Thursday 12 June 2014

Dragonslayers From Beowulf to St. George by Joseph A. McCullough (Book Review)




"With its fiery breath, scaky armour, and baleful malovent stare, the dragon became the ultimate symbol of evil and corruption in Eurioean folklore and mythology. Often serving as a stand-in for Satan, or the power of evil gods, dragons spread death and hopelessness throughout the land. Only heroes of uncommon valour, courageousness, and purity could hope to battle these monsters and emerge victorious. Those that did became dragonslayers.


"The list of dragonslayers is small, but it is filled with great and legendary names. Hercules, Beowulf, Sigurd, and St. George all battled to the death with dragons. Other heroes such as Cadmus, founder of the City of Thebes, Dieudonne de Gozon, the Knight of Rhodes, and the Russian warrior Dobrynya Nikitich, might be less well known to Western readers, but also fought and defeated dragons. This book retells the greatest legends of this select group of warriors, while examining the myth of the dragonslayer in historical, mythological, and even theological contexts."


DRAGONSLAYERS is part of the Myths and Legends. Mr. McCullough has done a superb job of putting together well researched material complete with illustrations. It covers multiple sections: Ancient Dragonslayers; Norse Dragonslayers; Holy Dragonslayers; Medieval Dragonslayers and Dragonslayers From Around the World.


Advance reading copy provided by Darrin Turpin with many thanks.


Book format: paperback, 82 pages
Publisher: Osprey Adventures


Available:


Amazon.com

Chapters Indigo

2 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Looks like this would be a very nice reference work.

Rune Eide said...

This looks quite interesting from a history/mythology point of view.