{ "title": "Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons", "license": "Free to use with attribution to Draconika (https://www.draconika.com)", "entries": [ { "slug": "aido-hwedo", "name": "Aido Hwedo", "altNames": [ "Aido-Hwedo", "Ayido Hwedo", "Dan Ayido Hwedo", "Da Ayido Hwedo", "Aida Wedo" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Fon (Dahomey, Benin)", "region": "Africa", "location": { "place": "Abomey, Benin (heart of the Dahomey kingdom)", "lat": 7.18, "lng": 1.99 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Recorded by anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits, Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom", "date": "fieldwork 1931; published 1938", "year": 1938 }, "summary": "Aido Hwedo is the rainbow serpent of Fon religion in Benin, who carried the creator Mawu as the world was made and now lies coiled beneath the earth, holding it together.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/aido-hwedo" }, { "slug": "alduin", "name": "Alduin", "altNames": [ "Alduin the World-Eater", "The World-Eater" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "games", "culture": "The Elder Scrolls (Bethesda Softworks)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Game Studios)", "date": "2011", "year": 2011 }, "summary": "Alduin the World-Eater is the black dragon who serves as the main villain of the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), an ancient tyrant of dragonkind prophesied to devour the world.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 2, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/alduin" }, { "slug": "amaru", "name": "Amaru", "altNames": [ "Amaro", "Katari", "Andean serpent" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Inca and Andean (Quechua and Aymara)", "region": "South America", "location": { "place": "Cusco and the central Andes, Peru", "lat": -13.53, "lng": -71.97 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Huarochirí Manuscript", "date": "c. 1608", "year": 1608 }, "summary": "The Amaru is a great mythical serpent of Andean and Inca tradition, a creature of the underground waters, sometimes two-headed or winged, whose emergence was linked to floods, landslides, and the upheaval of the world.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/amaru" }, { "slug": "amphisbaena", "name": "Amphisbaena", "altNames": [ "Amphisbaina", "Amphisbene", "Amphivena", "Anphivena" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Greek, Roman, and medieval European", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Libyan desert (North Africa)", "lat": 30, "lng": 20 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Aeschylus, Agamemnon (line 1233)", "date": "458 BCE", "year": -458 }, "summary": "The amphisbaena is a venomous serpent of Greek and Roman lore with a head at each end of its body, said to live in the Libyan desert and to move in either direction.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 2, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/amphisbaena" }, { "slug": "ancalagon", "name": "Ancalagon the Black", "altNames": [ "Ancalagon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "J.R.R. Tolkien (Middle-earth)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien (named in passing; story told in The Silmarillion, 1977)", "date": "1954", "year": 1954 }, "summary": "Ancalagon the Black is the greatest of the winged dragons in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, unleashed by Morgoth at the end of the First Age and slain by the mariner Eärendil in a battle in the sky.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/ancalagon" }, { "slug": "apep", "name": "Apep", "altNames": [ "Apophis", "Aapep", "Apepi" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Ancient Egyptian", "region": "Africa", "location": { "place": "Egypt (the Duat, the underworld traveled by the sun)", "lat": 25.7, "lng": 32.64 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Coffin Texts", "date": "Middle Kingdom, c. 2000 BCE", "year": -2000 }, "summary": "Apep, called Apophis by the Greeks, is the giant serpent of chaos in ancient Egyptian religion who attacks the sun god Ra's boat every night in the underworld and must be defeated again each day.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/apep" }, { "slug": "ayida-weddo", "name": "Ayida-Weddo", "altNames": [ "Ayida Wedo", "Aida Wedo", "Ayida-Wèdo", "Aïda-Wédo", "Ayida" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "religion", "culture": "Haitian Vodou (with Fon roots in Benin)", "region": "Caribbean", "location": { "place": "Haiti", "lat": 18.97, "lng": -72.29 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "François Denys Légitime, La vérité sur le vaudoux (names \"Aida Oueddo\" as the wife of \"Dambala Ouedo\"); described in detail in Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen (1953)", "date": "1892", "year": 1892 }, "summary": "Ayida-Weddo is the rainbow serpent lwa (spirit) of Haitian Vodou, the wife of the white serpent Damballa, honored with him as a spirit of the rainbow, water, fertility, and the union of sky and earth.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/ayida-weddo" }, { "slug": "azi-dahaka", "name": "Aži Dahāka", "altNames": [ "Azi Dahaka", "Zahhak", "Zahhāk", "Zohak", "Dahag", "Azhdahak", "Aždahā" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Persian (Zoroastrian, later Islamic-era Iranian)", "region": "Near East", "location": { "place": "Mount Damavand, Iran, where he lies chained", "lat": 35.95, "lng": 52.11 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Younger Avesta (Yasna 9; Yashts 5, 15, and 19)", "date": "composed in the first millennium BCE; oldest manuscripts 13th–14th century CE", "year": -700 }, "summary": "Aži Dahāka is the three-headed dragon of Zoroastrian myth, created by the evil spirit Angra Mainyu, who becomes the tyrant Zahhāk with serpents growing from his shoulders in Ferdowsi's Persian epic, the Shahnameh.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 3, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": null, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/azi-dahaka" }, { "slug": "azure-dragon", "name": "Azure Dragon (Qinglong)", "altNames": [ "Qinglong", "Ch'ing-lung", "Blue-Green Dragon", "Green Dragon", "Blue Dragon of the East", "Seiryū", "Cheongnyong", "Thanh Long", "青龍", "青龙" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese (also Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese)", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Suizhou, Hubei (tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng)", "lat": 31.69, "lng": 113.38 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Lacquered clothing chest from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, painted with a dragon and tiger flanking the 28 lunar mansions", "date": "about 433 BCE", "year": -433 }, "summary": "The Azure Dragon, or Qinglong, is the dragon of the east in Chinese cosmology, one of the Four Symbols that guard the directions, linked to spring, the element wood, and seven constellations of the eastern sky.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/azure-dragon" }, { "slug": "bahamut-dnd", "name": "Bahamut (Dungeons & Dragons)", "altNames": [ "Bahamut", "The Platinum Dragon", "King of Good Dragons", "The Dragon King" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "games", "culture": "Dungeons & Dragons (TSR / Wizards of the Coast)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Greyhawk (Supplement I to Dungeons & Dragons), by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz (as the unnamed Platinum Dragon); named Bahamut in the Monster Manual (1977)", "date": "1975", "year": 1975 }, "summary": "Bahamut in Dungeons & Dragons is the Platinum Dragon, king and god of the good metallic dragons and enemy of Tiamat, a game creation named after a giant world-bearing fish of Arabic cosmology.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": "/famous#bahamut", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/famous#bahamut" }, { "slug": "bakunawa", "name": "Bakunawa", "altNames": [ "Bakonawa", "Baconaua", "Moon-eating serpent", "Bakunawa and the Seven Moons" ], "kind": "sea serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Visayan (Philippines)", "region": "Southeast Asia", "location": { "place": "Visayas, central Philippines", "lat": 10.3, "lng": 123.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Fernando A. Buyser, Mga Sugilanong Karaan (Old Tales), in Cebuano", "date": "1913", "year": 1913 }, "summary": "The Bakunawa is a giant sea serpent of Visayan folklore in the Philippines that swallows the moon, causing eclipses, and in one famous tale devoured six of the seven moons that once lit the sky.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/bakunawa" }, { "slug": "balaur", "name": "Balaur", "altNames": [ "Balauri (plural)", "Balaurul", "Romanian dragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Romanian", "region": "Eastern Europe", "location": { "place": "Romania and Moldova", "lat": 45.9, "lng": 24.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Petre Ispirescu, Legende sau basmele românilor (includes \"Balaurul cel cu șapte capete\")", "date": "1872", "year": 1872 }, "summary": "The balaur is the many-headed serpent-dragon of Romanian folklore, a monster of waters and caves that heroes such as Făt-Frumos must kill, and the storm mount ridden by the wizards called solomonari.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/balaur" }, { "slug": "balerion", "name": "Balerion the Black Dread", "altNames": [ "Balerion", "The Black Dread" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin (as a skull and in legend)", "date": "1996", "year": 1996 }, "summary": "Balerion the Black Dread is the largest dragon in the history of George R.R. Martin's Westeros, the mount of Aegon the Conqueror, whose black fire helped the Targaryens win the Seven Kingdoms.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/balerion" }, { "slug": "bashe", "name": "Bashe", "altNames": [ "Ba snake", "Ba serpent", "Pa-she", "Xiushe", "巴蛇" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Dongting Lake, Hunan", "lat": 29.3, "lng": 112.95 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas); Chu ci, \"Tianwen\"", "date": "about 4th–2nd centuries BCE", "year": -300 }, "summary": "The Bashe is a gigantic serpent of ancient Chinese myth that swallowed whole elephants and spat out their bones after three years, until the archer Yi slew it at Dongting Lake.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/bashe" }, { "slug": "basilisk", "name": "Basilisk", "altNames": [ "Basiliscus", "Regulus", "King of Serpents", "Basiliskos" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Roman and medieval European", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Cyrenaica (eastern Libya)", "lat": 32.5, "lng": 21.7 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Pliny the Elder, Natural History (Book 8)", "date": "c. 77 CE", "year": 77 }, "summary": "The basilisk is a legendary \"king of serpents\" from Roman natural history and medieval bestiaries, a small crowned snake so venomous that its glance, breath, or touch could kill.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/basilisk", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/basilisk" }, { "slug": "beowulf-dragon", "name": "Beowulf's dragon", "altNames": [ "The dragon in Beowulf", "Beowulf dragon", "Wyrm of Beowulf", "Earthdragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Anglo-Saxon (Old English)", "region": "Northern Europe", "location": { "place": "Land of the Geats, southern Sweden (setting of the poem)", "lat": 57.8, "lng": 13 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Beowulf, in the Nowell Codex (British Library, Cotton Vitellius A.xv)", "date": "manuscript about 975-1025", "year": 1000 }, "summary": "Beowulf's dragon is the fire-breathing, treasure-guarding dragon of the Old English epic Beowulf, which ravages the land of the Geats after a cup is stolen from its hoard and dies fighting the aged hero.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/legends/beowulf", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/beowulf" }, { "slug": "bida", "name": "Bida", "altNames": [ "Bida the Serpent of Wagadu", "Bida of Koumbi", "the snake of Wagadu" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Soninke (Wagadu / Ghana Empire)", "region": "Africa", "location": { "place": "Koumbi Saleh, Mauritania (traditional capital of Wagadu)", "lat": 15.66, "lng": -7.99 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Soninke oral tradition; earliest published version verified: Leo Frobenius, Der schwarze Dekameron (\"Der Kampf mit dem Bida-Drachen\")", "date": "1910", "year": 1910 }, "summary": "Bida is the great serpent of Soninke legend that protected the ancient kingdom of Wagadu, bringing rains of gold in return for a yearly maiden, until the hero Mamadi beheaded it and the kingdom fell.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/bida" }, { "slug": "bisterne-dragon", "name": "Bisterne Dragon", "altNames": [ "Dragon of Bisterne", "Burley Dragon", "Burley Beacon dragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "English (Hampshire)", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "Bisterne and Burley Beacon, New Forest, Hampshire, England", "lat": 50.82, "lng": -1.78 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Marginal note on a Berkeley family pedigree roll at Berkeley Castle", "date": "written before 1618", "year": 1618 }, "summary": "The Bisterne Dragon is a dragon of New Forest folklore that lived on Burley Beacon, drank milk delivered daily at Bisterne, and was killed by a knight named Berkeley with the help of two dogs.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/bisterne-dragon" }, { "slug": "boitata", "name": "Boitatá", "altNames": [ "Boitata", "Mboitatá", "Baetatá", "Mboi Tata", "Biatatá" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Brazilian (Tupi and Guaraní roots)", "region": "South America", "location": { "place": "São Vicente, São Paulo coast, Brazil", "lat": -23.96, "lng": -46.39 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Letter of José de Anchieta from São Vicente", "date": "1560", "year": 1560 }, "summary": "The Boitatá is a fiery serpent of Brazilian folklore, a glowing snake of flame whose name comes from Tupi words for \"snake\" and \"fire,\" seen at night over fields, rivers, and marshes.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/boitata" }, { "slug": "bolla", "name": "Bolla", "altNames": [ "Bollë", "Bullar", "Bolle" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Albanian", "region": "Eastern Europe", "location": { "place": "Northern and southern Albania", "lat": 41.6, "lng": 19.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Albanian folk belief as recorded by 19th- and 20th-century ethnographers (summarized in Robert Elsie's Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture)", "date": "19th–20th century recordings", "year": 1900 }, "summary": "The bolla is a serpent demon of Albanian folklore that keeps its eyes closed all year except on Saint George's Day, devours any human it sees, and if left unseen for many years grows into the dragon kulshedra.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/bolla" }, { "slug": "caoranach", "name": "Caoránach", "altNames": [ "Caorthannach", "Caoranach", "Lough Derg monster", "Caol" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Irish", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "Lough Derg, County Donegal, Ireland", "lat": 54.61, "lng": -7.87 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "John Richardson, The Great Folly, Superstition, and Idolatry of Pilgrimages in Ireland", "date": "1727", "year": 1727 }, "summary": "The Caoránach is a monstrous serpent of Irish folklore, an oilliphéist sometimes called the mother of demons, which was killed in Lough Derg in County Donegal and whose blood is said to have turned the lake red.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/caoranach" }, { "slug": "cetus", "name": "Cetus", "altNames": [ "Ketos", "Ceto", "Sea monster of Ethiopia", "Trojan Cetus" ], "kind": "sea serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Greek", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Joppa (Jaffa), traditional site of Andromeda's rock", "lat": 32.05, "lng": 34.75 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Homer, Iliad (Book 20), on the sea monster of Troy", "date": "c. 8th–7th century BCE", "year": -725 }, "summary": "Cetus, from the Greek ketos, is the sea monster of Greek myth sent by Poseidon to devour princesses chained to the shore, slain by Perseus to save Andromeda and by Heracles to save Hesione.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/cetus" }, { "slug": "chimera", "name": "Chimera", "altNames": [ "Chimaera", "Khimaira", "Chimera of Lycia" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "myth", "culture": "Greek", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Lycia (Mount Chimaera / Yanartaş, southern Turkey)", "lat": 36.43, "lng": 30.46 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Homer, Iliad (Book 6)", "date": "c. 8th–7th century BCE", "year": -725 }, "summary": "The Chimera is a fire-breathing monster of Greek myth with the body of a lion, a goat's head rising from its back, and a serpent for a tail, killed by Bellerophon riding Pegasus.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 3, "breathesFire": true, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/types/chimera", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/types/chimera" }, { "slug": "chrysophylax", "name": "Chrysophylax", "altNames": [ "Chrysophylax Dives" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "J.R.R. Tolkien", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Farmer Giles of Ham, by J.R.R. Tolkien", "date": "1949", "year": 1949 }, "summary": "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.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/chrysophylax" }, { "slug": "cockatrice", "name": "Cockatrice", "altNames": [ "Cocatrice", "Cocatris", "Cockatrix" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Medieval European", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "England (legends of Wherwell and Saffron Walden)", "lat": 51.6, "lng": -0.5 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Alexander Neckam, De naturis rerum", "date": "late 12th century", "year": 1190 }, "summary": "The cockatrice is a medieval European monster with a rooster's head and legs, dragon wings, and a serpent's tail, said to hatch from a rooster's egg and kill with its glance.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 2, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/legends/cockatrice", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/cockatrice" }, { "slug": "colchian-dragon", "name": "Colchian Dragon", "altNames": [ "Dragon of the Golden Fleece", "Guardian of the Golden Fleece", "Sleepless Dragon of Colchis" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Greek", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Colchis (western Georgia), on the eastern shore of the Black Sea", "lat": 42.27, "lng": 42.7 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Cup by the painter Douris (Vatican Museums); Pindar, Pythian Ode 4", "date": "c. 480–462 BCE", "year": -475 }, "summary": "The Colchian Dragon is the sleepless serpent of Greek myth that guarded the Golden Fleece in the grove of Ares at Colchis until Medea's magic, or Jason's sword, overcame it.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/legends/golden-fleece", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/golden-fleece" }, { "slug": "cuelebre", "name": "Cuélebre", "altNames": [ "Cuelebre", "Culebre", "Cuélebre asturiano", "Asturian dragon" ], "kind": "wyvern", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Asturian (Spanish)", "region": "Western Europe", "location": { "place": "Asturias, northern Spain", "lat": 43.36, "lng": -5.85 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Recorded by Rogelio Jove y Bravo, Mitos y supersticiones de Asturias", "date": "1903 (oral tradition recorded by folklorists in the early 20th century)", "year": 1903 }, "summary": "The cuélebre is a giant winged serpent of Asturian folklore in northern Spain that lives in caves, guards treasure and enchanted xanas, and grows weak only on Saint John's Eve.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/legends/cuelebre", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/cuelebre" }, { "slug": "damballa", "name": "Damballa", "altNames": [ "Danbala", "Dambala", "Damballah", "Damballa Wedo", "Danbala Wedo", "Dambala Weddo" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "religion", "culture": "Haitian Vodou (with Fon roots in Benin)", "region": "Caribbean", "location": { "place": "Haiti", "lat": 18.97, "lng": -72.29 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie française de l'isle Saint-Domingue (account of Vodou serpent veneration)", "date": "1797 (serpent veneration, without the name Damballa; the name \"Dambala Ouedo\" is in print by 1892)", "year": 1797 }, "summary": "Damballa is the great white serpent lwa (spirit) of Haitian Vodou, an ancient, gentle, and wise father figure linked with water, rain, purity, and fertility, and the husband of the rainbow serpent Ayida-Weddo.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/damballa" }, { "slug": "dilong", "name": "Dilong", "altNames": [ "Di Long", "Ti-lung", "Earth Dragon", "Underground Dragon", "地龍", "地龙" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese (Buddhist and folk)", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "China", "lat": 34, "lng": 108.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Four-class scheme of nāgas (heavenly, divine, earthly, hidden) quoted in Chen Renxi's Qianqueju leishu, a Ming dynasty encyclopedia", "date": "early 17th century", "year": 1630 }, "summary": "Dilong, the \"earth dragon,\" is the Chinese dragon said to mark out and clear the courses of rivers and streams, the third of four classes of dragons in a scheme of Buddhist origin.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/dilong" }, { "slug": "drac", "name": "Drac of Beaucaire", "altNames": [ "Drac", "Le Drac", "Dracs of the Rhône", "Draco" ], "kind": "drake", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Provençal / Occitan (French)", "region": "Western Europe", "location": { "place": "Beaucaire, on the Rhône, Gard, France", "lat": 43.81, "lng": 4.64 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia, book 3", "date": "about 1210-1214", "year": 1212 }, "summary": "The Drac of Beaucaire is a shape-shifting water dragon of Provençal legend that lived beneath the Rhône, lured people with floating treasures, and kidnapped a woman of Beaucaire to nurse its child.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/drac" }, { "slug": "draco-dragonheart", "name": "Draco", "altNames": [ "Draco (Dragonheart)", "Draco the last dragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "film and tv", "culture": "Dragonheart (film)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Dragonheart, directed by Rob Cohen (Universal Pictures)", "date": "1996", "year": 1996 }, "summary": "Draco is the talking dragon of the 1996 film Dragonheart, voiced by Sean Connery, the last of his kind, who shares half his heart with a prince who grows up to be a tyrant.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/draco-dragonheart" }, { "slug": "dragon-kings", "name": "Dragon Kings (Longwang)", "altNames": [ "Longwang", "Lóng Wáng", "Lung Wang", "Dragon King", "Dragon Kings of the Four Seas", "龍王", "龙王", "Ryūō", "Yongwang" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese (Buddhist and folk religion)", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "The Four Seas; the East Sea Dragon King's palace off China's east coast", "lat": 30, "lng": 123 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Kumārajīva's Chinese translation of the Lotus Sutra, naming eight nāga (dragon) kings", "date": "406 CE", "year": 406 }, "summary": "The Dragon Kings are the dragon rulers of the seas, rivers, and lakes in Chinese religion and folklore, rain-giving lords who live in crystal palaces, take human form, and answer to the Jade Emperor.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/dragon-kings" }, { "slug": "bel-dragon", "name": "Dragon of Bel and the Dragon", "altNames": [ "Bel and the Dragon", "Daniel's dragon", "Babylonian dragon", "Tannin (in Draconika's retelling)" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "religion", "culture": "Hellenistic Jewish", "region": "Near East", "location": { "place": "Babylon, Mesopotamia (Iraq)", "lat": 32.54, "lng": 44.42 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Bel and the Dragon, Greek additions to Daniel (Septuagint and Theodotion; Daniel 14 in Catholic Bibles)", "date": "c. 2nd–1st century BCE", "year": -150 }, "summary": "The dragon of Bel and the Dragon is a great serpent worshipped as a living god in Babylon, which the prophet Daniel kills by feeding it cakes of pitch, fat, and hair until it bursts.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": "/legends/tannin-daniel", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/tannin-daniel" }, { "slug": "dragon-of-rhodes", "name": "Dragon of Rhodes", "altNames": [ "Dieudonné de Gozon's dragon", "Dragon of Malpasso", "Rhodian dragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Knights Hospitaller (medieval Rhodes)", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Island of Rhodes, Greece", "lat": 36.43, "lng": 28.22 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Account of the pilgrimage of Ottheinrich, Count Palatine, to Jerusalem", "date": "1521", "year": 1521 }, "summary": "The Dragon of Rhodes is the monster that, according to the Knights Hospitaller, terrorized medieval Rhodes until the knight Dieudonné de Gozon killed it with trained dogs, defying his Grand Master's orders.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/dragon-of-rhodes" }, { "slug": "st-george-dragon", "name": "Dragon of Silene", "altNames": [ "Saint George's dragon", "St George and the Dragon", "Dragon of Saint George", "Silene dragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Christian (medieval European hagiography)", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Silene, Libya (legendary town)", "lat": 32.8, "lng": 21.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Georgian and other Eastern Christian versions of the miracle of George and the dragon", "date": "about 11th century", "year": 1050 }, "summary": "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.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/history/saint-george", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/history/saint-george" }, { "slug": "drogon", "name": "Drogon", "altNames": [], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin", "date": "1996", "year": 1996 }, "summary": "Drogon is the largest and fiercest of Daenerys Targaryen's three dragons in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (from 1996) and HBO's Game of Thrones, a black-and-red dragon named for her husband Khal Drogo.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/drogon" }, { "slug": "druk", "name": "Druk (Thunder Dragon of Bhutan)", "altNames": [ "Druk", "Thunder Dragon", "Brug", "Drukpa dragon", "འབྲུག" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Bhutanese and Tibetan (Drukpa Kagyu Buddhism)", "region": "South Asia", "location": { "place": "Bhutan (Druk Yul, \"Land of the Thunder Dragon\")", "lat": 27.47, "lng": 89.64 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Drukpa Kagyu accounts of Tsangpa Gyare (1161–1211) naming the monastery of Druk in central Tibet", "date": "event traditionally dated 1189; recorded in later Tibetan religious histories", "year": 1189 }, "summary": "The Druk is the Thunder Dragon of Tibetan and Bhutanese tradition, whose voice is thunder, the emblem of the Drukpa school of Buddhism and the national symbol of Bhutan, shown on its flag holding jewels in its claws.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/druk" }, { "slug": "eustace-dragon", "name": "Eustace Scrubb (dragon form)", "altNames": [ "Eustace the dragon", "Eustace Clarence Scrubb" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "C.S. Lewis (Narnia)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis", "date": "1952", "year": 1952 }, "summary": "Eustace Scrubb is a selfish English boy in C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952) who is turned into a dragon after falling asleep on a dragon's hoard, and is later restored by Aslan.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": true, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/eustace-dragon" }, { "slug": "fafnir", "name": "Fáfnir", "altNames": [ "Fafnir", "Fafner", "Fofnir" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Norse", "region": "Northern Europe", "location": { "place": "Scandinavia (legendary Gnitaheath)", "lat": 60.5, "lng": 10 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Ramsund carving, Södermanland, Sweden (picture of Sigurd stabbing the serpent)", "date": "c. 1030", "year": 1030 }, "summary": "Fáfnir is a dwarf turned dragon in Norse legend who guards a cursed hoard of gold until the hero Sigurd kills him by stabbing him from a pit dug in his path.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/fafnir" }, { "slug": "falkor", "name": "Falkor", "altNames": [ "Fuchur", "Falkor the Luckdragon", "Luck Dragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Michael Ende (The Neverending Story)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Die unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story), by Michael Ende", "date": "1979", "year": 1979 }, "summary": "Falkor (German Fuchur) is the white luckdragon of Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story (1979) and its 1984 film, a joyful, wingless flying dragon who carries the young hero Atreyu across Fantastica.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/falkor" }, { "slug": "fucanglong", "name": "Fucanglong", "altNames": [ "Fuzanglong", "Fu Cang Long", "Fu-ts'ang-lung", "Dragon of Hidden Treasures", "Underworld Dragon", "伏藏龍", "伏藏龙" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese (Buddhist and folk)", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "China", "lat": 34, "lng": 108.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Four-class scheme of nāgas (heavenly, divine, earthly, hidden) quoted in Chen Renxi's Qianqueju leishu, a Ming dynasty encyclopedia", "date": "early 17th century", "year": 1630 }, "summary": "Fucanglong, the \"dragon of hidden treasures,\" is the Chinese dragon said to lie hidden underground guarding buried wealth, the fourth of four classes of dragons in a scheme of Buddhist origin.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/fucanglong" }, { "slug": "gaasyendietha", "name": "Gaasyendietha", "altNames": [ "Gaasyendietʻha", "Gaăʻsioñdieʹtʻhăʼ", "Meteor Dragon", "Fire-dragon", "Kahăserīʹneʼs (Mohawk)", "Kahăstiʹnĕⁿs (Tuscarora)" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Seneca (Haudenosaunee)", "region": "North America", "location": { "place": "Cattaraugus Reservation, western New York", "lat": 42.53, "lng": -78.97 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Seneca tales recorded by Jeremiah Curtin (1883–1887) and J. N. B. Hewitt (1896), published as Seneca Fiction, Legends, and Myths", "date": "Recorded 1883–1896; published 1918", "year": 1883 }, "summary": "Gaasyendietha is the fire-dragon of Seneca tradition, a powerful serpent-like being identified with the meteor, which lives in deep lakes and rivers and flies between them trailing flames.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/gaasyendietha" }, { "slug": "gargouille", "name": "Gargouille", "altNames": [ "La Gargouille", "Gargouille of Rouen", "Dragon of Rouen" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Norman (French)", "region": "Western Europe", "location": { "place": "Rouen, on the Seine, Normandy, France", "lat": 49.44, "lng": 1.1 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Earliest text to mention the dragon of Saint Romain, in connection with the Privilege of Saint Romain", "date": "1394", "year": 1394 }, "summary": "The Gargouille is the dragon of Rouen in Norman legend, subdued by the 7th-century bishop Saint Romain with the help of a condemned prisoner, whose pardon became the city's annual Privilege of Saint Romain.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/gargouille" }, { "slug": "glaurung", "name": "Glaurung", "altNames": [ "Glaurung the Golden", "Father of Dragons", "Glorund", "Great Worm of Angband" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "J.R.R. Tolkien (Middle-earth)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien", "date": "1977 (drafted as Glorund around 1919)", "year": 1977 }, "summary": "Glaurung is the first of the fire-drakes in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, a wingless, fire-breathing dragon of Morgoth whose cruel spells and lies destroy the hero Túrin Turambar and his sister Nienor.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/glaurung" }, { "slug": "graoully", "name": "Graoully", "altNames": [ "Graouilly", "Graouli", "Dragon of Metz" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Lorraine (French)", "region": "Western Europe", "location": { "place": "Metz, Lorraine, France", "lat": 49.12, "lng": 6.18 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Dragon effigy carried in the Rogation processions of Metz", "date": "procession dragon from about the 12th century (the late-10th-century legend of Clement has serpents; the name Graully is attested from 1546)", "year": 1150 }, "summary": "The Graoully is the dragon of Metz in Lorraine, said to have infested the city's Roman amphitheater until Saint Clement, the first bishop, bound it with his stole and drove it into the river.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/graoully" }, { "slug": "dragon-of-revelation", "name": "Great Red Dragon of Revelation", "altNames": [ "The Great Red Dragon", "Dragon of the Apocalypse", "Red Dragon of Revelation", "that old serpent" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "religion", "culture": "Early Christian", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Patmos, Aegean Sea (where Revelation was written)", "lat": 37.31, "lng": 26.55 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Book of Revelation (Revelation 12–13, 20)", "date": "c. 95 CE", "year": 95 }, "summary": "The Great Red Dragon is the seven-headed, ten-horned dragon of the Book of Revelation, identified as Satan, who wars against heaven, is cast down by the archangel Michael, and is finally thrown into the lake of fire.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 7, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/cultures/bible", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/cultures/bible" }, { "slug": "grootslang", "name": "Grootslang", "altNames": [ "Groot Slang", "Great Snake", "Big Snake", "Great Snake of the Orange River" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "South African (Richtersveld, Northern Cape)", "region": "Africa", "location": { "place": "Richtersveld and the lower Orange River, South Africa", "lat": -28.2, "lng": 17.1 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Recorded by prospector Fred C. Cornell, The Glamour of Prospecting", "date": "1920", "year": 1920 }, "summary": "The Grootslang, Afrikaans for \"great snake,\" is a giant serpent of South African legend said to lurk in a bottomless cave or pool in the diamond country of the Richtersveld and the Orange River.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/grootslang" }, { "slug": "haku", "name": "Haku", "altNames": [ "Kohaku River", "Nigihayami Kohakunushi", "Kohaku" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "film and tv", "culture": "Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi), directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli)", "date": "2001", "year": 2001 }, "summary": "Haku is the river spirit of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001), who appears as a boy and as a flying white dragon, and who helps the girl Chihiro survive in a bathhouse for spirits.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/haku" }, { "slug": "herensuge", "name": "Herensuge", "altNames": [ "Erensuge", "Herensugue", "Aralar dragon", "Basque dragon" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Basque", "region": "Western Europe", "location": { "place": "Sierra de Aralar, Navarre and Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Spain", "lat": 42.98, "lng": -2.05 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Legend of Teodosio de Goñi and the dragon of Aralar in Navarrese genealogical writings; wider herensuge lore recorded by José Miguel de Barandiaran", "date": "16th century (Aralar legend); 20th-century fieldwork for other herensuge lore", "year": 1550 }, "summary": "The Herensuge is the dragon of Basque mythology, a monstrous serpent sometimes given seven heads, best known from the legend of the knight Teodosio de Goñi and Saint Michael on Mount Aralar.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/herensuge" }, { "slug": "horned-serpent", "name": "Horned Serpent", "altNames": [ "Great Serpent", "Great Horned Serpent", "Underwater serpent", "Tie-snake" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Many Native American nations, especially of the Eastern Woodlands and Great Lakes", "region": "North America", "location": { "place": "Eastern Woodlands of North America", "lat": 36.5, "lng": -85 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Mississippian engraved pottery and shell with horned and winged serpents (e.g. Moundville, Spiro)", "date": "c. 1200–1450 CE", "year": 1300 }, "summary": "The Horned Serpent is a great water serpent with horns found in the traditions of many Native American nations, a powerful being of rivers, lakes, and the world below, often opposed by the Thunderbirds.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/horned-serpent" }, { "slug": "hungarian-horntail", "name": "Hungarian Horntail", "altNames": [ "Horntail" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling", "date": "2000", "year": 2000 }, "summary": "The Hungarian Horntail is a ferocious dragon breed from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, best known as the spiked-tailed dragon Harry Potter must get past in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/hungarian-horntail" }, { "slug": "imugi", "name": "Imugi", "altNames": [ "Imoogi", "Korean proto-dragon", "이무기" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Korean", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Korea", "lat": 36.5, "lng": 127.8 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms), compiled by the monk Iryeon, which is thought to write the word with the characters 梨木 (imok); otherwise known from oral tradition", "date": "about 1281–1285", "year": 1283 }, "summary": "The imugi is a great serpent of Korean folklore that has not yet become a true dragon and must live a thousand years, or catch a wish-granting jewel fallen from heaven, before it can ascend as a yong.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/imugi" }, { "slug": "inkanyamba", "name": "Inkanyamba", "altNames": [ "Inkhanyamba", "Nkanyamba", "Howick Falls monster" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Zulu and Xhosa (South Africa)", "region": "Africa", "location": { "place": "Howick Falls (KwaNogqaza), uMngeni River, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa", "lat": -29.49, "lng": 30.24 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Zulu and Xhosa oral tradition; earliest dated print citation found: Drum magazine (January 1984), quoted in the Dictionary of South African English", "date": "oral tradition; in print by 1984", "year": 1984 }, "summary": "The Inkanyamba is a giant storm serpent of Zulu and Xhosa belief in South Africa, said to live in deep waterfall pools such as Howick Falls and to cause violent summer storms and tornadoes when it is angry.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/inkanyamba" }, { "slug": "ismenian-dragon", "name": "Ismenian Dragon", "altNames": [ "Theban Dragon", "Dragon of Ares", "Cadmus's dragon", "Drakon Ismenios" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Greek", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Thebes, Boeotia, Greece", "lat": 38.32, "lng": 23.32 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Euboean black-figure vase showing Cadmus and the serpent (Louvre E707)", "date": "c. 560–550 BCE", "year": -555 }, "summary": "The Ismenian Dragon is the serpent sacred to Ares that guarded a spring at the future site of Thebes, killed by Cadmus, whose sown dragon's teeth sprang up as armed warriors.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/ismenian-dragon" }, { "slug": "jabberwock", "name": "Jabberwock", "altNames": [ "The Jabberwock", "Jabberwocky" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Lewis Carroll", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll (poem \"Jabberwocky\")", "date": "December 1871 (dated 1872)", "year": 1871 }, "summary": "The Jabberwock is the monstrous dragon-like creature of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem \"Jabberwocky\" in Through the Looking-Glass (1871), slain by a young hero with a vorpal sword.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/jabberwock" }, { "slug": "jiaolong", "name": "Jiaolong", "altNames": [ "Jiao", "Jiao long", "Kiao-lung", "Flood dragon", "Scaly dragon", "蛟龍", "蛟龙", "蛟" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Yixing, Jiangsu (setting of the Zhou Chu legend)", "lat": 31.36, "lng": 119.82 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) and Xunzi", "date": "4th–3rd centuries BCE", "year": -250 }, "summary": "The jiaolong, or jiao, is a Chinese water dragon of rivers, lakes, and floods, often described as scaly and not yet fully a dragon, and feared for drowning people and overturning boats.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/jiaolong" }, { "slug": "jormungandr", "name": "Jörmungandr", "altNames": [ "Jormungand", "Jormungandr", "Midgard Serpent", "Miðgarðsormr", "World Serpent" ], "kind": "sea serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Norse", "region": "Northern Europe", "location": { "place": "The ocean around Midgard (Norse world); legend from Scandinavia and Iceland", "lat": 64, "lng": -10 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Bragi Boddason, Ragnarsdrápa (skaldic poem describing Thor's fishing trip)", "date": "9th century, preserved in Snorri's Edda (13th century)", "year": 850 }, "summary": "Jörmungandr is the Midgard Serpent of Norse mythology, a child of Loki so huge that it encircles the world under the ocean and bites its own tail, and Thor's destined enemy at Ragnarök.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/jormungandr" }, { "slug": "kalessin", "name": "Kalessin", "altNames": [ "The Eldest" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "The Farthest Shore, by Ursula K. Le Guin", "date": "1972", "year": 1972 }, "summary": "Kalessin is the Eldest, the oldest and most powerful dragon of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, first appearing in The Farthest Shore (1972), an ancient, unknowable being who speaks the Old Speech of making.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": null, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/kalessin" }, { "slug": "kaliya", "name": "Kaliya", "altNames": [ "Kāliya", "Kalia", "Kaliya Naga", "कालिय" ], "kind": "naga", "category": "myth", "culture": "Hindu", "region": "South Asia", "location": { "place": "Kaliya Ghat on the Yamuna River, Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh", "lat": 27.58, "lng": 77.7 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Harivaṃśa (appendix to the Mahābhārata)", "date": "about 1st–3rd centuries CE", "year": 200 }, "summary": "Kaliya is a many-headed poisonous serpent of Hindu myth who fouled a pool of the Yamuna River until the young god Krishna leaped in, danced on his hoods, and banished him to the sea.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/kaliya" }, { "slug": "kiyohime", "name": "Kiyohime", "altNames": [ "Kiyo-hime", "Kiyo", "The serpent of Dōjōji", "Dōjōji legend", "Anchin and Kiyohime", "清姫" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Japanese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Dōjōji temple, Hidakagawa, Wakayama Prefecture (old Kii Province)", "lat": 33.92, "lng": 135.17 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Dainihonkoku Hokekyō kenki (Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra), compiled by the monk Chingen", "date": "about 1040–1044", "year": 1043 }, "summary": "Kiyohime is the woman of Japanese legend who, rejected by a young monk, turned into a great serpent, swam the Hidaka River, and burned him alive inside the bell of Dōjōji temple.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": true, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/kiyohime" }, { "slug": "knucker", "name": "Knucker", "altNames": [ "Knucker of Lyminster", "Lyminster Dragon", "Knucker Hole dragon" ], "kind": "wyrm", "category": "folklore", "culture": "English (Sussex)", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "Knucker Hole, Lyminster, West Sussex, England", "lat": 50.83, "lng": -0.55 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Samuel Evershed, \"Legend of the Dragon-Slayer of Lyminster,\" Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 18", "date": "1866", "year": 1866 }, "summary": "The Knucker is a water dragon of Sussex folklore that lived in the Knucker Hole, a deep pool at Lyminster, and was killed either by a knight or by a local lad with a poisoned pie.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/knucker" }, { "slug": "kukulkan", "name": "Kukulkan", "altNames": [ "K'uk'ulkan", "Kukulcán", "Kukulcan", "Feathered Serpent (Maya)" ], "kind": "feathered serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Yucatec Maya", "region": "Mesoamerica", "location": { "place": "Chichen Itza, Yucatán, Mexico", "lat": 20.68, "lng": -88.57 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Feathered-serpent sculpture at Chichen Itza (Temple of Kukulcan)", "date": "c. 9th–12th century CE", "year": 1000 }, "summary": "Kukulkan is the feathered serpent of the Yucatec Maya, honored at Chichen Itza and Mayapan, and remembered in Spanish-era accounts as a great lord who came from the west and was worshipped as a god.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/kukulkan" }, { "slug": "kulshedra", "name": "Kulshedra", "altNames": [ "Kuçedra", "Kulçedra", "Kucedra", "Kulshedër", "Kollçedra" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Albanian", "region": "Eastern Europe", "location": { "place": "Albania and Albanian-speaking Balkans", "lat": 41.15, "lng": 20.17 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Johann Georg von Hahn, Albanesische Studien", "date": "1854 (recording of Albanian folk belief)", "year": 1854 }, "summary": "The kulshedra is a monstrous, many-headed female dragon of Albanian folklore who spits fire, hoards water to cause drought, and is fought in storms by the winged hero called the drangue.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": true, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/kulshedra" }, { "slug": "ladon", "name": "Ladon", "altNames": [ "Dragon of the Hesperides", "Hesperian Dragon" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Greek", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Garden of the Hesperides, far western edge of the world (later placed near the Atlas Mountains)", "lat": 31, "lng": -7 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Hesiod, Theogony (unnamed serpent); name first in Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica", "date": "c. 700 BCE", "year": -700 }, "summary": "Ladon is the serpent-dragon of Greek myth that coiled around the tree of golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides, guarding it until Heracles came for the apples.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": null, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/ladon" }, { "slug": "laidly-worm", "name": "Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh", "altNames": [ "Laidley Worm", "Laidly Worm", "Laidly Worm of Bamburgh", "Childe Wynde and the Laidly Worm" ], "kind": "wyrm", "category": "folklore", "culture": "English (Northumberland)", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "Spindlestone Heugh, near Bamburgh, Northumberland, England", "lat": 55.59, "lng": -1.74 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "\"The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heugh,\" ballad printed in William Hutchinson, A View of Northumberland", "date": "1778", "year": 1778 }, "summary": "The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh is a dragon of Northumbrian legend: Princess Margaret of Bamburgh, turned into a loathsome worm by her jealous stepmother and restored when her brother Childe Wynde kisses it three times.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": "/legends/childe-wynde", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/childe-wynde" }, { "slug": "lambton-worm", "name": "Lambton Worm", "altNames": [ "The Lambton Worm", "Worm of Lambton", "Worm Hill dragon" ], "kind": "wyrm", "category": "folklore", "culture": "English (County Durham)", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "Worm Hill, Fatfield, near Lambton Castle, County Durham, England", "lat": 54.88, "lng": -1.5 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "William Hutchinson, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 2", "date": "1787", "year": 1787 }, "summary": "The Lambton Worm is a giant serpent of County Durham folklore, fished from the River Wear by young John Lambton, which grew huge, coiled around a hill, and could rejoin its body whenever it was cut apart.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/lambton-worm" }, { "slug": "hydra", "name": "Lernaean Hydra", "altNames": [ "Hydra", "Hydra of Lerna", "Lernaean Serpent" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Greek", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Lerna, near Argos, Greece", "lat": 37.55, "lng": 22.72 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Hesiod, Theogony", "date": "c. 700 BCE", "year": -700 }, "summary": "The Lernaean Hydra is a many-headed water serpent of Greek myth that grew new heads when one was cut off, killed by Heracles and Iolaus as his second labor.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": null, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/legends/hydra", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/hydra" }, { "slug": "leviathan", "name": "Leviathan", "altNames": [ "Livyatan", "Liwyatan", "the fleeing serpent", "the twisting serpent" ], "kind": "sea serpent", "category": "religion", "culture": "Hebrew (Israelite and Jewish)", "region": "Near East", "location": { "place": "Ancient Israel and the eastern Mediterranean Sea", "lat": 31.78, "lng": 35.22 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Hebrew Bible (Job 3 and 41, Psalms 74 and 104, Isaiah 27:1)", "date": "c. 8th–5th century BCE", "year": -600 }, "summary": "Leviathan is the great sea monster of the Hebrew Bible, a fire-breathing, scale-armored serpent of the deep that only God can tame, descended from the Canaanite sea serpent Lotan.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": true, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": "/legends/leviathan", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/leviathan" }, { "slug": "bride-lindorm", "name": "Lindorm King", "altNames": [ "King Lindworm", "Kong Lindorm", "Prince Lindworm", "The Bride of the Lindorm King", "Lindworm Prince" ], "kind": "lindworm", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Danish and Swedish", "region": "Northern Europe", "location": { "place": "Denmark and southern Sweden", "lat": 56, "lng": 11.5 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Svend Grundtvig, Gamle danske Minder i Folkemunde (\"Kong Lindorm\")", "date": "1854", "year": 1854 }, "summary": "The Lindorm King is the enchanted prince of a Scandinavian fairy tale, born to a queen as a lindworm, who sheds his serpent skins and becomes human when a clever bride outwits him.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": "/legends/bride-lindorm", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/bride-lindorm" }, { "slug": "lindworm", "name": "Lindworm", "altNames": [ "Lindorm", "Lindwurm", "Linnorm", "Linnormr", "Lindworm (dragon type)" ], "kind": "lindworm", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Scandinavian and Germanic", "region": "Northern Europe", "location": { "place": "Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and the German-speaking lands", "lat": 57.5, "lng": 14.5 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Viking Age rune stones and rock carvings with serpent-dragons (e.g. the Ramsund carving, Sweden)", "date": "11th century", "year": 1030 }, "summary": "A lindworm is a huge serpent-dragon of Scandinavian and German folklore, usually wingless and with two front legs or none, that devours livestock, guards treasure, and sometimes proves to be an enchanted prince.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/lindworm" }, { "slug": "klagenfurt-lindwurm", "name": "Lindwurm of Klagenfurt", "altNames": [ "Klagenfurter Lindwurm", "Klagenfurt Lindworm", "Lindwurmbrunnen dragon" ], "kind": "lindworm", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Austrian (Carinthian)", "region": "Western Europe", "location": { "place": "Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria", "lat": 46.62, "lng": 14.31 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Lindwurmbrunnen (Lindworm Fountain), Neuer Platz, Klagenfurt", "date": "carved c. 1590 (some sources say begun c. 1582)", "year": 1590 }, "summary": "The Lindwurm of Klagenfurt is the winged dragon of a Carinthian founding legend, said to have lived in the marshes by Lake Wörthersee until brave men caught it with a baited hook, and pictured on the city's famous 16th-century fountain.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/klagenfurt-lindwurm" }, { "slug": "linton-worm", "name": "Linton Worm", "altNames": [ "Worm of Linton", "Linton Wyrm" ], "kind": "wyrm", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Scottish (Scottish Borders)", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "Linton, Roxburghshire, Scottish Borders, Scotland", "lat": 55.53, "lng": -2.37 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "James, 11th Lord Somerville, Memorie of the Somervilles", "date": "written 1679, published 1815", "year": 1679 }, "summary": "The Linton Worm is a serpent-dragon of Scottish Borders legend that lived in a den on Linton Hill and was killed by a Somerville who thrust a burning, pitch-soaked peat on his lance into its throat.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/linton-worm" }, { "slug": "long", "name": "Lóng (Chinese dragon)", "altNames": [ "Long", "Lung", "Loong", "Chinese dragon", "龍", "龙" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Central Plains of China (Yellow River valley)", "lat": 34.75, "lng": 113.65 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Clam-shell dragon mosaic in a Neolithic grave at Xishuipo, Puyang, Henan (Yangshao culture)", "date": "about 6,000 years old", "year": -4000 }, "summary": "The lóng is the Chinese dragon: a long, scaly, usually wingless creature with four clawed legs that rules rain, rivers, and seas and became the emblem of the emperor and of Chinese culture.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": "/chinese", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/chinese" }, { "slug": "lotan", "name": "Lotan", "altNames": [ "Litan", "Lītānu", "Shalyat", "the twisting serpent" ], "kind": "sea serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Canaanite (Ugaritic)", "region": "Near East", "location": { "place": "Ugarit (Ras Shamra), Syria", "lat": 35.6, "lng": 35.78 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Ugaritic Baal Cycle (KTU 1.3 and 1.5)", "date": "c. 14th–13th century BCE", "year": -1300 }, "summary": "Lotan, properly Litan, is the seven-headed sea serpent of Canaanite myth known from the clay tablets of Ugarit, defeated by the storm god Baal and his sister Anat, and the forerunner of the biblical Leviathan.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 7, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/lotan" }, { "slug": "makara", "name": "Makara", "altNames": [ "Makar", "Makaram", "Sea dragon of India", "Chu-srin", "Moji", "मकर" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "myth", "culture": "Indian (Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain)", "region": "South Asia", "location": { "place": "Bharhut stupa, Madhya Pradesh, India", "lat": 24.45, "lng": 80.92 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Carved reliefs of the Buddhist stupas at Bharhut and Sanchi", "date": "about 2nd–1st centuries BCE", "year": -150 }, "summary": "The makara is a sea creature of Indian myth and art, part crocodile, part fish, and often part elephant, that serves as the mount of the river goddess Ganga and the sea god Varuna and guards temple gateways across Asia.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/makara" }, { "slug": "mehen", "name": "Mehen", "altNames": [ "The Coiled One", "Mehen serpent" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Ancient Egyptian", "region": "Africa", "location": { "place": "Egypt (the sun boat in the Duat)", "lat": 25.7, "lng": 32.64 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Mehen game boards and the Old Kingdom tomb of Hesy-Re (game named mehen); the serpent god in the Coffin Texts", "date": "c. 2650 BCE (game); c. 2000 BCE (texts)", "year": -2650 }, "summary": "Mehen, \"the Coiled One,\" is the protective serpent god of ancient Egypt who wraps his coils around the sun god Ra as he travels through the underworld each night, guarding him against the chaos serpent Apep.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/mehen" }, { "slug": "melusine", "name": "Melusine", "altNames": [ "Mélusine", "Melusina", "Mélusine de Lusignan", "Merlusine" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "folklore", "culture": "French (Poitou)", "region": "Western Europe", "location": { "place": "Lusignan, Poitou, France", "lat": 46.435, "lng": 0.12 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Jean d'Arras, Mélusine, or La Noble Histoire de Lusignan", "date": "1393", "year": 1393 }, "summary": "Melusine is a fairy of medieval French legend who becomes a serpent from the waist down every Saturday, founds the house of Lusignan, and flies away in the form of a great serpent when her husband betrays her secret.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/melusine" }, { "slug": "mizuchi", "name": "Mizuchi", "altNames": [ "Midzuchi", "Mizuchi no kami", "Water-father", "蛟", "虬", "蛟竜" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Japanese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Kawashima River fork, Kibi Province (modern Okayama Prefecture)", "lat": 34.66, "lng": 133.92 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), reign of Emperor Nintoku", "date": "720 CE", "year": 720 }, "summary": "A mizuchi is a Japanese water dragon or river serpent, a spirit of rivers and pools that could bring rain or spit poison, best known from the Nihon Shoki tale of Agatamori, who killed one with gourds and a sword.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/mizuchi" }, { "slug": "mordiford-wyvern", "name": "Mordiford Wyvern", "altNames": [ "Mordiford Dragon", "Dragon of Mordiford", "Maud's Wyvern" ], "kind": "wyvern", "category": "folklore", "culture": "English (Herefordshire)", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "Mordiford, Herefordshire, England", "lat": 52.035, "lng": -2.63 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Dragon painting on the west wall of Mordiford church, noted by Thomas Blount of Orleton", "date": "about 1670", "year": 1670 }, "summary": "The Mordiford Wyvern is a dragon of Herefordshire folklore, raised from a hatchling by a village girl named Maud, which grew into a man-eating monster and was killed near the River Lugg.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": "/legends/maud-wyvern", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/maud-wyvern" }, { "slug": "mushu", "name": "Mushu", "altNames": [], "kind": "dragon", "category": "film and tv", "culture": "Disney (Mulan)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Mulan, directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook (Walt Disney Pictures)", "date": "1998", "year": 1998 }, "summary": "Mushu is the small, wisecracking red dragon of Disney's animated film Mulan (1998), voiced by Eddie Murphy, a demoted family guardian spirit who tags along to protect Mulan in hopes of winning back his post.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/mushu" }, { "slug": "mushhushshu", "name": "Mušḫuššu", "altNames": [ "Mushhushshu", "Mushussu", "Sirrush", "Dragon of Marduk", "Dragon of Babylon" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "myth", "culture": "Mesopotamian (Akkadian, Babylonian)", "region": "Near East", "location": { "place": "Ishtar Gate, Babylon (Iraq)", "lat": 32.54, "lng": 44.42 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Akkadian-period cylinder seals and images of the god Ninazu's beast", "date": "c. 2300–2150 BCE", "year": -2250 }, "summary": "The mušḫuššu is the scaly, horned dragon of ancient Mesopotamia, with a serpent's head, lion forelegs, and eagle talons, best known as the sacred beast of Marduk on Babylon's Ishtar Gate.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/mushhushshu" }, { "slug": "naga", "name": "Nāga", "altNames": [ "Naga", "Naag", "Nagini", "Nāgarāja", "Naga king", "नाग" ], "kind": "naga", "category": "myth", "culture": "Indian (Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain)", "region": "South Asia", "location": { "place": "India (the nāgas' underworld realm of Pātāla)", "lat": 23, "lng": 80 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Reliefs of the stupa at Bharhut, including the nāga king Erapata worshiping the Buddha", "date": "about 2nd century BCE", "year": -150 }, "summary": "Nāgas are serpent beings of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain tradition, often cobras or half-human figures with cobra hoods, who live in underwater or underground kingdoms, guard treasure, and control rain and water.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/naga" }, { "slug": "nidhogg", "name": "Níðhöggr", "altNames": [ "Nidhogg", "Nidhoggr", "Níðhöggur", "Nithhogg" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Norse", "region": "Northern Europe", "location": { "place": "Niflheim beneath Yggdrasil (Norse cosmos); legend from Iceland and Scandinavia", "lat": 64.9, "lng": -18.6 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Poetic Edda (Völuspá and Grímnismál), Codex Regius", "date": "c. 1270 manuscript, older oral poems", "year": 1270 }, "summary": "Níðhöggr (Nidhogg) is the dragon of Norse mythology that gnaws the roots of the world tree Yggdrasil and, in the poem Völuspá, sucks the corpses of oath breakers and murderers.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/legends/nidhogg", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/nidhogg" }, { "slug": "ninki-nanka", "name": "Ninki Nanka", "altNames": [ "Ninki-Nanka", "Ninkinanka", "Nikinanka" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Mandinka and other peoples of the Gambia and Senegal", "region": "Africa", "location": { "place": "Swamps and mangroves of the Gambia River, The Gambia", "lat": 13.45, "lng": -15.3 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "West African oral tradition; earliest dated written mention found: a 1906 British colonial commissioner's report on the Gambia (\"a gigantic crowned serpent\"), quoted in Assan Sarr, Islam, Power, and Dependency in the Gambia River Basin (2016)", "date": "oral tradition; written mention 1906", "year": 1906 }, "summary": "The Ninki Nanka is a dragon-like swamp monster from the folklore of the Gambia and southern Senegal, a huge reptile with a long neck and crested head whose very sight is said to bring sickness or death.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/ninki-nanka" }, { "slug": "norbert", "name": "Norbert", "altNames": [ "Norberta", "Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, by J.K. Rowling", "date": "1997", "year": 1997 }, "summary": "Norbert is the baby Norwegian Ridgeback dragon that Hagrid illegally hatches in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997); the dragon is later revealed to be female and renamed Norberta.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/norbert" }, { "slug": "nue", "name": "Nue", "altNames": [ "Nuye", "Nue of the Heike", "鵺", "鵼" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Japanese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Imperial palace, Heian-kyō (Kyoto)", "lat": 35.02, "lng": 135.75 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Heike monogatari (The Tale of the Heike), \"Nue\" episode", "date": "13th century; standard Kakuichi text 1371", "year": 1250 }, "summary": "The nue is a chimera-like monster of Japanese legend, with a monkey's head, a tanuki's body, a tiger's legs, and a snake for a tail, shot down by the warrior Minamoto no Yorimasa over the imperial palace.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": null, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/legends/yorimasa", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/yorimasa" }, { "slug": "orm-embar", "name": "Orm Embar", "altNames": [], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "The Farthest Shore, by Ursula K. Le Guin", "date": "1972", "year": 1972 }, "summary": "Orm Embar is a great dragon of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea in The Farthest Shore (1972), who seeks the Archmage Ged's help against the sorcerer Cob and gives his life to destroy him.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/orm-embar" }, { "slug": "ouroboros", "name": "Ouroboros", "altNames": [ "Uroboros", "Oroboros", "tail-eater", "tail-devourer" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Ancient Egyptian, later Greek, Gnostic, and alchemical", "region": "Africa", "location": { "place": "Tomb of Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings, Egypt", "lat": 25.74, "lng": 32.6 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld, on a gilded shrine of Tutankhamun", "date": "c. 1325 BCE", "year": -1325 }, "summary": "The Ouroboros is a serpent or dragon eating its own tail, a symbol of eternity and endless cycles first found in ancient Egypt and later central to Greek alchemy and Western esoteric art.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": "/legends/ouroboros", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/ouroboros" }, { "slug": "panlong", "name": "Panlong", "altNames": [ "Pan long", "P'an-lung", "Coiled dragon", "Coiling dragon", "蟠龍", "蟠龙" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "China", "lat": 34, "lng": 108.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Fangyan (dictionary of regional words attributed to Yang Xiong)", "date": "about the turn of the 1st century BCE/CE", "year": 0 }, "summary": "The panlong, or \"coiled dragon,\" is a Chinese dragon that lies curled up on earth or in water and has not yet ascended to heaven, a favorite motif on bronzes, pillars, and roof beams.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/panlong" }, { "slug": "peluda", "name": "Peluda", "altNames": [ "La Velue", "The Shaggy Beast", "The Hairy Beast", "Velue of La Ferté-Bernard" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "French (Sarthe, Maine)", "region": "Western Europe", "location": { "place": "La Ferté-Bernard, on the Huisne, Sarthe, France", "lat": 48.19, "lng": 0.65 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "La Velue, légende sarthoise (pamphlet, Le Mans: E. Lebrault)", "date": "1889", "year": 1889 }, "summary": "The Peluda, known locally as La Velue (\"the hairy one\"), is a shaggy, sting-bristling dragon of La Ferté-Bernard in western France, said to have survived the Flood and ravaged the Huisne valley until a youth struck its tail.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/peluda" }, { "slug": "phaya-naga", "name": "Phaya Naga", "altNames": [ "Phaya Nak", "Payanak", "Phaya Nāk", "Naga of the Mekong", "พญานาค", "ພະຍານາກ" ], "kind": "naga", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Thai and Lao", "region": "Southeast Asia", "location": { "place": "Mekong River at Nong Khai, Thailand, and Vientiane, Laos", "lat": 17.88, "lng": 102.74 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Nāga balustrades and lintels of Khmer-era temples in present-day Thailand, such as Phimai", "date": "late 11th–early 12th centuries", "year": 1100 }, "summary": "The Phaya Naga is the great serpent king of Thai and Lao Buddhist folklore, a crested, often many-headed serpent believed to live in the Mekong River and to guard temples, water, and the Buddhist faith.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/phaya-naga" }, { "slug": "piasa", "name": "Piasa", "altNames": [ "Piasa Bird", "Piasa monster", "The Bird That Devours Men" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Native American rock art of the Mississippi Valley; later Illinois folklore", "region": "North America", "location": { "place": "Mississippi River bluffs near Alton, Illinois", "lat": 38.89, "lng": -90.18 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Jacques Marquette's journal of the 1673 Mississippi voyage", "date": "1673", "year": 1673 }, "summary": "The Piasa is a monster once painted on the Mississippi River bluffs near Alton, Illinois, described by Jacques Marquette in 1673 as a horned, scaly creature with a human-like face and a long tail.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": null }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/piasa" }, { "slug": "puff", "name": "Puff the Magic Dragon", "altNames": [ "Puff", "Puff, the Magic Dragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Peter, Paul and Mary (song)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "\"Puff, the Magic Dragon,\" song by Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton, recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary (from a 1959 poem by Lipton)", "date": "1963", "year": 1963 }, "summary": "Puff the Magic Dragon is the gentle dragon of the 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary song by Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton, who lives by the sea and plays with a boy named Jackie Paper until the boy grows up.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/puff" }, { "slug": "python", "name": "Python", "altNames": [ "Pytho", "Delphyne", "the Delphic dragon", "drakaina of Delphi" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Greek", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Delphi, Greece", "lat": 38.48, "lng": 22.5 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Homeric Hymn to Apollo", "date": "c. 6th century BCE", "year": -580 }, "summary": "Python is the giant serpent of Greek myth that lived at Delphi until the god Apollo shot it with arrows, took over the site, and founded his famous oracle there.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/python" }, { "slug": "quqmatz", "name": "Q'uq'umatz", "altNames": [ "Qʼuqʼumatz", "Gucumatz", "Kukumatz", "Sovereign Plumed Serpent", "Quetzal Serpent" ], "kind": "feathered serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "K'iche' Maya", "region": "Mesoamerica", "location": { "place": "Q'umarkaj (Utatlán), highland Guatemala", "lat": 15.03, "lng": -91.17 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Popol Vuh (K'iche' text written c. 1554–1558; surviving copy by Francisco Ximénez)", "date": "c. 1701–1703 manuscript", "year": 1701 }, "summary": "Q'uq'umatz is the feathered serpent of the K'iche' Maya, one of the creator gods of the Popol Vuh who, together with Heart of Sky, raised the earth from the primordial sea and shaped the first people.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/quqmatz" }, { "slug": "quetzalcoatl", "name": "Quetzalcoatl", "altNames": [ "Quetzalcóatl", "Feathered Serpent", "Plumed Serpent", "Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl", "Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl" ], "kind": "feathered serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Aztec (Mexica) and earlier Mesoamerican", "region": "Mesoamerica", "location": { "place": "Teotihuacan and the Valley of Mexico", "lat": 19.69, "lng": -98.84 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Temple of the Feathered Serpent, Teotihuacan (carved feathered-serpent heads)", "date": "c. 200 CE", "year": 200 }, "summary": "Quetzalcoatl is the Feathered Serpent of Mesoamerican religion, an Aztec creator god of wind, the morning star, learning, and maize, whose serpent form joins the quetzal bird's green plumes to a snake's body.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": "/legends/quetzalcoatl", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/quetzalcoatl" }, { "slug": "rahab", "name": "Rahab", "altNames": [ "Rahab the sea monster", "Rahav" ], "kind": "sea serpent", "category": "religion", "culture": "Hebrew (Israelite and Jewish)", "region": "Near East", "location": { "place": "Ancient Israel; the sea, and by extension Egypt", "lat": 31.78, "lng": 35.22 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Hebrew Bible (Job 9 and 26, Psalm 89, Isaiah 30 and 51)", "date": "c. 8th–5th century BCE", "year": -600 }, "summary": "Rahab is a primeval sea monster named in the Hebrew Bible, a symbol of the raging, arrogant sea that God crushed at creation, and later a poetic nickname for Egypt.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/rahab" }, { "slug": "rainbow-serpent", "name": "Rainbow Serpent", "altNames": [ "Rainbow Snake", "Ngalyod", "Wagyl", "Waugal", "Yurlungur", "Wonambi" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Aboriginal Australian", "region": "Oceania", "location": { "place": "Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia", "lat": -12.5, "lng": 133.5 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Rock paintings of serpent beings in western Arnhem Land", "date": "about 6,000 years old (dates debated)", "year": -4000 }, "summary": "The Rainbow Serpent is a powerful creator being in the traditions of many Aboriginal peoples of Australia, a great snake linked to water, rain, and rainbows who shaped the land and punishes those who break its law.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/rainbow-serpent" }, { "slug": "ramoth", "name": "Ramoth", "altNames": [ "Ramoth of Benden Weyr" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Anne McCaffrey (Dragonriders of Pern)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "\"Weyr Search,\" by Anne McCaffrey, Analog Science Fiction (October 1967); expanded in Dragonflight (1968)", "date": "1967", "year": 1967 }, "summary": "Ramoth is the golden queen dragon of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, first appearing in \"Weyr Search\" (1967), who bonds with Lessa and becomes the senior queen of Benden Weyr.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/ramoth" }, { "slug": "rong", "name": "Rồng (Vietnamese dragon)", "altNames": [ "Rong", "Long", "Vietnamese dragon", "Con Rồng", "龍" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Vietnamese", "region": "Southeast Asia", "location": { "place": "Hanoi (Thăng Long, \"Ascending Dragon\"), Vietnam", "lat": 21.03, "lng": 105.85 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư (Complete Annals of Đại Việt), opening account of Lạc Long Quân", "date": "completed 1479", "year": 1479 }, "summary": "The rồng is the Vietnamese dragon, a rain-bringing, benevolent water spirit and symbol of the nation, whose people trace their descent from the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân and the mountain fairy Âu Cơ.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/rong" }, { "slug": "ryujin", "name": "Ryūjin", "altNames": [ "Ryujin", "Ryūō", "Watatsumi", "Ōwatatsumi", "Dragon King of the Sea", "Sea Dragon God", "龍神", "竜神" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Japanese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Ryūgū-jō, the palace beneath the sea off Japan", "lat": 33.9, "lng": 130.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters), tale of Hoori and the palace of the sea god Watatsumi", "date": "712 CE", "year": 712 }, "summary": "Ryūjin is the dragon god of the sea in Japanese myth and folklore, who rules from the undersea palace Ryūgū-jō, controls the tides with magic jewels, and was claimed as an ancestor of the imperial family.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/ryujin" }, { "slug": "saphira", "name": "Saphira", "altNames": [ "Saphira Bjartskular", "Brightscales" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Christopher Paolini (Inheritance Cycle)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Eragon, by Christopher Paolini", "date": "2002 (family-published edition; Knopf edition 2003)", "year": 2002 }, "summary": "Saphira is the sapphire-blue dragon of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, which begins with Eragon (2002); she hatches for the farm boy Eragon and becomes his telepathic partner as a Dragon Rider.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/saphira" }, { "slug": "sarkany", "name": "Sárkány", "altNames": [ "Sarkany", "Sárkánykígyó", "Hungarian dragon", "Hétfejű sárkány (seven-headed dragon)" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Hungarian", "region": "Eastern Europe", "location": { "place": "Hungary and the Carpathian Basin", "lat": 47.16, "lng": 19.5 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Hungarian folk tales and folk beliefs recorded by 19th-century collectors", "date": "19th century", "year": 1850 }, "summary": "The sárkány is the dragon of Hungarian folklore, a many-headed monster of the fairy tales slain by the hero, and in folk belief a storm-bringing serpent that the magical wandering scholar called the garabonciás rides through the clouds.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/sarkany" }, { "slug": "shenlong", "name": "Shenlong", "altNames": [ "Shen Long", "Shen-lung", "Spiritual Dragon", "Divine Dragon", "神龍", "神龙" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese (Buddhist and folk)", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "China", "lat": 34, "lng": 108.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Four-class scheme of nāgas (heavenly, divine, earthly, hidden) quoted in Chen Renxi's Qianqueju leishu, a Ming dynasty encyclopedia", "date": "early 17th century", "year": 1630 }, "summary": "Shenlong, the \"spiritual\" or \"divine\" dragon, is the Chinese dragon that raises clouds and sends wind and rain for the good of people, one of four classes of dragons in a scheme of Buddhist origin.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/shenlong" }, { "slug": "shenron", "name": "Shenron", "altNames": [ "Shenlong", "Eternal Dragon", "Shen Long" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Dragon Ball, by Akira Toriyama, Weekly Shōnen Jump (Shueisha), chapter 1; first summoned on the page in 1985", "date": "1984", "year": 1984 }, "summary": "Shenron is the Eternal Dragon of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga (1984) and anime, a vast green Eastern-style dragon who appears when all seven Dragon Balls are gathered and grants a wish.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/shenron" }, { "slug": "shesha", "name": "Shesha", "altNames": [ "Śeṣa", "Sesha", "Adishesha", "Ananta", "Ananta Shesha", "Sheshanaga", "शेष" ], "kind": "naga", "category": "myth", "culture": "Hindu", "region": "South Asia", "location": { "place": "Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala (Vishnu reclining on Shesha)", "lat": 8.48, "lng": 76.94 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Mahābhārata (Ādi Parva, Shesha takes up the earth)", "date": "composed about 4th century BCE–4th century CE", "year": 0 }, "summary": "Shesha is the thousand-headed serpent king of Hindu myth who floats on the cosmic ocean as the couch of the god Vishnu and holds up the earth on his hoods; his other name, Ananta, means \"endless.\"", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1000, "breathesFire": true, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/shesha" }, { "slug": "sisiutl", "name": "Sisiutl", "altNames": [ "Sisiyutl", "Sisiyutł", "Double-headed serpent" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl)", "region": "North America", "location": { "place": "Kwakwaka'wakw territory, northern Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte Strait, British Columbia", "lat": 50.58, "lng": -126.93 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Franz Boas, Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas (tale \"Der Sisiutl\"); fuller description in Boas, The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians (1897)", "date": "1895 (from fieldwork from 1886)", "year": 1895 }, "summary": "The Sisiutl is the double-headed serpent of Kwakwaka'wakw tradition on the Northwest Coast, with a serpent head at each end and a human face in the middle, a being of great danger and power linked to warriors.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 2, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/sisiutl" }, { "slug": "smaug", "name": "Smaug", "altNames": [ "Smaug the Golden", "Smaug the Magnificent", "Smaug the Terrible", "Smaug the Mighty", "Smaug the Tremendous" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "J.R.R. Tolkien (Middle-earth)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien", "date": "1937", "year": 1937 }, "summary": "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.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/smaug" }, { "slug": "sockburn-worm", "name": "Sockburn Worm", "altNames": [ "Sockburn Wyvern", "Worm of Sockburn", "Conyers' Worm" ], "kind": "wyvern", "category": "folklore", "culture": "English (County Durham)", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "Sockburn, on the River Tees, County Durham, England", "lat": 54.47, "lng": -1.46 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Conyers family manuscript, as printed in William Hutchinson, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 2 (later quoted from the Bowes manuscript by Robert Surtees, vol. 3, 1823)", "date": "manuscript said to date from the reign of Charles I; printed 1787", "year": 1787 }, "summary": "The Sockburn Worm is a venomous dragon of County Durham legend, killed by Sir John Conyers with a falchion that is still presented to each new Bishop of Durham as the price of the Sockburn lands.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/sockburn-worm" }, { "slug": "spyro", "name": "Spyro", "altNames": [ "Spyro the Dragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "games", "culture": "Insomniac Games / Sony (Spyro series)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Spyro the Dragon (Insomniac Games / Sony Computer Entertainment, PlayStation)", "date": "1998", "year": 1998 }, "summary": "Spyro is the small purple dragon hero of the Spyro the Dragon video game series, beginning on the PlayStation in 1998, who charges and breathes fire to rescue his fellow dragons and their treasure.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/spyro" }, { "slug": "stoorworm", "name": "Stoorworm", "altNames": [ "Mester Stoorworm", "Stoor Worm", "Master Stoorworm", "Assipattle and the Stoorworm" ], "kind": "sea serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Orcadian (Scottish)", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "Orkney Islands, Scotland", "lat": 59, "lng": -3 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Walter Traill Dennison, \"Orkney Folklore: Sea Myths,\" The Scottish Antiquary", "date": "1891", "year": 1891 }, "summary": "The Stoorworm, or Mester Stoorworm, is a colossal sea serpent of Orkney folklore whose poisonous breath threatened the land until the boy Assipattle burned it from the inside, its teeth becoming Orkney, Shetland, and the Faroes.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/stoorworm" }, { "slug": "tairn", "name": "Tairn", "altNames": [], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Rebecca Yarros (The Empyrean)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros", "date": "2023", "year": 2023 }, "summary": "Tairn is the huge black dragon of Rebecca Yarros's Fourth Wing (2023), one of the most powerful dragons of Navarre, who unexpectedly chooses the fragile cadet Violet Sorrengail as his rider.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/tairn" }, { "slug": "taniwha", "name": "Taniwha", "altNames": [ "Taniwhā", "Māori water monster", "Kaitiaki" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Māori", "region": "Oceania", "location": { "place": "Waikato River, North Island, New Zealand", "lat": -37.79, "lng": 175.28 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Edward Shortland, Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders", "date": "1854", "year": 1854 }, "summary": "A taniwha is a powerful water being of Māori tradition in New Zealand, living in rivers, lakes, caves, and the sea, which can be a protective guardian of a tribe or a dangerous monster that preys on people.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/taniwha" }, { "slug": "tarasque", "name": "Tarasque", "altNames": [ "La Tarasque", "Tarasca", "Tarascon dragon" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Provençal (French)", "region": "Western Europe", "location": { "place": "Tarascon, on the Rhône, Provence, France", "lat": 43.806, "lng": 4.66 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Vita Sanctae Marthae attributed to Pseudo-Marcella", "date": "between about 1187 and 1220", "year": 1200 }, "summary": "The Tarasque is a river dragon of Provençal legend, a monstrous hybrid said to be the offspring of Leviathan, which Saint Martha tamed at Tarascon on the Rhône and which the town still parades in its festival.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/tarasque" }, { "slug": "temeraire", "name": "Temeraire", "altNames": [ "Lung Tien Xiang" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Naomi Novik (Temeraire series)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "His Majesty's Dragon (UK title: Temeraire), by Naomi Novik", "date": "2006", "year": 2006 }, "summary": "Temeraire is the black Chinese Celestial dragon at the heart of Naomi Novik's alternate-history series beginning with His Majesty's Dragon (2006), who serves in Britain's Aerial Corps during the Napoleonic Wars.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/temeraire" }, { "slug": "reluctant-dragon", "name": "The Reluctant Dragon", "altNames": [ "Reluctant Dragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Kenneth Grahame", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "\"The Reluctant Dragon,\" in Dream Days, by Kenneth Grahame", "date": "1898", "year": 1898 }, "summary": "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.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/reluctant-dragon" }, { "slug": "ormr-thora", "name": "Thora's lindworm", "altNames": [ "Thora's serpent", "Ragnar Lodbrok's dragon", "Lyngormr of Þóra Borgarhjörtr", "Thora Town-Hart's serpent" ], "kind": "lindworm", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Norse and Danish", "region": "Northern Europe", "location": { "place": "Götaland, Sweden (Västergötland)", "lat": 58.2, "lng": 13 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, Book 9", "date": "c. 1200", "year": 1200 }, "summary": "Thora's lindworm is the serpent-dragon of the Ragnar Lodbrok legend, a small snake given to the princess Thora that grew to encircle her bower until Ragnar, wearing pitch-treated shaggy breeches, killed it and won her hand.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/ormr-thora" }, { "slug": "tiamat", "name": "Tiamat", "altNames": [ "Tiamtu", "Tâmtu", "Thalatth" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Babylonian (Mesopotamian)", "region": "Near East", "location": { "place": "Babylon, Mesopotamia (Iraq)", "lat": 32.54, "lng": 44.42 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Enūma Eliš (Babylonian Epic of Creation)", "date": "composed c. 1100 BCE or earlier; oldest copies c. 900 BCE", "year": -1100 }, "summary": "Tiamat is the primordial salt-water sea goddess of the Babylonian creation epic Enūma Eliš, who raised an army of monsters against the gods and was split in two by Marduk to make heaven and earth.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/tiamat" }, { "slug": "tiamat-dnd", "name": "Tiamat (Dungeons & Dragons)", "altNames": [ "Tiamat", "The Dragon Queen", "The Chromatic Dragon", "Queen of Evil Dragons" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "games", "culture": "Dungeons & Dragons (TSR / Wizards of the Coast)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Greyhawk (Supplement I to Dungeons & Dragons), by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz (as the unnamed Chromatic Dragon); named Tiamat in the Monster Manual (1977)", "date": "1975", "year": 1975 }, "summary": "Tiamat in Dungeons & Dragons is the five-headed Dragon Queen, goddess of the evil chromatic dragons, a modern game creation that borrows its name from the ancient Babylonian sea goddess.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 4, "heads": 5, "breathesFire": true, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": true, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": null, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/famous#tiamat", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/famous#tiamat" }, { "slug": "tianlong", "name": "Tianlong", "altNames": [ "Tian Long", "T'ien-lung", "Celestial Dragon", "Heavenly Dragon", "天龍", "天龙", "Tenryū" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese (Buddhist and folk)", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "China", "lat": 34, "lng": 108.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Four-class scheme of nāgas (heavenly, divine, earthly, hidden) quoted in Chen Renxi's Qianqueju leishu, a Ming dynasty encyclopedia", "date": "early 17th century", "year": 1630 }, "summary": "Tianlong, the \"celestial\" or \"heavenly\" dragon, is the Chinese dragon said to guard the palaces of the gods and hold them up so they do not fall, the highest of four classes of dragons in a scheme of Buddhist origin.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/tianlong" }, { "slug": "toothless", "name": "Toothless", "altNames": [ "Toothless the Night Fury" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "literature", "culture": "Cressida Cowell / DreamWorks (How to Train Your Dragon)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "How to Train Your Dragon, by Cressida Cowell", "date": "2003", "year": 2003 }, "summary": "Toothless is the dragon partner of the Viking boy Hiccup in Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon books (from 2003), a tiny, talkative dragon who became the sleek black Night Fury of DreamWorks' 2010 film.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/toothless" }, { "slug": "tugarin", "name": "Tugarin Zmeyevich", "altNames": [ "Tugarin", "Tugarin Zmeevich", "Tugarin the Dragon's Son", "Тугарин Змеевич" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Russian (East Slavic)", "region": "Eastern Europe", "location": { "place": "Kyiv, Kievan Rus'", "lat": 50.45, "lng": 30.52 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Kirsha Danilov collection (Drevnie rossiiskie stikhotvoreniia), \"Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin\"", "date": "manuscript compiled mid-18th century, printed 1804-1818", "year": 1750 }, "summary": "Tugarin Zmeyevich is a monstrous dragon-man of Russian epic songs, a gluttonous, boastful invader who flies on wings until the hero Alyosha Popovich brings him down by praying for rain to soak them.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 2, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/tugarin" }, { "slug": "typhon", "name": "Typhon", "altNames": [ "Typhoeus", "Typhaon", "Typhos" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "myth", "culture": "Greek", "region": "Mediterranean", "location": { "place": "Corycian Cave, Cilicia (southern Turkey); later said to be buried under Mount Etna", "lat": 36.45, "lng": 34.1 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Homer, Iliad (Book 2); fully described in Hesiod, Theogony", "date": "c. 8th–7th century BCE", "year": -725 }, "summary": "Typhon is the most fearsome monster of Greek myth, a giant with a hundred serpent heads who challenged Zeus for rule of the cosmos and was struck down by thunderbolts.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 100, "breathesFire": true, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/typhon" }, { "slug": "uktena", "name": "Uktena", "altNames": [ "Uk'tena", "The Keen-eyed" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Cherokee", "region": "North America", "location": { "place": "Great Smoky Mountains, southern Appalachians", "lat": 35.6, "lng": -83.5 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee (collected 1887–1890)", "date": "1900", "year": 1900 }, "summary": "The Uktena is a great horned serpent of Cherokee tradition, as thick as a tree trunk, with a blazing crystal crest called the Ulûñsû'ti on its forehead, and so dangerous that even seeing it could bring death.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/uktena" }, { "slug": "vasuki", "name": "Vasuki", "altNames": [ "Vāsuki", "Vasuki Naga", "Nagaraja Vasuki", "वासुकि" ], "kind": "naga", "category": "myth", "culture": "Hindu (also Buddhist)", "region": "South Asia", "location": { "place": "Mandar Hill, Banka, Bihar (traditionally identified with Mount Mandara)", "lat": 24.85, "lng": 87.03 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Mahābhārata (Ādi Parva, the churning of the ocean)", "date": "composed about 4th century BCE–4th century CE", "year": 0 }, "summary": "Vasuki is a king of the nāgas in Hindu myth who served as the churning rope when the gods and demons churned the cosmic ocean, and who coils around the neck of the god Shiva.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": false, "venom": true, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/vasuki" }, { "slug": "vermithrax", "name": "Vermithrax Pejorative", "altNames": [ "Vermithrax" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "film and tv", "culture": "Dragonslayer (film)", "region": "Fiction", "location": null, "earliestSource": { "title": "Dragonslayer, directed by Matthew Robbins (Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions)", "date": "1981", "year": 1981 }, "summary": "Vermithrax Pejorative is the ancient, fire-breathing dragon of the 1981 film Dragonslayer, which terrorizes the kingdom of Urland until a young sorcerer's apprentice sets out to kill it.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 2, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": true, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/vermithrax" }, { "slug": "vishap", "name": "Vishap", "altNames": [ "Višap", "Վիշապ", "Armenian dragon", "Vishapakar (dragon stone)" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Armenian", "region": "Near East", "location": { "place": "Armenian Highlands (Mount Aragats, Geghama Mountains, Mount Ararat)", "lat": 40.3, "lng": 44.8 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Movses Khorenatsi, History of the Armenians (song of Vahagn the dragon-reaper; the vishap descendants of Azhdahak)", "date": "traditionally 5th century; many scholars date it to the 8th century", "year": 500 }, "summary": "The vishap is the dragon of Armenian myth and folklore, a water and storm serpent of mountain lakes and springs, fought by the thunder god Vahagn and linked to the ancient carved dragon stones called vishapakar.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/vishap" }, { "slug": "vouivre", "name": "Vouivre", "altNames": [ "La Vouivre", "Wivre", "Guivre", "Vuivre", "Vivre" ], "kind": "wyvern", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Franc-Comtois (French)", "region": "Western Europe", "location": { "place": "Franche-Comté and the Jura, France", "lat": 46.8, "lng": 5.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Recorded by Désiré Monnier, Traditions populaires comparées", "date": "1854 (folk belief recorded in the 19th century; the word is medieval)", "year": 1854 }, "summary": "The Vouivre is a flying serpent of French folklore, especially in Franche-Comté and the Jura, that carries a glowing gem as its eye and sets it aside when it bathes, tempting thieves.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/vouivre" }, { "slug": "vritra", "name": "Vritra", "altNames": [ "Vṛtra", "Vritrasura", "Ahi", "Vrtra", "वृत्र" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Vedic Indian (Hindu)", "region": "South Asia", "location": { "place": "Punjab, the land of seven rivers (Sapta Sindhu) of the Rigveda", "lat": 31, "lng": 74.5 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Rigveda (especially hymn 1.32)", "date": "about 1500–1000 BCE, oral; written down much later", "year": -1200 }, "summary": "Vritra is the serpent or dragon of drought in the Rigveda, a footless, handless monster who held back the world's waters until the storm god Indra killed him with the thunderbolt and set the rivers free.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": null, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/vritra" }, { "slug": "wawel-dragon", "name": "Wawel Dragon", "altNames": [ "Smok Wawelski", "Smok", "Dragon of Kraków", "Wawel Hill Dragon" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Polish", "region": "Eastern Europe", "location": { "place": "Wawel Hill, Kraków, Poland", "lat": 50.054, "lng": 19.935 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Wincenty Kadłubek, Chronica Polonorum", "date": "c. 1190–1208", "year": 1200 }, "summary": "The Wawel Dragon (Smok Wawelski) is the legendary dragon of Kraków's Wawel Hill, killed, in the best-known version, when it ate a carcass stuffed with burning sulfur and drank from the Vistula River until it burst.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/legends/krakus-smok", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/krakus-smok" }, { "slug": "xiuhcoatl", "name": "Xiuhcóatl", "altNames": [ "Xiuhcoatl", "Fire Serpent", "Turquoise Serpent" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Aztec (Mexica)", "region": "Mesoamerica", "location": { "place": "Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), Mexico", "lat": 19.43, "lng": -99.13 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Aztec stone sculpture, including the Sun Stone", "date": "15th–early 16th century", "year": 1500 }, "summary": "Xiuhcóatl is the fire serpent of Aztec religion, a turquoise-scaled serpent with an upturned snout that served as the weapon of the war god Huitzilopochtli and as an emblem of the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/xiuhcoatl" }, { "slug": "y-ddraig-goch", "name": "Y Ddraig Goch", "altNames": [ "Red Dragon of Wales", "Welsh Dragon", "The Red Dragon", "Draig Goch" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Welsh (British)", "region": "British Isles", "location": { "place": "Dinas Emrys, near Beddgelert, Gwynedd, Wales", "lat": 53.02, "lng": -4.08 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Historia Brittonum (attributed to Nennius)", "date": "about 829-830", "year": 830 }, "summary": "Y Ddraig Goch, the Red Dragon of Wales, is the dragon of the Britons who, in early Welsh legend, fights a white Saxon dragon beneath Dinas Emrys and today flies on the national flag of Wales.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": "/cultures/welsh", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/cultures/welsh" }, { "slug": "yamata-no-orochi", "name": "Yamata no Orochi", "altNames": [ "Orochi", "Yamata-no-Orochi", "Eight-Forked Serpent", "Eight-Headed Serpent", "Koshi no Orochi", "八岐大蛇", "八俣遠呂智" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Japanese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Upper Hi River (Hiikawa), Izumo, Shimane Prefecture", "lat": 35.25, "lng": 132.95 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters)", "date": "712 CE", "year": 712 }, "summary": "Yamata no Orochi is the eight-headed, eight-tailed giant serpent of Japanese myth, slain by the storm god Susanoo after he got it drunk on strong sake, who found the sacred sword Kusanagi in its tail.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": null, "heads": 8, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": false, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/yamata-no-orochi" }, { "slug": "yinglong", "name": "Yinglong", "altNames": [ "Ying Long", "Ying-lung", "Responding Dragon", "Winged Dragon", "應龍", "应龙" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Zhuolu, Hebei (traditional site of the Yellow Emperor's battle with Chiyou)", "lat": 40.38, "lng": 115.22 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Chu ci, \"Tianwen\" (Heavenly Questions), and the Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas)", "date": "4th–1st centuries BCE", "year": -300 }, "summary": "Yinglong is the winged dragon of ancient Chinese myth, a rain-bringing servant of the Yellow Emperor who killed the rebel Chiyou and, in other accounts, used its tail to help Yu the Great channel the Great Flood.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/yinglong" }, { "slug": "yofune-nushi", "name": "Yofune-Nushi", "altNames": [ "Yofune Nushi", "Yofunenushi", "The sea serpent of Oki", "Tokoyo and the sea serpent" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Japanese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Oki Islands, Sea of Japan (Shimane Prefecture)", "lat": 36.2, "lng": 133.3 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "R. Gordon Smith, Ancient Tales and Folk-lore of Japan", "date": "1908", "year": 1908 }, "summary": "Yofune-Nushi is a sea dragon of Japanese folklore that lived in a cave beneath the Oki Islands and demanded a maiden each year, until the young diver Tokoyo killed it with a dagger.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": null, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": true, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": "/legends/yofune-nushi", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/yofune-nushi" }, { "slug": "yong", "name": "Yong (Korean dragon)", "altNames": [ "Yong", "Ryong", "Mireu", "Korean dragon", "용", "龍" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Korean", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Daewangam (Underwater Tomb of King Munmu), off Gyeongju, Korea", "lat": 35.74, "lng": 129.49 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Samguk sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms), compiled by Kim Busik", "date": "1145", "year": 1145 }, "summary": "The yong is the Korean dragon, a benevolent water and weather spirit that brings rain, guards the sea, and protects kings and the nation, often shown holding the wish-granting jewel called the yeouiju.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 4, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/yong" }, { "slug": "zaltys", "name": "Žaltys", "altNames": [ "Zaltys", "Žalčiai (plural)", "Zalktis (Latvian)", "Lithuanian sacred serpent", "Gyvatė" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "myth", "culture": "Lithuanian and Baltic", "region": "Northern Europe", "location": { "place": "Lithuania (Samogitia and Aukštaitija)", "lat": 55.3, "lng": 23.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), De Europa, reporting Jerome of Prague's mission to the Lithuanians", "date": "c. 1458", "year": 1458 }, "summary": "The žaltys is the sacred household serpent of Lithuanian and Baltic tradition, a harmless grass snake kept and fed in homes as a guardian bringing luck, fertility, and prosperity.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": null, "water": null, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/zaltys" }, { "slug": "zhulong", "name": "Zhulong (Torch Dragon)", "altNames": [ "Zhulong", "Zhu Long", "Chu-lung", "Torch Dragon", "Candle Dragon", "Zhuyin", "Candle Darkness", "燭龍", "烛龙", "燭陰" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "myth", "culture": "Chinese", "region": "East Asia", "location": { "place": "Mythical far north or northwest of China (Zhangwei Mountain, beyond the Northwest Sea)", "lat": 42, "lng": 95 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Chu ci, \"Tianwen\" (Heavenly Questions)", "date": "about 4th–3rd centuries BCE", "year": -300 }, "summary": "Zhulong, the Torch Dragon, is a giant red dragon of ancient Chinese myth with a human face and a serpent's body, whose opening and closing eyes make day and night in a sunless land of the far north.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/zhulong" }, { "slug": "zilant", "name": "Zilant", "altNames": [ "Zilan", "Yılan", "Зилант", "Dragon of Kazan" ], "kind": "wyvern", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Tatar and Russian (Kazan)", "region": "Eastern Europe", "location": { "place": "Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia", "lat": 55.79, "lng": 49.12 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Kazan emblem (winged serpent) on Russian state seals", "date": "late 16th century (Great Seal of Ivan IV); described for Kazan Regiment banners 1730; arms approved 1781", "year": 1580 }, "summary": "Zilant is the winged serpent-dragon of Kazan in Tatarstan, the king of snakes in the city's founding legends and the crowned black dragon on Kazan's coat of arms since the 18th century.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": 2, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": null, "shapeshifter": false, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/zilant" }, { "slug": "egle-serpent", "name": "Žilvinas, the Serpent King", "altNames": [ "Zilvinas", "Žilvinas", "Serpent King of Eglė", "Egle the Queen of Serpents", "Eglė žalčių karalienė" ], "kind": "serpent", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Lithuanian", "region": "Northern Europe", "location": { "place": "Lithuanian Baltic coast (Palanga)", "lat": 55.92, "lng": 21.07 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "\"A Lithuanian fairy tale,\" translated into Polish by M. Jasevičius in the almanac Biruta (Vilnius)", "date": "1837", "year": 1837 }, "summary": "Žilvinas is the serpent king of the Lithuanian folk tale Eglė the Queen of Serpents, a grass snake who marries the girl Eglė, becomes a man in his undersea palace, and is murdered by her brothers.", "traits": { "wings": false, "legs": 0, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": false, "venom": false, "guardsTreasure": false, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": true, "disposition": "benevolent" }, "article": "/legends/egle", "url": "https://www.draconika.com/legends/egle" }, { "slug": "zmaj", "name": "Zmaj", "altNames": [ "Zmay", "Змај", "Zmej", "Zmey (South Slavic)", "Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "South Slavic (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Slovene, Bulgarian)", "region": "Eastern Europe", "location": { "place": "Serbia and the central Balkans", "lat": 44, "lng": 20.9 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Serbian epic songs collected by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (Srpske narodne pjesme)", "date": "published from 1823 (Leipzig edition); earlier oral tradition", "year": 1823 }, "summary": "The zmaj is the dragon of South Slavic folklore, a fiery, winged, often protective being that guards fields from hail-bringing demons, takes human lovers, and fathers heroes such as Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": true, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": false, "disposition": "ambivalent" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/zmaj" }, { "slug": "zmeu", "name": "Zmeu", "altNames": [ "Zmei (plural)", "Zmeul", "Romanian dragon-man" ], "kind": "hybrid", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Romanian", "region": "Eastern Europe", "location": { "place": "Romania and Moldova", "lat": 46.5, "lng": 26 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Petre Ispirescu, Legende sau basmele românilor (e.g. \"Prâslea cel voinic și merele de aur\")", "date": "1872", "year": 1872 }, "summary": "The zmeu is a giant, dragon-like ogre of Romanian fairy tales, a humanlike being of enormous strength who can fly and shapeshift, kidnaps princesses such as Ileana Cosânzeana, and is defeated by the hero Făt-Frumos.", "traits": { "wings": null, "legs": 2, "heads": 1, "breathesFire": null, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": true, "water": false, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/zmeu" }, { "slug": "zmey-gorynych", "name": "Zmey Gorynych", "altNames": [ "Zmei Gorynych", "Zmiy Gorynych", "Змей Горыныч", "Zmeya Gorynishna", "Gorynych" ], "kind": "dragon", "category": "folklore", "culture": "Russian (East Slavic)", "region": "Eastern Europe", "location": { "place": "Kievan Rus' (Kyiv and the legendary Puchai River)", "lat": 50.45, "lng": 30.52 }, "earliestSource": { "title": "Kirsha Danilov collection (Drevnie rossiiskie stikhotvoreniia), \"Dobrynia kupalsia, zmei unes\" (Dobrynya bathed and the dragon carried him off)", "date": "manuscript compiled mid-18th century; printed 1804-1818", "year": 1750 }, "summary": "Zmey Gorynych is the many-headed, fire-breathing dragon of Russian epic songs and fairy tales, best known for kidnapping a princess of Kyiv and being defeated by the hero Dobrynya Nikitich.", "traits": { "wings": true, "legs": null, "heads": null, "breathesFire": true, "venom": null, "guardsTreasure": null, "speaks": true, "shapeshifter": false, "water": null, "disposition": "hostile" }, "article": null, "url": "https://www.draconika.com/dragons/zmey-gorynych" } ] }