Puff the Magic Dragon
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.
| Also known as | Puff, Puff, the Magic Dragon |
|---|---|
| Type | dragon |
| Tradition | Peter, Paul and Mary (song) |
| Category | Literature |
| Earliest source | "Puff, the Magic Dragon," song by Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton, recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary (from a 1959 poem by Lipton), 1963 |
| Wings | Not specified |
| Breathes fire | Not specified |
| Guards treasure | No |
| Nature | Benevolent |
The Story
The song tells of a dragon named Puff who lives by the sea in the land of Honah Lee. A little boy, Jackie Paper, loves him, and the two of them share adventures, sailing on a boat with billowing sails while kings and pirates show respect to the dragon. But dragons live forever and little boys do not. Jackie grows up, finds other things to do, and stops coming. Without his friend, Puff loses his courage and sadly slips back into his cave.
The song is short and simple, and it works as a children's story about friendship and as a wistful song for adults about the end of childhood.
Appearance and Powers
The lyrics describe almost nothing of Puff's body, only that he is a dragon, that he roars, and that he is grand enough to make pirate ships lower their flags. Later picture books and animated films show him as a green dragon with a friendly face, often with a red or curly crest.
Origins and Sources
In 1959, Leonard (Lenny) Lipton, then a 19-year-old student at Cornell University, wrote a poem inspired by Ogden Nash's comic poem "The Tale of Custard the Dragon." He typed it on a friend's typewriter, which belonged to fellow student Peter Yarrow. Yarrow found the poem, turned it into a song, and later made sure Lipton shared the songwriting credit. Peter, Paul and Mary released it as a single in early 1963 from their album Moving, and it became a top-ten hit in the United States.
A rumor that the song is secretly about marijuana spread in the mid-1960s. Both writers always denied it, saying it is about the loss of childhood innocence.
Legacy
Puff became one of the best-known dragons in American popular culture. An animated television special, Puff the Magic Dragon, aired on CBS in 1978, followed by two sequels. In 2007 Yarrow and Lipton published a picture-book version illustrated by Eric Puybaret. Puff joins the line of gentle literary dragons that began with Kenneth Grahame; see dragon books for more.
Related
- The Reluctant Dragon: The Reluctant Dragon is the gentle, poetry-loving dragon of Kenneth Grahame's 1898 story, who would rather chat and compose verse than fight, and who stages a mock battle with Saint George.
- Falkor: 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.
- Mushu: 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.
- Dragon Books
Sources and Further Reading
- Peter, Paul and Mary, Moving (Warner Bros. Records, 1963)
- Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton, Puff, the Magic Dragon, illustrated by Eric Puybaret (Sterling, 2007)
- Ogden Nash, "The Tale of Custard the Dragon," in The Bad Parents' Garden of Verse (Simon & Schuster, 1936)
Cite this entry: “Puff the Magic Dragon,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/puff.