Lonely Mountain and is killed by Bard the Bowman.
• The Reluctant Dragon: The Reluctant Dragon is the gentle, poetry-loving dragon of Kenneth Grahame's 1898 story, who would rather chat and compose verse than fight, and who stages a mock battle with Saint George.
• Dragon of Silene: The Dragon of Silene is the lake-dwelling, plague-breathing dragon killed by Saint George in medieval legend after he rescued a princess offered to it, the best-known version appearing in the Golden Legend around 1260.
• Dragon Books
• Western Dragons

Sources and Further Reading

• J.R.R. Tolkien, Farmer Giles of Ham (George Allen & Unwin, 1949), illustrated by Pauline Baynes
• J.R.R. Tolkien, Farmer Giles of Ham, 50th anniversary edition, ed. Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (HarperCollins, 1999)
• Tom Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (HarperCollins, 2000)

Cite this entry: “Chrysophylax,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/chrysophylax.