The Dragon, so closely identified with the Medieval Era, is one of literature’s most iconic and famous beasts whose fiery image is firmly established in each and every one of our minds. The bestiary, an eleventh to thirteenth century text with stories and biblical moralizations of animals, some real, some mythological, depict the dragon in many different ways. As the bearer of death and misfortune, or, more commonly, as the incarnation of the Devil and evil. A well-known story from the bestiary involving the dragon is the elephant’s (as pictured). As it gives birth in a pond, its mate stands guard nearby to protect the mother from their enemy: the dragon. The dragon is their only enemy because it is the only creature capable of killing an it. A story that features the dragon successfully killing an elephant has it hiding in wait, camouflaged in the trees, then, as the elephant crosses under it, the dragon swoops down with its tail, coils it around the elephant’s neck, and strangles it to death. It is because of these threats that elephants give birth in water. These two stories describe how the Devil (the dragon) is always …show more content…
Yet the vast majority of its bestiary depictions were not of large, scaly beasts breathing fire as we are so familiar with. The artistic depiction of the dragon differed greatly depending on the artist and the time period: some were huge, others breathed fire, some were shaped like humans, while others were long and slender like dragons from Asia. This is understandable since many bestiary and artistic representations of the dragon could nowadays be easily mistaken for other animals such as a snake or crocodile. The dragon, therefore, could be visually manipulated to suit not only the inclinations of the artist, but those of the viewer as