Hungarian Horntail

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.

The Story

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Hogwarts hosts the Triwizard Tournament, and Harry is entered as a fourth, unexpected champion. Hagrid secretly shows him what the first task will be: four nesting mother dragons brought from Romania. Each champion must take a golden egg from a dragon's nest, among the dragon's own eggs.

The champions draw miniature models of the dragons from a bag to decide who faces which. Harry draws the Hungarian Horntail, by reputation the most dangerous of the four. Following a hint from Professor Moody to play to his strengths, and after Hermione drills him on the Summoning Charm, he settles on a plan. He summons his broomstick, the Firebolt, with a Summoning Charm, then flies circles around the dragon until it rises off its eggs to chase him. He dives in, grabs the golden egg, and scores well, though the dragon's tail spike grazes his shoulder.

Appearance and Powers

Rowling describes the Horntail as black and lizard-like, with yellow eyes, bronze horns, and a long tail covered in bronze spikes that it lashes like a weapon. It breathes fire and is fiercely protective of its eggs. In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rowling's mock-textbook of magical creatures, the Horntail is classed as one of the most dangerous dragon breeds.

Origins and Sources

The Horntail belongs to Rowling's system of national dragon breeds, alongside the Welsh Green, Swedish Short-Snout, Chinese Fireball, and Norwegian Ridgeback. Each is named for a real country and treated like an animal species to be studied and handled by trained keepers, not as an individual character. Hungary has its own dragon folklore, the sárkány, but the Horntail is Rowling's invention rather than a figure from Hungarian legend.

Legacy

The 2005 film greatly expanded the scene: the Horntail breaks its chains and chases Harry across the Hogwarts rooftops. The film's Horntail has a two-legged, wyvern-like body with wings as forelimbs, and it has become one of the most recognizable dragons of the franchise, appearing in video games, theme-park attractions, and toy sets. For real dragon traditions behind the name, see types of dragons.

Related

• Norbert: 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.
• Sárkány: 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.
• Drogon: 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.
• Dragon Books
• Dragon Types

Sources and Further Reading

• J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Bloomsbury, 2000), chapters 19 and 20
• J.K. Rowling (as Newt Scamander), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Bloomsbury, 2001)

Cite this entry: “Hungarian Horntail,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/hungarian-horntail.