The dragon. The ultimate boogeyman. A creature of untold dread and destruction that appears in ancient myths across the world. Beowulf has one! The Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish features another! Even The Bible features a seven headed dragon in the apocalyptic Book of Revelation! Honestly, if a mythology doesn’t feature a dragon of some kind, can it really be considered a mythos at all? While dragons have being terrifying the human psyche for millennia, these ten most terrifying dragons in fantasy fiction have sure done a number on the modern reader.
Ancalagon the Black – The Silmarillion
You thought Smaug from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit was bad? Oh my sweet summer child, be thankful that you didn’t during the First Age of Middle Earth, lest your mind have been broken by the unfathomable horror of Ancalagon the Black. Bred by the dark and godlike Morgoth (a being who makes Sauron look like a chump) Ancalagon was created to burn away the forces of goodness in world, and was used as a last resort in the cataclysmic War of Wrath. Ancalagon was to Smaug what Smaug was to a river newt, and was so massive that his body destroyed the towers Thangorodrim when he was finally shot out of the sky in battle. According to Gandalf himself, Anacalagon’s fire was the hottest ever breathed by dragon kind – being a wise wizard, Gandalf would know.
The Nameless One – The Priory of the Orange Tree
Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree features a dragon so monumentally horrifying that people were too afraid to even name the thing. The Nameless One is an ancient, corrupted dragon straight out of Dark Souls lore, whose inevitable awakening was foretold to bring about the ending of the world. The first of all the western dragons, The Nameless One crawled out of a volcano after it was created in the Womb of Fire. For those who don’t know, the Womb of Fire is the molten center of the planet. If that’s not threatening enough, this dragon also carries a deadly plague that causes a victim’s skin to turn into scales and their blood to boil beneath. Let’s hope this slumbering monstrosity’s alarm clock comes with a snooze button, I don’t wanna be around when this thing rolls out of bed.
The Dragon – Grendel
While the singers of the Viking epic Beowulf might have made dragons famous, John Gardner’s retelling of the legend makes its featured beast twice as terrifying. The novel follows the monster Grendel on his quest to find meaning in a brutal and lonely world, which leads him straight into the claws of a dragon with penchant for nihilist thought. In a monologue would depress even Nietzsche, the omniscient dragon explains that existence is utterly meaningless, so you might as well sit on a pile of gold. Which, in classic dragon fashion, this beast does. Grendel‘s dragon is less of a malevolent force and more of a philosophical abyss. With cold and reptilian eyes, this abyss truly does stare back.
The Dragon of Mars – Mechanicum
Set in the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000, Graham McNeill’s Mechanicum is the ninth book of The Horus Heresy saga – an epic account of mankind’s fall from glory. Mechanicum is the story of Warmaster Horus and his quest to convince the tech priests of Mars to join the side of Chaos and fight against the Emperor of Mankind. What does this have to do with a dragon? The technology worshipping Mechanicum whispers of the legendary Dragon of Mars, which is said to be imprisoned in a tomb below the Red Planet’s surface. While none know for certain, The Dragon is unlikely to be a fire-breathing lizard, but rather a primordial alien being known as a C’Tan that is capable of swallowing entire stars. The dragon’s tomb is protected by an ancient order of guardians tasked with keeping the beast within sealed away, but as the galaxy succumbs to Chaos, the beast could soon break free.
Balerion the Black Dread – Fire and Blood
While the fearsome Drogon may be the draconic star of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, the Targaryen dynasty once had an even more fearsome beast under its control. Aegon the Conqueror did most of his conquering atop one of the largest dragons to ever live – the gargantuan Balerion. Called “The Black Dread,” Balerion’s shadow could engulf an entire town as he flew overhead. His fire was hot enough to melt stone, a tactic that Aegon used to burn down the castle Harrenhal – along with King Harren and his sons with it. Balerion’s might allowed Aegon to unite the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros under The Iron Throne: a pointy chair made of the swords Aegon’s enemies that were fused together by the dragon’s fire. Balerion truly never stopped stunting on his foes.
Kalessin – The Farthest Shore
The third book in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Saga, The Farthest Shore features the series’ closest look at dragons. Legend says that humans and dragons were descended from the same ancient species, but that dragons evolved into flying firebreathers due to their ancestors’ desire for freedom. Dragons now live in the remote islands of the west, venturing into human lands to steal livestock, and maybe burn a village or two. After Earthsea’s magical forces are thrown out of balance, the wizard Ged visits an ancient dragon named Kalessin in order to find out the cause. Dragons are exceedingly dangerous creatures, able to cast a spell on any human foolish enough to look into their golden eyes. While flying and firebreathing make dragons freaky enough, Earthsea‘s are even scarier due to their ability to wage telepathic warfare on human minds… and Kalessin is one of the oldest and most powerful dragon telepaths of all.
Villentretenmerth – The Sword of Destiny
As if pronouncing the name Villentretenmerth wasn’t a terrifying enough prospect, this ancient dragon is made all the more threatening by his ability to blend in with humankind. As a golden dragon, Villentretenmerth is able to shapeshift into human form without the use of magic spells, allowing him to travel through the human world undetected. While Villentretenmerth’s actions within Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Bounds of Reason aren’t cause for alarm (he’s hiding in order to live in peace) the implications of his abilities are horrifying. Ancient, telepathic reptiles masquerading as human beings? That’s something straight out of a sci-fi horror novel. The kingdom’s conspiracy theorists are gonna run wild with this.
Querig – The Buried Giant
Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant centers around a powerful female dragon named Querig, who doesn’t breathe fire, but memory loss. Querig can exhale a mist that causes people to forget, which King Arthur and Merlin used to make the warring Britons and Saxons ignore their past grievances and live together in peace. Bad news is, that peace won’t last forever. Querig is dying, and when she kicks the can, the spell will be broken. I don’t know what’s scarier, the fact that Querig can breathe dementia gas or that when she dies everyone will remember past hatreds and start killing each other again. King Arthur and Merlin need to figure out if Querig has young relatives with similar abilities, otherwise things are not going to end well for the realm.
Maur – The Hero and the Crown
While “Maur” might sound like an Australian’s funny attempt at coming up with a nickname for “Maurice”, the dragon in Robin Hobb’s The Hero and the Crown is no laughing matter. Maur is the last of the great dragons, a colossal being capable of raising hell in the fantasy kingdom that the young warrior Aerin calls home. After a brutal battle, Aerin slays Maur, cutting off its head and bringing it home to the castle as a trophy. While Maur was a fearsome beast in life, this dragon is so malevolent that even its severed head is able to bring ruin. The beast’s cut cranium throbs with an evil magic that wreaks havoc on Aerin’s psyche – causing nightmares and spiritual illness. Ancalagon was tough, but even he couldn’t cause suffering from beyond the grave.
The Entirety of Draconic Society – Tooth and Claw
Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw is a high fantasy comedy of manners that takes place in a civilized dragon society reminiscent of Victorian England. Well, mostly civilized. While these dragons hold titles and pay taxes, they also cannibalize each other in order to inherit wealth and power. The novel’s central trouble begins after a dragon patriarch dies, and his children battle each other for their inheritance, which in this case is the right to devour their father’s remains. Sure, Balerion the Dread ended the lives of thousands while Aegon did his conquering thing, but he sure as hell didn’t try to eat his own siblings in the process. The other dragons on this list may not have manners, but at least they have morals.
(Featured Image: HBO)
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