99 Fun Facts About Dragon

'Dragon' entered English in the 13th century via Old French from a Latin word meaning what?

Latin draco meant 'huge serpent'; the word reached English around 1220 through Old French, and its Greek root drakon is thought to derive from a verb meaning 'I see'.

Which hero sowed a dragon's teeth to raise the first warriors of Thebes?

Cadmus slew the dragon guarding a spring near the future Thebes and sowed its teeth; armed men called the Spartoi sprang from the ground and became the city's founding nobles.

Chinese dragons were traditionally thought to govern what?

Chinese dragons ruled rain, the sea and other water: farmers prayed to them for rainfall, and the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas each governed an ocean.

Under the Ming and Qing dynasties, a dragon with how many claws was reserved strictly for the emperor?

The five-clawed dragon was reserved for the emperor under the Ming and Qing; princes and high nobles were limited to four-clawed dragons, lesser officials to three.

Per the Han scholar Wang Fu, a Chinese dragon's scales resemble those of which animal?

Wang Fu's nine resemblances give the dragon the scales of a carp, plus a stag's antlers, a camel's head, a demon's eyes, an eagle's claws, a tiger's soles and a cow's ears.

Which coloured dragon appeared on the first Chinese national flag under the Qing dynasty?

The Qing 'Yellow Dragon Flag', adopted as the national flag in 1889, showed an azure dragon chasing a red pearl on a yellow ground.

The Dragon is which animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac?

The Dragon is fifth, after the Rat, Ox, Tiger and Rabbit; birth rates in Chinese communities measurably rise in Dragon years because such children are considered lucky.

The Dragon Boat Festival commemorates which ancient Chinese poet-statesman?

Qu Yuan, a poet and minister of the state of Chu, drowned himself in the Miluo River around 278 BC; legend says locals raced out in boats and threw rice to protect his body.

In 2009 the Dragon Boat Festival became the first Chinese holiday recognised by UNESCO on which list?

UNESCO inscribed the Dragon Boat Festival on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, the first Chinese festival to be listed.

The red dragon on the flag of Wales fights an invading dragon of which colour in the Mabinogion?

In the tale of Lludd and Llefelys the white dragon stood for the Saxons and the red for the Britons; the red dragon later became the badge of Henry VII.

Wales's red dragon flag became the country's official flag in which year?

The red dragon became the official national flag of Wales in 1959 by proclamation of Queen Elizabeth II; Henry VII had borne a red dragon banner after Bosworth in 1485.

The 13th-century Golden Legend places Saint George's dragon-terrorised city in which country?

Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend sets the story at the city of Silene in Libya, whereas the earliest 11th- and 12th-century versions had placed it in Cappadocia.

In the Old English epic Beowulf, what provokes the dragon that the aged king finally fights?

Beowulf kills it with the help of young Wiglaf but dies of his wounds fifty years after beating Grendel's mother.

Which of Beowulf's followers alone dares to help him against the dragon?

Wiglaf, a young kinsman of Beowulf, alone stands by him when the other retainers flee; he stabs the dragon's belly and receives the dying king's collar and armour.

In Norse legend, Fáfnir became a dragon to guard a hoard taken from which dwarf?

Loki seized the dwarf Andvari's gold, including a cursed ring, as weregild for Ótr; Fáfnir killed his father Hreiðmarr to keep it and was later slain by Sigurð with the sword Gram.

Jörmungandr, the Norse World Serpent, is the child of Loki and which giantess?

Angrboða, a giantess of Jötunheimar, bore Loki three children: the wolf Fenrir, Hel who rules the dead, and the serpent Jörmungandr, whom Odin cast into the sea around Midgard.

What does Jörmungandr do that makes him an example of an ouroboros?

Jörmungandr grew so large that he encircles Midgard and bites his own tail, the tail-eating loop that defines an ouroboros; his letting go is a sign of Ragnarök.

The Hydra slain by Heracles as his second labour lived at Lerna, reputedly an entrance to what?

Lerna's bottomless lake was reputed to be an entrance to the Underworld, which the Hydra guarded; Heracles's nephew Iolaus cauterised each neck so the heads could not regrow.

According to Hyginus, which goddess hurled the dragon Draco into the sky, where it froze at the pole?

In Hyginus's Astronomica, Athena (Minerva) snatched the dragon the Giants hurled at her and flung it spinning into the heavens, where it froze around the celestial pole.

Which star in Draco served as the northern pole star from around 3942 BC to 1793 BC?

The Egyptian pyramids' entrance passages were aligned so it would be visible at night.

Leviathan, the sea dragon of the Hebrew Bible, reflects which older Canaanite monster defeated by Baal?

Lotan, a seven-headed sea serpent smitten by Baal in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, is the linguistic and mythic ancestor of Leviathan; Hobbes borrowed the name for his 1651 treatise on the state.

Which ruler founded the Order of the Dragon, the source of Vlad Dracul's name?

Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary and later Holy Roman Emperor, founded the Order of the Dragon in 1408 to defend Christendom; Vlad II was inducted in 1431 and took the name Dracul.

A wyvern differs from a classic heraldic dragon in having how many legs?

A wyvern has two legs and a pair of wings, whereas the classic heraldic dragon has four legs; the name comes via Old French wivre from Latin vipera, 'viper'.

The Komodo dragon is native to islands of which country?

Komodo dragons live only on Komodo, Rinca, Flores and a few neighbouring Indonesian islands; the world's largest living lizard first reached Western science in 1910.

Young Komodo dragons live in trees and roll in what to deter cannibalistic adults?

Juveniles roll in faeces so that adult Komodo dragons, which readily eat young of their own species, will not treat them as prey; they stay up in trees until they are too big to be swallowed.

The first two live Komodo dragons in Europe went on show at which zoo's new Reptile House in 1927?

London Zoo's new Reptile House opened in 1927 with a pair of Komodo dragons, the first seen alive in Europe; curator Joan Procter famously walked one around the grounds on a leash.

Roughly how many facets, or ommatidia, does each of a dragonfly's compound eyes have?

Each compound eye holds roughly 24,000 ommatidia, some species approaching 30,000, giving dragonflies near all-round vision; damselflies fold their wings at rest while dragonflies hold theirs out flat.

Smaug in The Hobbit is killed by Bard the Bowman when a thrush reveals what?

Bilbo had spotted the gap while trading riddles with the dragon.

How many years before The Hobbit's events did Smaug seize the dwarf kingdom of Erebor?

Smaug took Erebor in Third Age 2770 and Bilbo's journey came in 2941, 171 years later; on the same day the dragon laid waste to the neighbouring town of Dale.

Who voiced Smaug, with performance capture, in Peter Jackson's Hobbit films?

Benedict Cumberbatch voiced Smaug and performed motion capture for him, and also supplied the voice of the Necromancer (Sauron) in the Hobbit trilogy.

Which Longfellow poem, where a bird reveals a weak spot, has been suggested as a source for Smaug's death?

In The Song of Hiawatha a woodpecker tells Hiawatha to aim at the one unprotected spot, the tuft of hair, on the wampum-armoured Megissogwon; critics have likened this to the thrush and Smaug.

The How to Train Your Dragon films are based on books by which British author?

Cressida Cowell wrote the twelve How to Train Your Dragon novels, beginning in 2003, about young Hiccup on the Viking island of Berk; the 2010 DreamWorks film adapted them loosely.

Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon belongs to which rare breed?

Jay Baruchel voiced Hiccup in the animated trilogy.

How much story time passes between the first and second How to Train Your Dragon films?

The sequel is set five years on: Hiccup has grown from fifteen to twenty, and director Dean DeBlois framed the trilogy as his coming of age.

In Game of Thrones, how does Daenerys hatch her three dragon eggs?

At the end of season one Daenerys places the eggs on her husband Khal Drogo's funeral pyre, with the witch Mirri Maz Duur bound to it as blood magic, and walks out of the flames unburnt with three hatchlings.

Which actress plays Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, on Game of Thrones?

Emilia Clarke played Daenerys across all eight seasons from 2011 to 2019, earning four Emmy nominations; Tamzin Merchant had held the role in the unaired pilot.

Mushu, the small dragon in Disney's Mulan, was demoted from family guardian for what?

Mushu lost his guardian post after failing to protect the ancestor Fa Deng, who lost his head, and was reduced to gong-ringer; the dragon was invented for the film and dropped from the 2020 remake.

Who voiced Mushu in the 1998 Mulan?

Eddie Murphy voiced Mushu in 1998, his first animated role; Mark Moseley imitated him for the direct-to-video Mulan II in 2004.

The Dragon in Shrek ends up marrying which character?

Dragon falls for Donkey when he flatters her in the castle, swallows Lord Farquaad at the wedding, and the pair have six dronkey babies by the end of Shrek 2.

'Puff, the Magic Dragon' was based on a poem by a 19-year-old student at which university?

Leonard Lipton, a 19-year-old Cornell student, typed the poem on fellow student Peter Yarrow's typewriter, inspired by Ogden Nash's 'The Tale of Custard the Dragon'.

In 'Puff, the Magic Dragon', what is the name of Puff's human playmate?

Little Jackie Paper brings Puff strings and sealing wax until he grows up and stops coming; the pair had frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.

Charizard, the dragon-like Pokémon, actually has which two in-game types?

Charizard is Fire and Flying type despite its looks; only its Mega Charizard X form gains the Dragon type. Its Japanese name is Lizardon.

Historian Adrienne Mayor argues which real discovery may have inspired ancient dragon stories?

In The First Fossil Hunters (2000) Adrienne Mayor argues that fossils of dinosaurs and mammoths, such as Protoceratops skulls seen by Scythian gold miners, inspired griffin and dragon legends.

In ancient Greek cult, as opposed to myth, drakontes were gentle figures associated with what?

Cult drakontes were benign figures of healing and wealth: the healer Asclepius was embodied by a sacred drakon at Epidaurus, and Zeus Meilichios and the Agathos Daimon, givers of wealth, were worshipped in drakon form.

Which of these famous serpent-dragons comes from Aztec, not Old World, culture?

Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent of the Aztecs and earlier Mesoamerican peoples, was worshipped at Teotihuacan by about AD 200; Vṛtra is Vedic, Níðhöggr Norse and Kulshedra Albanian.

Which country is known in its own Dzongkha language as the 'Land of the Thunder Dragon'?

Bhutan calls itself Druk Yul, 'Land of the Thunder Dragon'; its kings are the Druk Gyalpo, 'Thunder Dragon Kings', and the name comes from the Drukpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

In Egyptian myth, which giant serpent of the underworld did the sun god Ra battle every night?

Apep (Apophis), the serpent of chaos, attacked Ra's solar barque each night on its passage through the Duat and was cut down by Set and the crew; Egyptians blamed eclipses on his daytime assaults.

In Korean folklore, a lesser serpent-like dragon that hopes to become a true dragon is called what?

An imugi is a hornless proto-dragon of Korean lore; in one telling it must wait a thousand years, in another catch a Yeouiju orb fallen from heaven, before it becomes a true dragon.

The Romans' one notable original dragon myth has Regulus's army fighting a giant serpent at which North African river?

At the Bagrada river, the modern Medjerda in Tunisia, in 256 BC, Regulus's men, as Livy and Pliny tell it, killed the serpent with catapults after javelins failed; its 120-foot skin was sent to Rome.

In The NeverEnding Story, what is the name of the luckdragon who carries the young warrior Atreyu?

Falkor never needs to eat: luckdragons draw air and heat through their scales, which also makes going underwater deadly for them.

Which Disney villain transforms into a dragon at the climax of the animated film Sleeping Beauty?

Maleficent's dragon was modelled on a rattlesnake: animator Eric Cleworth wanted powerful muscles moving a bulky body over rocky ground.

Which martial arts star died six days before the Hong Kong premiere of Enter the Dragon?

Bruce Lee was only 32, and Enter the Dragon was his final completed film. Sammo Hung plays his uncredited opponent in its opening fight.

Which company's Dragon capsule was the first commercial spacecraft to attach to the International Space Station?

SpaceX chief Elon Musk named the capsule after the song Puff, the Magic Dragon, reportedly as a retort to critics who called his spaceflight plans impossible.

A 1926 expedition that returned with live Komodo dragons inspired which classic monster movie?

King Kong reached cinemas in 1933, and the expedition's leader, W. Douglas Burden, was also the man who coined the name Komodo dragon.

Dragon fruit, also called pitaya, grows on which kind of plant native to Mexico and Central America?

A cactus bears dragon fruit, and each flower opens only once, at night, when bats can pollinate it.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which dragon breed does Harry face in the first Triwizard task?

The Hungarian Horntail was built as a 40-foot fire-breathing animatronic, later shown off at the film's London premiere. In the story, Harry gets past it on his broomstick.

Bearded dragons, among the world's most popular pet reptiles, are native to which country?

Australia banned the export of its native wildlife in the 1960s, so most pet bearded dragons descend from animals smuggled out between 1974 and 1990.

Imagine Dragons built a following in Provo, Utah, before moving to which city, the hometown of Dan Reynolds?

Las Vegas is where the band recorded its first three EPs, and the name Imagine Dragons is an anagram of a phrase only its members know.

In Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, which character who befriends Chihiro can transform into a dragon?

Haku is really the spirit of the Kohaku River, and regains his memory when Chihiro recalls falling into that river years earlier.

In How to Train Your Dragon, which Viking teenager befriends and learns to ride the dragon Toothless?

Hiccup names the dragon Toothless for its retractable teeth, then builds it a prosthetic tail fin so that it can fly with him on its back.

Which Crazy Rich Asians star voices Sisu, the title creature of Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon?

Awkwafina's Sisu is the last of her kind, sought by the warrior princess Raya to save the land of Kumandra from evil spirits called the Druun.

Spyro the Dragon, the PlayStation platform hero who debuted in 1998, is famously which colour?

Purple was a late change: Spyro was first going to be green, but the developers worried he would blend in with the grass.

In Disney's Pete's Dragon, what is the name of the dragon who protects the orphan Pete and can turn invisible?

Elliott is a green dragon the townsfolk cannot see, so his clumsiness gets Pete blamed as a bringer of bad luck.

In the Dragon Ball series, which wish-granting dragon appears when all seven of Earth's Dragon Balls are gathered?

Shenron's name means God Dragon, and if he is ever destroyed the Dragon Balls stay useless until their creator remakes them.

Which actress played the warrior Yu Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

Michelle Yeoh won her Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once, becoming the first Asian winner of the Best Actress category.

Which Swedish author died in 2004, the year before The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was first published?

Stieg Larsson died of a sudden heart attack at 50, so the whole Millennium trilogy that made his name appeared after his death.

Which game designer created Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson?

Gary Gygax had earlier added a fantasy supplement to the wargame Chainmail, whose rules served as the first rule system for Dungeons & Dragons.

Which Scottish actor voiced Draco, the last remaining dragon, in the 1996 fantasy film Dragonheart?

Sean Connery was the only actor the director had in mind, because he wanted the dragon's personality to come from the man behind the voice.

In the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, which god kills Tiamat, the sea goddess later pictured as a many-headed dragon?

Marduk made the gods promise to proclaim him supreme before he would fight. Tiamat's many-headed dragon form was popularised by Dungeons & Dragons in the 1970s.

In Greek myth, which god killed the serpent-dragon Python and took over its oracle at Delphi?

Apollo's priestess at Delphi became known as the Pythia, and the Pythian Games held there marked the kill; in some tellings they were the god's penance for it.

In Greek myth, the serpent-like dragon Ladon twined around a tree in the Garden of the Hesperides to guard what?

Golden apples were the goal of Heracles's eleventh labour: in one version he shoots Ladon with an arrow, in another Atlas fetches them for him.

In Norse legend, which hero kills the dragon Fáfnir, then understands the speech of birds after tasting its blood?

Sigurd, called Siegfried in German tradition, killed the dragon by lying in a pit and stabbing it in the heart from underneath.

At Ragnarök, which Norse god kills the world serpent Jörmungandr but dies after walking only nine steps?

Thor is poisoned by the serpent's venom during the fight, so the two old enemies end up killing each other.

In Japanese myth, which storm god got the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi drunk on sake, then killed it?

Susanoo found the sword Kusanagi inside the serpent's tail, and it became part of the Imperial Regalia of Japan.

In the Rigveda, which king of the gods slays Vritra, the serpent of drought who blocks the rivers?

Indra struck with a newly forged vajra, his thunderbolt weapon, and was afterwards hailed as the slayer of the first-born of dragons.

In the Book of Revelation, which archangel leads the angels in a war in heaven against a great dragon?

Michael and his angels win, and the dragon, named in the text as the devil, is hurled down to the earth with his own followers.

Uther Pendragon, whose epithet was once read as 'the head of a dragon', fathered which legendary king of the Britons?

King Arthur's father got the name, wrote Geoffrey of Monmouth, after seeing a dragon-shaped comet; in older Welsh verse the title simply meant 'leader of warriors'.

Zmei Gorynych, a many-headed dragon fought by the hero Dobrynya Nikitich, comes from the folklore of which country?

Russia's folk epics pit heroes called bogatyri against the zmei, and one tale has dragons with three, six, nine and twelve heads beaten on successive nights.

The leafy seadragon, a fish that looks like drifting seaweed, belongs to the same family as which animals?

Seahorses are its close relatives, and as with them the male minds the eggs: a female seadragon lays up to 250 bright pink ones onto his tail.

The blue dragon, a small sea slug that floats upside down, steals stinging cells from which venomous prey?

Portuguese man o' war stings are stored in the slug's own tissues as a defence, so a person who picks one up can get a very painful sting.

The dragon blood tree, named for its blood-red sap, is native to which island group in the Indian Ocean?

Socotra belongs to Yemen, and the tree's red resin went into the varnish used by Italian violin-makers of the 18th century.

Which kitchen herb has the species name dracunculus, Latin for 'little dragon'?

Tarragon of the French kind used by cooks has sterile flowers, so it is never grown from seed and has to be propagated by dividing the roots.

The Draco lizards of Southeast Asia, nicknamed flying dragons, glide on membranes supported by which body parts?

Their ribs extend to spread the membranes, and glides of 60 metres have been recorded with a drop of only 10 metres in height.

In the Second World War, the 'dragon's teeth' were rows of concrete pyramids built to block what?

Tanks were slowed by the teeth and channelled into killing zones, and land mines were often laid in the gaps between them.

Ha Long Bay, whose name means 'descending dragon', lies on the northern coast of which country?

Vietnam's legend says the gods sent a family of dragons to fight off invaders, and the jewels and jade they spat out became the bay's islands.

Which part of Hong Kong has a name meaning 'nine dragons', a count of eight mountains and one emperor?

Kowloon counts eight peaks, Lion Rock among them, and adds Emperor Bing of Song, a child who was the last ruler of his dynasty.

According to legend, the Wawel Dragon lived in a cave beneath the castle hill of which Polish city?

Kraków now has a dragon statue below the castle that breathes real fire. In the legend the beast is killed with bait stuffed with sulfur.

Which European capital has a dragon on its coat of arms and a Dragon Bridge guarded by four dragon statues?

Ljubljana's dragon sits on top of the castle tower in the city's arms, and sixteen smaller dragons decorate the bridge besides the famous big ones.

The Drakensberg, named the Dragons' Mountains by Dutch settlers, borders which landlocked African country?

Lesotho meets the range at its highest stretch, over 3,000 metres up, and nobody knows who first named these mountains after dragons, or why.

House of the Dragon, set nearly 200 years before Game of Thrones, is based on which George R. R. Martin book?

Fire & Blood came out in 2018, and the series opens about a century after the Targaryen conquest united the Seven Kingdoms.

In a traditional Chinese dragon dance, the dragon is led by a performer holding a ball that represents what?

A pearl stands for wisdom, so the routine in which the dragon chases it shows the creature forever in pursuit of knowledge.

Which Japanese company released the fantasy trivia arcade game Quiz & Dragons in 1992?

Capcom mixed role-playing heroes with a board game for its quiz quest, the first game worked on by Hideaki Itsuno, later of the Devil May Cry series.

The 1983 arcade game Dragon's Lair, starring the knight Dirk the Daring, was animated by which former Disney animator?

Don Bluth's hand-drawn scenes played from a LaserDisc, giving the game film-quality animation when rivals still drew their heroes as sprites.

In chess, the Dragon Variation, said to be named after the constellation Draco, is a line of which opening?

Sicilian Defence players get there by posting a bishop on g7; the master Fyodor Dus-Chotimirsky claimed he coined the name in 1901 after seeing the stars in Black's pawns.

Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels reimagine which real conflict with dragons fighting as an air force?

The Napoleonic Wars pull Captain William Laurence out of the Royal Navy and into the Aerial Corps when a captured egg hatches and the dragon Temeraire picks him.

In Tolkien's The Silmarillion, which wingless fire-drake is described as the Father of Dragons?

Glaurung could also bend minds: he wiped the memory of Nienor, sister of the hero Túrin, and it came back only when the dragon died.

Which author of the Dragonriders of Pern series was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction?

Anne McCaffrey won it in 1968 for the novella Weyr Search, which tied for the prize and went on to open Dragonflight, the first Pern novel.

In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which dragon called the World-Eater must the Last Dragonborn defeat?

Alduin once ruled the dragons, until three human warriors used an Elder Scroll to throw him forward in time.

In Pokémon, which type did the developers add in X and Y to balance the powerful Dragon-type?

Fairy was the first new type since Pokémon Gold and Silver, and it was handed to old Pokémon as well as to new ones.