Terror, or Ruminations On Dragons

[tlvop]

People in these days speak of terror often. They speak of flames and death and suffocation and men with axes and machine guns, they speak of cold creeping cancer, of minds turned against themselves, of that ever present danger of loss.

It is an old, tired terror. It is a terror less of the thing and more of that which promises to follow—the constant litany of but I am too young to die.

That is not what terror used to be. Terror used to be long, sinuous muscle, arched back and arched neck and arched wings, covered in scales the size of small plates. Terror used to wise, angry eyes and poisonous breath and long, fearsome fangs.

Terror used to be real, used to reach back to the hindbrain and wring tears from the bravest of men, forcing heroes to their knees out of sheer ancestral horror, overwhelmed by what stood before them.

This is terror: unbridled, untamed, and undimmed by ages past.

This is the dragon.

Comments

why do I not have a dragon icon?

[cupenny.livejournal.com]

With so many fantasy books through the last few decades focusing on dragons to some degree (and I'll even mention dear old Puff), dragons, lately, have gotten 'safe'. Even when they're burning up the whole world and leaving nothing but ash, they are known- and since we fear the unknown, dragons are just another monster to deal with.

So much, that they usually aren't monsters anymore. They're allies and mentors and friends.

We don't have that fear, that wonder- that fear-of-god awe that dragons used to inspire. "Here there be dragons"- the uknown at the edge of the map, the edge of the world. The creature the size of a mountain that could hunt down the roc and leviathan that might- oh fear!- might notice us.

Humans have filled in those edges of the map, and did our best to tame anything that could be called a dragon- and I think in doing so, we've lost our respect for anything unknown and greater than ourselves. Considering what we've done to the world, I think we still need that.

*snugz* Thank you for reminding me of it.

Re: why do I not have a dragon icon?

[dictator-duck.livejournal.com]

This is why I asked you to share your thoughts. Because you always do it so well! And you have such great thoughts. Yes, a lot of it is the taming of the world, the mapping of those unknown places, that keeps fear from really being real. <33. Share what's on your mind more often! I love to hear it, you know I do. And you can actually SAY it, instead of be all sideways and ficcy. *giggles and loves*

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Oh, well said. Well said.

Wæs se grimma gæst Grendel haten,
mære mearcstapa, se þe moras heold,
fen ond fæsten; fifelcynnes eard
wonsæli wer weardode hwile,
siþðan him scyppend forscrifen hæfde
in Caines cynne.

My translation won't do this passage from Beowulf justice -- try reading the Old English aloud to hear what it sounds like -- but the passage means

That grim spirit was named Grendel, the notorious walker in the borderlands, who ruled the waste, the fen in its fastness; for a time he governed the region of monsters, the unblessed men, since the Creator had exiled him among the family of Cain.

[dictator-duck.livejournal.com]

I am late! But thank you so much! And also: thank you for sharing the Beowulf suggestion with me, I am going to get it out once I am back at school. Which translation was it you suggested, again?

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Seamus Heaney is my personal favorite, because he's really good at communicating the feeling of the poem. Also, your university library should have a hardcover edition of Heaney with the Old English on the facing page, and even if you don't understand Old English, it's great to be able to look at it.

[genarti]

I like this. I really, really do.

I like twee parody silliness dragons -- I mean that, they're fun and hilarious and all in various contexts -- but they're not the same thing as this sort. Not at all.

This is visceral, and very well put.

[genarti]

Also, for sheer self-indulgence: the use of that icon with this post makes me so happy. :D!

[dictator-duck.livejournal.com]

it was my only myffic icon! and SO PRETTY. *giggles lots* <3

[dictator-duck.livejournal.com]

Dude, I love twee parody silliness dragons too! And, uh. Even Anne McAffrey when I am being self-indulgent in the junk food lit. But--yeah. Not the same.

And :D!!! thank you. *hugs* I am glad it got across.

[cupenny.livejournal.com]

There is always room for twee, 'safe', dragons. *hugs Temeraire*



>_> And for the possibility of getting them as pets.