Just to point out, belief and depictions of dragons transcend European literature and mythology, so limiting dragons to European medieval depictions and Tolkien means ignoring other cultural depictions.
Overall Smaug was based on elements of Beowulf’s Bane and Norse mythology’s Fafnir, and Fafnir is considered Norse symbolic for greed.
Yeah but we’re talking about a euro-centered perspective anyways since it’s a knight out to slay the dragon and not an emperor seeking council of their dragon ancestors or Quetzalcoatl being Quetzalcoatl as usual
Just to point out, belief and depictions of dragons transcend European literature and mythology, so limiting dragons to European medieval depictions and Tolkien means ignoring other cultural depictions.
Overall Smaug was based on elements of Beowulf’s Bane and Norse mythology’s Fafnir, and Fafnir is considered Norse symbolic for greed.
Yeah but we’re talking about a euro-centered perspective anyways since it’s a knight out to slay the dragon and not an emperor seeking council of their dragon ancestors or Quetzalcoatl being Quetzalcoatl as usual
Yeah, although Western and Eastern mythological giant flying reptiles are both called “dragons,” they’re very different creatures.
I assumed from the talk of a king and knight that these were euro dragons