Dragons: A Natural History

by Karl Shuker, Desmond Morris (Contributor)

An overview of the world of dragons, from ancient Greece and medieval Europe to pre-Columbian America and ancient China, features lore about the origins, feats, and histories of these mysterious beasts

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Mythology, Fiction, Art, Reference, Cryptozoology

120 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Dr. Karl P.N. Shuker BSc PhD FRES FZS is a zoologist who is internationally recognised as a world expert in cryptozoology (the scientific investigation of mystery animals whose existence or identity has yet to be formally ascertained), as well as in animal mythology and allied subjects relating to wildlife anomalies and inexplicabilia. He obtained a BSc (Honours) degree in pure zoology at the University of Leeds (U.K.), and a PhD in zoology and comparative physiology at the University of Birmingham (U.K.). He is now a freelance zoological consultant and writer, living in the West Midlands, England.

Reviews

[Katrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a great book! sometimes the less popular ones are actually the best. this one was a joy to read. dragons and dragon-like creatures from allover the world, explained with a map, with stories and myths, lots of pictures and illustrations and the most important information, compact and entertaining. this book goes into my collection for sure, what a beautiful tome.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great fun. The book is a collection of 2-6 page entries on various dragons, their legends, and stories. These are roughly organized in chapters that have some commonality, like air-dragons or neo-dragons. Each is bookmarked by a an introduction based on the commonality and coda that often focuses on a related cryptid.

Many of the entries are straight tellings of dragon myths, and a lot of the classics including St. George, Fafnir, and Tiamat are here. Others are more obscure including dragon-birds from Illinois and Swedish lindorms. Then there are explanations of deeper mythic dragons, like Quetzalcoatl. Through all of this is a low-key belief that serpentine monsters might still be lurking somewhere in the world. This gives a feel that the author truly sees himself as a dracontologist. This makes it a nice companion to more light-hearted fare like Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons.

Don't take this as an implication that this is a kid's book. Even though I was reading it to my 5-year-old, the vocabulary is very complex (and veering towards the bombastic in many cases). Definitely worth a read.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karl Shuker managed to collect an assortment of folktales and myths regarding what would be considered dragons. Or rather how the image of dragons have changed over the centuries.

From the serpent dragons or worms (dominantly no legs) to the semi-dragons which include wyverns which may have wings but usually have only one set of rear legs to the classic dragons that we are used to seeing in storybooks and fantasy novels with four legs that breath fire and may or may not have wings to the sky dragons which the Japanese and Chinese dominate the niche. Then there are what Shuker calls the neo-dragons - creatures derived from dragons like the cockatrice, basilisk and hydra.

And then the future of dragons and the author uses a airbrushed motorcycle gas tank & windscreen with an image of a fire-breathing dragon head and the proposed possibility that dragons are just creatures that we still haven't managed to find even with the extensive exploration of the planet that we've done.

Lavishly illustrated with a variety of artists from medieval manuscripts to noted artists that illustrated fairy tales, adventure tales and myths for the younger people - Arthur Rackham comes to mind.

2021-119

[Tricia Griffith · Rating 5 out of 5]

So nice to read a "history" of dragons that isn't purely fictional! I found this book very enlightening and fun to read.

[Una Tiers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information awesome pictures.

[Jason Cummins · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories and lore about various dragons and serpents were quite interesting. Many were also quite humorous such as the story of the guiver that was frightened away by the sight of a naked farmer.

[Sparrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read the introduction to this book, I thought it would be rather boring. Boy, was I wrong! Reading about the different types of dragons in mythological story form was fascinating!

[Joseph F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfectly fun little book about dragons, filled with dragon types and their myths and legends.
Beautifully illustrated.
If you have been involved with reading mythology, then there will be only a few more surprises here for you to appreciate.
Shuker categorizes the book concerning dragon types, such as serpents, lindorms, wyverns, classical dragons, semi-dragons, neo-dragons, etc.
For the most part the system works, but a few places I have to scratch my head.
I've never heard of the dragon Siegfried slays as a lindorm (two-legged dragon). It was always simply a dragon in The Song of the Nibelungs and The Saga of the Volsungs. But maybe in some version somewhere, it's called a lindorm.
The dragon Tiamat he calls a semi-dragon. Why semi-dragon????
Scholars argue whether or not Tiamat is a dragon at all, since she is primarily a goddess of the ocean.
But then again, maybe that's why he calls her a semi-dragon?
The book is subtitled A Natural History, so in a tongue-in cheek manor I guess that's why the author insists on pigeonholing every dragon as if it's a distinct species. He even goes on to accept the possibility that certain dragon legends may be based on as yet undiscovered creatures that are dragon like.
I'm more skeptical. For example, when the Loch Ness Monster is mentioned, he doesn't reveal that the famous photo that was seen as evidence was shown to be a hoax by the photographer on his death bed.
Sadly I'm afraid I'm a bit of a cynic.
But I still love dragons!

[Nuno Almeida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quando peguei no livro não tinha as expectativas corretas, vindo de um dos poucos criptozoologistas que respeita o método científico pensei tratar-se de um estudo exaustivo com uma vertente de biologia. Em vez disso é um livro ligeiro, amplamente ilustrado e quase-exclusivamente virado para a mitologia, que resume algumas dezenas de lendas famosas envolvendo dragões ou criaturas semelhantes. Nessa perspetiva é uma leitura cativante, ainda que saiba a pouco.

[Juliette · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting read!
It was nice to see how much dragons are present in the folklore of different countries in the world even though Great Britain harbors a lot of them.
It was so fascinating that the author tried to explain what the witnesses could have seen and it mostly gets back to some sort of dinosaurs that we believed to be extinct.
It made me realize that we don't know everything about our fauna.

[Aria Hancock · Rating 4 out of 5]

My grandma gave me this book like 10 years ago, I’m glad to have finally gotten around to reading it! It’s a good collection of dragon stories from all over the world, categorized by type (lindworms, wyvrens, Asian dragons, European dragons, etc.). Some of the stories I already knew, but some were new to me. The illustrations were nice too, it’s cool to see all the different visual interpretations :]

[RodGalSan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo leí hace casi 3 años y no deja de fascinarme. No solo muestra los diferentes tipos de dragones que existen, desde los dragones-serpiente como Jörmundgander, la serpiente de Midgard, pasando por la Tarasque, hasta llegar a los dragones de China como el Tien Lung de China o los dragones de Japón como Yamata No Orochi, que fue asesinado por el dios de las tormentas Susanoo.

[Eden Silverfox · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book on the history of Dragons. It's myths and legends. Some classic stories involving Dragons.

I love Dragons which is why I decided to give this a read. But I honestly found it rather dull and it was hard to keep interest.

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains the variant of “King Lindorm” that I first came across (pgs. 40-43). In this version, the childless queen eats two onions in order to have children- but in her haste does not peel the first onion...

[MaggiCat Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delight! Quick and easy dragon myths from around the world including: Aztecs, French, Babylonian, English, Chinese, Japanese, Norse, Greek, Jamaican, German, Italian, Egyptian, and more. Intriguing illustrations and photos of artwork paired with each entry (most of which are about 4 pages).

[Siyka · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was really interesting for me to read all the stories and descriptions of dragons/monsters. And I liked that there were suggestions of what animal in real life could have been the origin of the legend.

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like dragons? Curious about what they are really like? Grab this book that tells all you need to know.

[Ericka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was fun to read, simple and nice to learn about the tales that exist about the dragons.

[Anie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a charming book, with beautiful art and an excellent survey of dragon legends organized in a naturalistic fashion.

[Luana Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite fun and entertaining, and beautifully illustrated

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who loves dragons, this is a neat, detailed little book about all of the dragons created by the imagination of humans over the entire world of time and space.

[Mollie Connelly-MacNeill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing resource on dragon mythology from all over the world. The art and stories included were super helpful and entertaining. A great research resource.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about the mythology of Dragons and several real species that may have inspired these tales.

[Tiffany Tigges · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Dragons: A Natural History" is great for what it is—a general introduction to dragons and their prevalence across societies and cultures.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting. By the intro and the description of the book I thought it would try to provide strong proof and examples to its argument of the existence of dragons, however, it was an entire book of fairy tales and legends of various reptiles (with many concessions as to how many of them were false) and I could never keep track of whether the author did believe in dragons or did not. Finished the book and I am still unsure of his argument, although I did receive some inspiration from the stories, I did not enjoy this book because of the confusion.

[Cathy Michaels Greunke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provided an assortment of stories and information about dragons, some familiar, some not. I like dragons a lot in artwork, so I wanted to explore the stories further. Unfortunately, I borrowed a library copy with a few pages missing so I hope some day I can get my hands on an undamaged copy. In any case, I liked reading the stories with the descriptions and speculation, fun use of language in the story-telling. As another review said, "bombastic."

[SmarterLilac · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd discussion of dragon myths and their (possible) zoological inspirations. There are some very strange things in this book, including some folk legends I'd never heard of, like that of the lindorm. I found the author's coy, 'Is this stuff 'real' or not?' tone annoying, but still gave this to a dragon enthusiast family member for the holidays.

[Fabio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming book. From the Lambton worm to Quetzalcoatl, this book is a comprehensive catalog of Dragons and will prove satisfying if you enjoy knowing things like the difference between a Wyvern and a Lindorm (both are dragons with two legs, but the former has wings too). Other notable appearances include the Bunyip, the Piasa, the Sirrush of Babylon and the Chinese Long Wang.

[Marta Adamcova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ako milovníčka drakov, histórie, povier a mýtov som si túto zbierku zo sveta drakov skutočne vychutnala. Mapa sveta drakov, draci, polodraci, draci s hadím telom, nebeskí draci, rytierske i hrôzostrašné príbehy, všetko som tu našla. :-) A tie začiatky: Kdysi dávno, v dobách na úsvitu věků pro národy všech světadílů draci, gryfové a podivní tvorové vládci byly vod, nebe i ohně...

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the myths and stories about the different dragons and skipped the parts about where they wrote about what real animal the stories may have come from.

The stories were interesting and the rest I found a bit boring which is why I skipped it.