1 - Dragons! Friend and Foe?

"Who doesn't love dragons?"

In this episode, I will be exploring the dragons in medieval romances and how they compare to the dragons in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I will be examining the history of dragons to see how dragons have changed and what that tells us about our culture today.

Sources mentioned in the podcast.

- Bestiary: Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Bodley 764 by Richard Barber

-. Four Romances of England : King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, Athelston by Ronald B Herzman (Author, Editor), Graham Drake (Editor), Eve Salisbury (Editor)

- The Parallel English - Latin Vulgate Bible: With Latin Dictionary References by Saint Jerome (Author), Richard Challoner (Author)

- Tristan with the “Tristran” of Thomas: With the Surviving Fragments of the Tristran of Thomas by Gottfried von Strassburg (Author), A. Hatto (Introduction, Translator)

Full list of sources

Primary

Barber, Richard. Bestiary: Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Bodley 764. New edition. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1992.

Herzman, Ronald B. Four Romances of England : King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, Athelston. Edited by Graham Drake and Eve Salisbury. A edition. Kalamazoo, Mich: Medieval Institute Publications, 1999.

“Internet History Sourcebooks.” Accessed March 9, 2021. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/goldenlegend/GL-vol3-george.asp.

Jerome, Saint, and Richard Challoner. The Parallel English - Latin Vulgate Bible: With Latin Dictionary References, n.d.

Lacy, Norris J., and Rupert T. Pickens, eds. Lancelot-Grail: 2. The Story of Merlin: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2010.

Lacy, Norris J., Samuel N. Rosenberg, and Carleton W. Carroll, eds. Lancelot-Grail: 3. Lancelot Part I and II: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2010.

Lacy, Norris J., Samuel N. Rosenberg, and Roberta L. Krueger, eds. Lancelot-Grail: 4. Lancelot Part III and IV: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2010.

Strassburg, Gottfried von, and A. Hatto. Tristan with the “Tristran” of Thomas: With the Surviving Fragments of the Tristran of Thomas. Penguin, 2004.

White, Terence Hanbury. The Book of Beasts : Being a Translation from a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century. New York: Dover Publications, 2010.

“Additional 29433 f. 207.” Text. The British Library. Accessed May 19, 2021. https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=61231.

Secondary

Elder Scrolls. “Alduin (Skyrim).” Accessed April 1, 2021. https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Alduin_(Skyrim).

Ali, Rabia Umar. “Medieval Europe: The Myth of Dark Ages and the Impact of Islam.” Islamic Studies 51, no. 2 (2012): 155–68.

Arnold, Martin. Dragon: Fear and Power. Illustrated edition. London: Reaktion Books, 2018.

Barnard, Mary. “A Dragon Hunt.” The American Scholar 33, no. 3 (1964): 422–27.

Blust, Robert. “The Origin of Dragons.” Anthropos 95, no. 2 (2000): 519–36.

Clifton, Nicole. “Early Modern Readers of the Romance ‘Of Arthour and of Merlin.’” Arthuriana 24, no. 2 (2014): 71–91.

Edwards, Karen. “Milton’s Reformed Animals: An Early Modern Bestiary.” Milton Quarterly 39, no. 3 (2005): 121–31.

Evans, Jonathan. Dragons: A Beautifully Illustrated Quest for the World’s Great Dragon Myths. 1st Edition. New York: Metro Books, 2008.

———. “Semiotics and Traditional Lore: The Medieval Dragon Tradition.” Journal of Folklore Research 22, no. 2/3 (1985): 85–112.

Finlayson, John. “The Marvellous in Middle English Romance.” The Chaucer Review 33, no. 4 (1999): 363–408.

Friar, Stephen, and John Ferguson. Basic Heraldry. London: The Herbert Press, 1999.

Hodges, Kenneth. "Reformed Dragons: "Bevis of Hampton", Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte Darthur", and Spenser's "Faerie Queene"." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 54, no. 1 (2012): 110-31. Accessed August 16, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41349151.

Kelly, Douglas. “Multiple Quests in French Verse Romance: ‘Mervelles de Rigomer’ and ‘Claris et Laris.’” L’Esprit Créateur 9, no. 4 (1969): 257–66.

Ker, W. P. (William Paton). Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval Literature, 2007. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20406.

———. The Dark Ages. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1904.

Lippincott, Louise W. “The Unnatural History of Dragons.” Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 77, no. 334

(1981): 3–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/3795303.

Liu, Yin. “Middle English Romance as Prototype Genre.” The Chaucer Review 40, no. 4 (2006): 335–53.

Marshall, David W., ed. Mass Market Medieval: Essays on the Middle Ages in Popular Culture. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 2007.

McLaughlin, M. L. “Humanist Concepts of Renaissance and Middle Ages in the Tre- and Quattrocento.” Renaissance Studies 2, no. 2 (1988): 131–42.

Milspaw, Yvonne J., and Wesley K. Evans. “Variations on Vampires: Live Action Role Playing, Fantasy and the Revival of Traditional Beliefs.” Western Folklore 69, no. 2 (2010): 211–50.

Mommsen, Theodore E. “Petrarch’s Conception of the ‘Dark Ages.’” Speculum 17, no. 2 (1942): 226–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/2856364.

Nelson, Janet L. “The Dark Ages.” History Workshop Journal, no. 63 (2007): 191–201.

Niles, Doug, and Margaret Weis. Dragons: The Myths, Legends, and Lore. Reprint edition. Avon,

Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2013.

Pugh, Tison, and Angela Jane Weisl. Medievalisms. 1st edition. London: Routledge, 2012.

Simpson, Jacqueline. British Dragons. 2nd Edition. Ware: Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 2001.

———. “Fifty British Dragon Tales: An Analysis.” Folklore 89, no. 1 (1978): 79–93.

Stenton, Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd edition. OUP Oxford, 1970.

Stothers, Richard B. “Ancient Scientific Basis of the ‘Great Serpent’ from Historical Evidence.” Isis 95, no. 2 (2004): 220–38. https://doi.org/10.1086/426195.

Unerman, Sandra. “Dragons in Twentieth-Century Fiction.” Folklore 113, no. 1 (2002): 94–101.

Wilson, J. Keith. “Powerful Form and Potent Symbol: The Dragon in Asia.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 8 (1990): 286–323.

Zhao, Qiguang. “Chinese Mythology in the Context of Hydraulic Society.” Asian Folklore Studies 48, no. 2 (1989): 231–46. https://doi.org/10.2307/1177919.