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 "Fire leaped from the dragon's jaws. He circled for a while high in the air above them lighting all the lake; the trees by the shores shone like copper and like blood with leaping shadows of dense black at their feet. Then down he swooped. . . . A sweep of his tail and the roof of the Great House crumbled and smashed down. Flames unquenchable sprang high into the night. Another swoop and another, and another house and then another sprang afire and fell; and still no arrow hindered Smaug or hurt him more than a fly from the marshes."
—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, 1937.
Grim Destroyer
The dragons that lurk in European stories are powerful, wicked and dangerous. In Christian tradition, they can symbolize Satan or sin. Some nest in caves and guard marvelous treasure. When hungry, they may snatch and devour sheep or cattle that wander too near. They may also eat humans—particularly young girls. Epic poems from the Middle Ages tell of warriors and knights who battle cruel and voracious dragons. In some stories, the hero slays his foe and wins fortune and honor. In others, he fails and is killed.
 Dragon Country
In 1678, German naturalist Athanasius Kircher described the habits of dragons in his sweeping work on geology, Mundus Subterraneus, or "Underground World." One illustration shows the legendary dragons of Mount Pilatus, Switzerland, which were said to cause terrible storms. Another portrays a local hero: around AD 1250, the Swiss knight Heinrich von Winkelried allegedly killed a belligerent dragon, but died after touching its poisonous blood.
Serpent King
In European stories, a dragonlike creature known as a basilisk was sometimes described as an enormous snake or lizard with a crown-shaped crest. Some authors called it the king of serpents and claimed it could kill a man with a single glance.
A Familiar Face
The dragon has remained a potent symbol of treachery well into the industrial age. A political cartoon shows Allied troops fighting the German army in the form of a dragon near the beginning of the First World War.
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