Fan Girl Friday - Beowulf's Dragon

And then they all groaned.

"We hated it when we had to read it in high school, and we hate it now."

Well, haters gon' hate, ain't they? But if you could stop your kvetching for long enough to actually read Beowulf I bet you would find a lot to love. I know I do.

Recently the dragon has been on my mind - an not just because of the Cumberperson's performance in The Hobbit films, although I must say that dragon and Beowulf's dragon have a lot in common. The main difference is of course that Bilbo Baggins succeeded where the likes of Beowulf failed. (Sure Beowulf killed the Dragon, but he died in the process. Maybe we'll call it a draw.)

The dragon captures my imagination for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which being that I am generally enamored of dragons. My sister was into unicorns, but for me it was all about those scaly, fire breathing beasts of lore. They are so fierce, so majestic, so formidable. They are basically everything that I am not. I think that we can safely blame Bruce Coville for the genesis of my fascination. There was life before Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher and there was life after. After, of course being when I became the semi-nerd I am today. Soon after, I began collecting dragon figurines and lusting after the types of boys who collected comic books, listened to Weird Al and Rob Zombie with equal gusto, and who played role playing games (dragons optional).

This needs to be a movie. Image.

Many years passed. My infatuation with these cryptids waned, but my knowledge of them remained. Then, one day I found myself in Dr. Yeager's Anglo Saxon Poetry class at UWF and wouldn't you know, we were talking about dragons. Specifically, what the dragon means in Beowulf. You see, he isn't just some monster that our hero has to fight. No, no. He is a symbol of the downfall and ultimate demise of the entire civilization.

How?

You see, the dragon is very covetous of this stash of gold he's sleeping on. A stash of gold, might I add, that really doesn't belong to him. He found it. It was amassed by the lone survivor of a civilization that was wiped out by some terrible war. The poor guy who was left had all this gold and armour, but without any friends to share it with, it was meaningless. So he piled it all into a cave and basically mourned himself to death over the loss of his comrades.

Enter the dragon. The dragon likes the treasure. It feels good on his scales. It's shiny like fire, and if there's one thing dragons love, it's fire. So, he takes up residence in the cave with the gold. Everything is fine until one day a desparate man fleeing some sort of injustice
happens upon the cave. He is terrified of the dragon, but he also has no money, so he swipes a cup before making a hasty exit.

He looks very smug, doesn't he? Myles Pinkney

Dragons are apparently very much like accountants. Every coin, cutlass, and cup are accounted for. When the dragon wakes up, he knows immediately that he has been robbed. He then goes on a tear and starts burning up the countryside because someone stole a cup from his cave. Nevermind that this treasure was the amassed economic worth of an entire tribe of people. Nevermind the fact that he still had the majority of a treasure that wasn't his to begin with. He needed his cup.

This scenario stirs my imagination. The dragon reminds me very much of another creature who collects treasure that aren't really theirs and then hoards them. HOARDERS. Let me first say that I hate the shows that seem to do nothing but exploit these people's very real psychological and emotional problems. I am not basing my thesis on television. I have seen those types of situations first hand. Hoarding is not funny. Neither is the dragon.

There is a specific type of hoarder that likes to amass things that aren't really theirs to begin with. The unwanted possessions of people who have died or gone away. Ubi sunt? Sometimes they purchase these things. Sometimes they "find" them. The truth of the situation is always the same though. "It is his to seek out [treasure] in the earth, where he guards for ages heathen gold; gains nothing by it." They amass all this stuff that doesn't belong to them and it ultimately destroys their homes, their families, and ultimately their lives. And for what? A bunch stuff that wasn't really theirs in the first place that they shamelessly covet.

This observation, dear friends and gentle readers is the beginning of what I hope will be an interesting short story about hoarding based on Beowulf and the dragon.