Tolkien: On Dragons and Dinosaurs · 7:27pm Dec 18th, 2022
I went to a very good lecture this week at the Oxford Museum of Natural History, by JRR Tolkien. Not quite in flesh—the museum does not have access to the writer himself (he died in 1973) any more than they have any live dinosaurs, but they were able to reproduce his spirit in about the most convincing way possible without resorting to the sort of necromancy that would not be approved by the university ethics committee.
In the course of rummaging through the archives and researching the history of the museum, staff had come across the transcript of a public lecture delivered by Tolkien in 1938, on the subject of ‘Dragons and Dinosaurs’, with the magic lantern slides he used. With these materials, they enacted a rerun with Professor John Holmes as a substitute Tolkien.
The result was a delightful experience. Holmes played the part well. You could spot Tolkien’s narrative style, talking about dragons with the same charm and humour that he describes mythical beasts to a young audience in The Hobbit and The Father Christmas Letters. He had a small sword as a prop, which was waved around to demonstrate the correct way to kill a dragon.
Tolkien introduced a selection of dinosaurs: the stegosaurus, iguanodon, triceratops, but admitted they came from a period that was not well acquainted with. He then explained that there are an enormous number of breeds of dragons. He briefly mentioned many, but focussed on the Anglo Saxon wyrm and Germanic and Norse dragons, of which he knew the most, telling tales of Beowulf and Sigmund. He also frequently mentioned the experiences of Mr Bilbo Baggins. The lecture was followed by a panel discussion including modern researchers in paleobiology and the dragons of medieval literature.
It seems our perspective on dinosaurs has changed since 1938. In those days they were presented as creatures from a past Age of Terror when huge monsters walked the earth. These days researchers talk about them as components of an ancient ecosystem that followed similar predator-prey relationships to our own. Yet the old terrors are still alive and well in the Jurassic Park franchise (and elsewhere).
Dragons are fundamentally different to dinosaurs as they are not wild animals but creatures of human imagination. They are Evil. A concept that Tolkien understood well as a good Catholic. Highly intelligent and cunning, they accumulate and guard vast hoards of treasure but derive no benefit from it.
There are many different types of dragons. Chinese dragons are clearly respected, but considered quite separate from European dragons. Likely to be a separate species. One breed that Tolkien did not mention at all, but which has multiplied since his day as much as plush toy dinosaurs, is the cute and cuddly domestic dragon (draco domesticus). A breed that is not well respected by serious scholars of dragonlore—some, with a definite hint of intellectual snobbery, question whether these really count as dragons.
And in the case of Spike and Sparky, the question is addressed quite comprehensively: they're cladistically speaking dragons, but have evolved for a world that no longer tolerates evil.
I am consumed with jealousy that you were able to attend such a thing as this.
That said, I also thank you for sharing. For those of us who can't hop across the pond, having you tell us about it is a welcome substitue!
What sort of necromancy is approved by the university ethics committee?
Then theres Draco Nobilis, Swamp dragons, and Lunar Dragons, and Errol?
As well as a huge range of possibilites because the range of dragon capabilites on Equestria have not yet been Observed, yet they are still to be Fixed and Selected?
I vote we start a petition to bring back J.R.R. Tolkien using advanced cloning techniques.
I don't know how reliable the etymology is, but I'd read somewhere that the word for "dragon" was derived from the Ancient Greek drakon, which roughly meant "eye" or "watcher". The idea of dragons as guardians of treasure overlaps slightly with that of griffins/gryphons, but it seems to have been more in the neutral sense (similar to how Egyptian Sphinxes were guardians of tombs rather than Hera-led sadistic monsters). I think it's more in the Middle Ages, during the time of Christian social and political dominance (maybe influenced by prior Norse depictions too?), when dragons were associated with serpents and Satan.
It always interests me how dinosaurs and their Mesozoic contemporaries capture the popular imagination more than, say, Cenozoic mammals or Palaeozoic fish and synapsids. Like, there's just nothing alive that adequately compares. Our dominant predators are furry quadrupeds like wolves, lions, and polar bears, none of which reach elephantine or cetacean proportions, yet scaly bipeds (or, these days, ones with proto-feathers) existed that were so big, they could eat elephants for breakfast.
You can compare some with birds or crocodiles, but that misses the massive scale, and the more of one they seem, the less of the other they can be. Even the herbivores seem more hardcore: since we lost the glyptodonts, we don't have an adequate frame of reference to understand armoured dinosaurs like Ankylosaurus, but with rhinos around or not, horned dinosaurs like Triceratops still seem exotic and bigger than life. To say nothing of land-whale behemoths like Brachiosaurus and Argentinosaurus.
Given that we don't have adequate analogues for dragons either (certainly not Komodo Dragons), it seems oddly natural to mix the two together. Or maybe we just like big scary reptiles (I know I do!).
I wish I had a funny comment to make, but alas, grasping at straws here. That, or I’m just tired. Regardless, that sounded like a fascinating lecture, and I’m grateful you shared its existence and highlights with your commentary. Tolkien certainly had quite the way of writing and thinking on fantasy and science alike…
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I vote we bring back Tolkien using dark rites at his graveside, as there are a number of modern authors whose brains I would like to see him devour.
And yet another example of the Bureaucracy standing in the way of good, wholesome entertainment...
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Well, I believe it's London University that has a dead professor, Jeremy Bentham, who still attends faculty meetings, so there must be some guidelines!
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I've never asked.
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That might set a precedent, which could see senior professors raising all sorts of historical figures in order to settle scores with their academic rivals. I don't think the university would want to encourage that.
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The 274 year old Jeremy Bentham receives public visitors between 7am and 7pm. I was introduced to him by a friend at University College London. I have heard conflicting reports about his voting rights in meetings.
Any dracologist who sneers at D. domesticus is welcome to take it up with their still-fiery breath.
Palœontology has many scary monsters. The 1st fully terrestrial landmonsters were the Gorgonopsids. The mightiest Gorgonopsid known was Inostrancevia:
Inostrancevia
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Inostrancevia_preys_on_a_juvenile_Scutosaurus.png
Unlike dinosaurs, who are archosaurs, gorgonopsids are therapsids, which means that they are closer to ponies than dragons.