Many books, TV series, and movies have included dragons as characters designed to frighten us. By looking at some popular works of fiction, we can work out which of these dragons has had the greatest impact and caused the most fear….

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How Dragons Entered Popular Culture

Before looking at a few specific examples, it’s worth taking a moment to consider how these mythical creatures appear in legends across the planet, with the earliest evidence appearing in Mesopotamian art. From Apep in Ancient Egypt to Cetus in Greek mythology and the story of Saint George slaying a dragon, we can find examples in about every culture since then.

David E. Jones suggests in his book An Instinct for Dragons, released in 2000, that dragons are present in every culture because our built-in fear of snakes and birds of prey caused us to imagine winged, snake-like creatures. Our repulsion yet fascination with dragons has led to them appearing in many parts of popular culture where a dangerous and greedy enemy is needed. Yet, in Chinese culture dragons are seen as symbols of power and good luck with 2024 being the Year of the Dragon. Bruce Lee was famously born in a previous Year of the Dragon, in 1940, and this was considered a good omen for his future.

Source: Pexels/Pexels

The Chinese view of dragons as noble and intelligent helps to explain why these creatures are used for more positive reasons, such as dragon tattoos symbolizing courage and strength, or home decorations aimed at bringing good fortune. Dragons have also been traditionally used in casino games such as slots or the Dragon Tiger card game that’s found in some Asian casinos and has a simple format similar to Baccarat. 

Growing diversity in the online casino world has led to new games and themes being added in the last few years, as we can see by looking at some of the latest roulette titles. Dragon Roulette and Double Dragon Roulette take the traditional setup for this game and add animated dragons to create a different kind of atmosphere. Rather than being simply images added to decorate the screen, these dragons play a part in the gameplay by spitting out randomly generated numbers on each spin that act as multipliers to potentially increase any win. Apart from that, the usual rules of American roulette apply and different bets like red or black, straight up, split, and columns can all be made.

With that said, dragons can be found in every corner of culture and entertainment, each with individualistic depictions ranging from monstrous to lucky – but which have been branded the scariest?

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The Dragon in Beowulf

Art by Paolo Puggioni

The epic poem Beowulf was written in Old English, possibly in the 7th century, and is the first piece of English literature to mention a hero who goes into battle with a dragon and slays it. The unnamed dragon is the third beast that the hero encounters after it has brutally attacked the land and homes of Beowulf’s hometown.

Their battle is the climax of the poem, with the hero unable to defeat the terrifying dragon until the warrior named Wiglaf returns to help Beowulf. While it may not be the most terrifying on the list, it being the first to appear in English literature was undoubtedly scary for its contemporary readers. Beowulf’s creature is also said to have inspired modern fiction writers like J. R. R. Tolkien by shaping our view of how the creatures would go into battle against human opponents, highlighting its major influence to this day.       

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Smaug in The Hobbit

Tolkien’s 1937 book The Hobbit features a greedy, wicked dragon called Smaug. He terrorized Erebor over 170 years before the events that took place in the story, gathering a huge amount of treasure and causing the locals to live in fear. The book tells us the story of how Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, and the rest of the group we know from the The Lord of the Rings trilogy travel across the realm to reclaim the kingdom.  

Having studied Beowulf extensively while working as an English Literature professor at Oxford University between 1925 and 1945, Tolkien became an expert on the poem, but he created a different kind of dragon for The Hobbit. Smaug is clever and wily rather than relying purely on brute force. The second in the movie series – subtitled The Desolation of Smaug and released in 2013 – revealed the devastation he had caused to the land while Benedict Cumberbatch provided a suitably superior and over-confident voice for the dragon. 

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Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon

Both of these series are based on George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire books which include several dragons as key characters. The background to the first novel is that Aegon I Targaryen had used the last surviving dragons to take control of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. When the final dragon died, it gave the other factions in the land the chance to seize power from the ruling family, showing how feared these beasts were. The premier of House of the Dragon in 2022 attracted more than 10 million viewers to HBO as fans tuned in to see how the story began.

These examples help to show us how dragons have played distinct roles in major works of fiction, from centuries ago to our modern day. The idea of a fearsome, fire-breathing creature continues to fascinate us so we can expect to see more of them in the future.