Why do 🐲dragons like, hoard and guard gold?

esrbl · Apr 8, 2020

Why do they hoard/guard gold?

Erestor Arcamen · Apr 8, 2020

In Greek myth dragons were set by the gods to guard golden treasures. The reason being that dragons were the most fearsome monster and would deter would-be thieves.

The two most famous examples are the Dragon of the Golden Fleece (in the sacred grove of the god Ares), and the Dragon of the Golden Apples (in the sacred grove of the Hesperides).

In Greek drakon (the source for our word dragon) means "the watcher" from drakein the Greek verb meaning to stare.

In Greek legends dragons were also described living in the mountains of India where they guarded the sources of gold. Sometimes instead of dragons, the guardians were griffins or giant ants. But in every case, the creature simply represented something which was fearsome and...

Elthir · Apr 9, 2020

Orstring, Ornothing!

Olorgando · Apr 9, 2020

Squint-eyed Southerner said:
Orlando!
View attachment 6621

Do I (meaning my avatar) look like a friggin' Elf who had no business bopping around TH the movie?!? C'mon!

Olorgando · Apr 9, 2020

Elthir said:
May I suggest Gandolor, thus Gando for short 😇

IN other sites, that would not be an alias … nah, nah, not helpful, disguised fox.

Squint-eyed Southerner · Apr 9, 2020

Olorgando said:
Elf

"Elf"?

Yer a Wizard, 'Arry!

Olorgando · Apr 9, 2020

Squint-eyed Southerner said:
"Elf"?

Yer a Wizard, 'Arry!

And Orlando B is what?!?!?

Squint-eyed Southerner · Apr 9, 2020

Ah -- I see where the confusion lies.

Wrong Orlando, Gando.

Olorgando · Apr 9, 2020

Squint-eyed Southerner said:
Ah -- I see where the confusion lies.
Wrong Orlando, Gando.

Hey, while I was in the US 1966-1975, I never got south of "Nu Joysee" (that place "The Boss" hails from).
So there is only one association that "Blooms" in my mind with Orlando. 😆

pippin le qer · Apr 23, 2020

"Why do dragons hoard gold?
I think the hoard of gold was there first, in the Nibulingen saga giant Fafnir collects the Rheingold and it is his greed that turns him into a dragon. It is the greed that makes the dragon. Tolkien did of course knew this when he created his dragons. And I think to remember that there was an explenation given somewhere, that gold was the only sustance that was resistant against the internal heat of a dragon and the only substance the dragon could rest on. Making a dragon a very lethal version of the Princess on the pea.

CirdanLinweilin · Apr 23, 2020

Squint-eyed Southerner said:
Orlando!
View attachment 6621

...Bloom.

CL

I am so sorry. XD

Alice · Apr 24, 2020

I agree, that's the symbol of their greed. Also the gold was an evil metal in this universe

Bellerophon · May 19, 2020

Why do they hoard/guard gold?

Peter Dickinson in his wonderful-tongue-in-cheek book 'The flight of Dragons' argues for the belief that dragons really existed. Clearly, he argues, an animal that big couldn't fly in the same way that birds or bats fly as the surface area of the wing could never be sufficient to carry such weight. Instead he proposes that they were lighter-than-air animals buoyed up by internal cavities filled with hydrogen and effectively 'swimming' through the air. They would need to safely dispose of excess hydrogen to prevent a potentially explosive build up in their caves. This was done by burning it off, hence the idea that they 'breath' fire. The method of ignition he proposed was chemical; dragons secrete a substance which ignites the excess hydrogen.

I hope you're still following

Anyway this noxious secretion, often mistaken for blood in the old sagas reduced the land around the dragons lair to waste and would have left the dragon himself sleeping in a disgusting swamp unless he lined the floor with something chemically non-reactive, a big pile of gold and precious stones for example.

QED.

Aldarion · May 20, 2020

What is interesting to note is that dragons display the same corrupting influence that One Ring does: see what Smaug's gold hoard does to Thorin.

Alcuin · May 20, 2020

The corrupting influence of greed regarding a dragon’s horde also occurs in the Tale of the Children of Húrin, when Mîm the Petty-Dwarf settles on the horde of Glaurung in Nargothrond. I think dragon’s hordes inducing greed appears in classical literature, too, but no particular instances spring immediately to mind.

Sir Eowyn · May 20, 2020

"The Faerie Queene," by Edmund Spenser, has as its Book I climax one of the greatest fights with a dragon ever penned. It must be read to be believed.

There's a memorable dragon scene in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," by C. S. Lewis. Also in "The Wizard of Earthsea," by Ursula K. Le Guin, and of course, Maleficient in Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" [1959].

Now, this is not political, but a statement on greed and miserliness in general... you could say that a dragon, hoarding what he has absolutely no practical use for, is a metaphor for greed being not only fierce but also, above a certain threshold, useless.

Oh, and who could forget Madam Mim, in "The Sword in the Stone" [1963]?

Alcuin · May 20, 2020

I think it’s been discussed elsewhere on this forum that dragons hoarding and guarding gold is a metaphor for powerful, greedy people who seize the wealth of others and, as if they were dragons, lie upon their bed of gold, for which they have no use. Tolkien pushes the metaphor a little farther to make them ignorant as well:

Indeed they hardly know a good bit of work from a bad, though they usually have a good notion of the current market value; and they can’t make a thing for themselves, not even mend a little loose scale of their armor.

But they’re deadly if crossed, and like Smaug, will miss the least bit of their hoard. And of course, they also “eat” maidens, metaphorically that is.

Jordan Peterson argues that descriptions of dragons are a combination of the physical characteristics of the things that ate our biological ancestors: snakes, large predatory birds, large lizards like crocodiles, and predatory mammals like lions.

Sir Eowyn · May 20, 2020

D. H. Lawrence has much to say on them too, their symbolic nature, in his last book, "Apocalypse." Symbolic for the bad and good, of the fiery part of our natures.

Olorgando · May 21, 2020

I find it interesting that in Chinese mythology, the dragon is viewed much more positively than in the west (but not always). But I must confess that I am utterly ignorant of any details of this Chinese mythology, this is second-hand information at best.

Aldarion · May 21, 2020

Olorgando said:
I find it interesting that in Chinese mythology, the dragon is viewed much more positively than in the west (but not always). But I must confess that I am utterly ignorant of any details of this Chinese mythology, this is second-hand information at best.

I actually wrote about it some time ago:

Western and Eastern dragons – mythology, similarities and differences

(repost from my old tumblr blog) Introduction First thing that has to be considered here is that image of dragons evolved through time. Much like Chinese dragons, Western dragons in Antiquity were …

militaryfantasy.home.blog

Why do 🐲dragons like, hoard and guard gold?

es.wiki

Cat in a Coat

Resident Curmudgeon Award by Hal :-)

Resident Curmudgeon Award by Hal :-)

Lost in the Chetwood

Resident Curmudgeon Award by Hal :-)

Lost in the Chetwood

Resident Curmudgeon Award by Hal :-)

Active Member

The Wandering Wastrel

Member

New Member

Active Member

of Zarkanya

Member

of Zarkanya

Member

Resident Curmudgeon Award by Hal :-)

Active Member

Share this page

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency