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OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Twice-nominated Astounding Award finalist JENN LYONS lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, her cats and a nearly infinite number of opinions on anything from Sumerian mythology to the correct way to make a martini. After spending thirty years working as a graphic artist, art director, and video game producer (in that order), Lyons now spends her days writing fantasy. She traces her geek roots back to playing first edition Dungeons & Dragons in grade school—a passion she’s continued as an adult—as well as pursuing whatever craft or skill she’s obsessed with this week: pyrography, beadwork, stenography, furniture upholstery, etc. Her five book epic fantasy series, A Chorus of Dragons, begins with The Ruin of Kings.

#1: Thor vs. Jörmungandr

This battle from Norse mythology is between Miðgarðsormr (the Midgard Serpent, also known by his name Jörmungandr, the giant oceanic sea serpent or dragon), and the most famous of Odin’s sons, Thor, the God of Storms (Thunder, lightning, sacred groves, and strength). Now, starting with a breakdown of this sea serpent’s name, we come to a reduction in two parts. Jorman which is something superhuman or vast—all-encompassing and large. The second half is Gandr which refers to several things such as: river or fjords, snakes, binding. These takes are going to be important later and come back, but for now, it’s fair to consider this monster exactly what his name implies: an all-encompassing serpent, one who encircles the waters of the world, which is quite literally what he did.

The battle between the Midgard Serpent and Thor happens during Ragnarök, the foretold events in where the Norse gods will perish and a series of catastrophic natural disasters will occur as well. It’s important to know that in the Norse legends the epic battle between Thor and Jörmungandr never actually happens. It is foretold and impending. It is predicted that in the last meeting, Thor will better the great sea serpent after it releases its tail from its mouth. Using his powers of lightning and his trusty hammer, Mjölnir, Thor is predicted to slay the great Midgard Serpent.

Only…it is also foretold that the great god of thunder will fall after nine steps due to being poisoned by the serpent’s venom.

Now, why was it important to lead with this myth, which you might already be familiar with, first? Because going into the second myth, we’re going to see something else familiar—a pattern within many of the earlier dragon slayer myths. Particularly in who the dragon slayers are. Usually storm gods in fact. But the similarities don’t just stop there often times.

#2: Indra vs. Vṛtrá (or Vritra)

Here we begin with Indra, the Vedic storm god who wields the mighty Vajra, a tool imbued with the properties of a diamond (indestructability) as well as a thunderbolt. Starting to sound familiar? Well, the word Vajra happens to be a cognate with the Persian word for club, and in fact has often been referred to as a proto club—at times interpreted as an axe or hammer because its relation to the Proto-West-Uralic word, Vasara, which translates to those. But in the end, it is a blunt instrument that has all the powers to hurl lightning bolts.

Now we have two storm gods so far with blunt instruments famed for their abilities to harness all the powers of a storm. (Side note: It’s important to know that Indra also has another name in the Vedas which is Parjanya (this will be important later)).

So let’s examine his opponent, Vritra, one of the Danavas (a part of the Asuras – who often oppose the Devas or traditional gods of Vedic and Hindu myths). In the battle between Indra and Vritra, it’s told that Vritra takes the form of a three-headed dragon who ends up blocking the all of the rivers, and this is fitting given that Vritra serves as the personification of drought. Vritra’s name literally means to cover or the obstacle – the one obstructing or holding back all the waters. Or, another take is the one encircling them. Now we’re seeing some similarities to Jörmungandr outside just the superficial of giant sea serpent fighting a lightning god. 

In the Rig Veda (an ancient collection of Indian Vedic hymns in Sanskrit), it’s mentioned that our evil serpent here kept all the waters of the world held hostage until he was killed by Indra, which earned Indra the epithet Vṛtrahan, or the slayer of Vritra and or the slayer of the first bond of dragons). It’s important to note this distinction because as we evolve our dragon slaying myths over time, our style of dragons that we choose also began to change. Our earliest dragons in myths and epics were not the traditional European variant we see often dominating fiction today.

No.

They were colossal oceanic serpents large enough to encircle the world and in fact hold all those bodies of water hostage, whether quite literally, or simply by the fear of their size and wrath lurking in all that water. Who would want to approach any bit of sea or ocean knowing such a monstrosity lay within?

Our earliest dragon slayers were storm gods battling sea serpents, and it’s quite the popular trope you could say. Because many other cultures have their stories of slaying dragons well before we get to the idea of knights on horses. So let’s get to another one.

#3: Hadad (or Baal, or Iskur – man/god of many names) vs. Lotan, the many headed dragon

Alrighty then. Stepping into the ring at a set of unknown but mythological proportions is Hadad, the Sumerian and Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian storm and rain god (seeing a theme here) of the Baal Cycle (also the Epic of Baal…also known as Hadad. Still following? Because it’s almost as if not only did storm gods vs. dragons become a popular trope, but that their mantles/names traveled and were adopted/co-opted, shared as well).

And his opponent, coming in at no surprise hopefully by this point, yet another giant sea serpent, Lotan! Now, Lotan is a servant of the god Yam, a god of the sea whom had problems with Baal/Hadad on account of the latter having a feud with his father, El. So, we see the repeated theme as well of the seas (and its creatures – creature, singular in these cases, a serpent) being in conflict with the sky (or the one who presides over it and the rest of the heavens and storms). 

Lotan’s name is most commonly associated with the word coiled, or the coiled one. However, the same beast has some epithets as well that usually translate to: the wriggling serpent, and the might one with seven heads – or seven headed serpent. There isn’t much between the battle of Baal/Hadad vs Lotan except for records that it happened in the myths, but still, as far as the history of serpents goes, it seems they usually get the short end of the stick.

Blamed for seducing humans in many stories, temptation, and riling up storm gods who end up smiting them.

#4: Zeus vs Typhon

Zeus probably doesn’t need much introduction to any of you. What, famous from his loving and wondrous (see wondrously inaccurate) portrayal in the animated Disney film from 90’s, to recent popular portrayals in retellings or works like Lore Olympus.

Chief of the Olympians. Dudebro. Probably always skips leg day. And of course, another sky (see storm as well) father. Hurler of lightning bolts. Likes smiting things. Lots of family issues. This probably stems with having to fight members of his family.

A good and fitting example of this? Well, Typhon, who, depending on which iteration of the myths you’re considering is Zeus’: uncle (via birth through Gaia and Tartarus), or a brother sired by Zeus’ father, Cronus, and oddly enough, a step son in one accounting that says Typhon was birthed by Hera (Zeus’ wife) alone.

Anyways, Typhon wanted to overthrow Zeus and rule the heavens all for himself. That’s a scary proposition considering that Typhon is noted in the Hesiod to be terrible, lawless and immensely powerful. From his shoulders sprouted one hundred snake heads that spew fire and every kind of noise and destructive things. He is also referred to as a fearful dragon. He would roar from these draconic heads with the voice of a lion, but also a furious eagle, and that of a bellowing bull, and every kind of noise imaginable to form ungovernable fury. And did I mention he could breathe fire? He took the dragon bit very seriously from all the heads and flame, and let’s not forget his gargantuan size, being said to stand so tall his head (in his human esque form) brushed the stars.

So, how did Zeus slay him? You guessed it. LIGHTNING BOLT. Lightning bolt. And just for good measure, another lightning bolt. Interestingly enough, his own son (Apollo) would go on to have a similar battle (though he’s not a storm god but rather a solar deity) with the monstrous serpent, Python.

Time for another dragon slayer myth. Can you guess who the next hero might be? That’s right, another storm god! Who’d’ve thunk?

#5: Marduk vs. Tiamat

Marduk is a Sumerian storm god (as well as solar) from ancient Mesopotamia, particularly favored and worshiped by the city of Babylon. He came to be associated with the planet Jupiter (which if you know your myths, you know is the Roman association and name for Zeus – wow, another similarity).

When Tiamat, who is often considered a primordial dragon/serpent of chaos decides to wage war against a younger generation of gods (which includes Marduk) which leads to Marduk eventually slaying her by harnessing the four winds and the storms as his weapons, and then fashioning the world from her corpse (the city of Babylon being the center and jewel of this creation).

#6: Perun vs. Veles

If that name sounds familiar, you might just be a Wheel of Time fan. Yes, Jordan’s loveable, reserved at times, hardworking blacksmith was inspired by the Slavic god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, war, and oak trees. His weapons were the hammer and axe and bow. And as you can guess, this storm god slew the chimeric being, Veles, who is often depicted as a dragon. It’s important to note that Slavic dragons are chimeras (and in this case a specific combination of bear and serpent).

Interestingly enough, Veles shares close connection through etymology and myths with Vala (another Vedic dragon/serpent being), and other characters of Baltic mythology such as Velnias (a devilish and destructive being in Lithuanian mythology and the enemy of their storm god Perkunas).

Remember the name Parjanya? Well, it’s theorized they are cognates (as we’re seeing with the storm god vs dragon motif and gods whose names are similar sounding – this can turn into a etymology class and the history of Proto Indo European mythology and a particular sky father though, so let’s avoid that and stick to the main topic).

Next up, we travel as far east as east goes.

#7: Susanoo vs. Orochi

Sorry Naruto fans, we’re not talking about that Susanoo. Put away your sharingans and hand signs. Though, that technique was certainly inspired by the Japanese god of storms and younger brother to Amaterasu, goddess of the sun.

Once there was an elderly couple living in the land of Izumo who had seven of their eight daughters taken and eaten by the monstrous serpent known as Yamata no Orochi (translated as: the eight-forked serpent). Turns out, this giant sea serpent (also noted that it is recorded in Kojiki – an ancient Japanese text as a dragon specifically) wanted a meal (daughter) for each head. After taking a daughter each year for seven years, one last serving remained for the final head.

Feeling sorry for the couple over their losses, and wanting to spare them another, Susanoo transforms their daughter into a wooden comb he places in his hair for safe keeping. He then tricks Orochi into drinking strong sake, getting the beast drunk, before he kills it and finds a magical sword within its tail.

Notably, while being a storm god, Susanoo did not employ the powers of thunder and lightning to slay his mythical dragon opponent, but instead relied on trickery, alcohol, and the use of a katana to chop the beast into many pieces.

Still, it seems no matter where we venture across the world, if we go back to the old myths, storm gods and serpents do not get along. And it might just be why in so many video games (looking at you FromSoftware titles), giant serpents and dragons are often displayed weak to the sundering and sky-splitting power of lightning!

#8: How come you haven’t said St. George vs the Dragon?

 Hush, that’s why.

We’re going somewhere else now. Follow along as we go to the Hittites of Anatolia. Picture it, we are in the Bronze Age. There is no Wi-Fi, or hit shows like Tiger King. So, what’s entertaining?

How about the story of the Tarḫunz, an Anatolian storm god of the Hittite people, and his battle with the, surprise, surprise, serpent/dragon Illuyanka (a compound name formed of two words that mean snake, or eel, and is a cognate to the Sanskrit ahi – another serpent).

Now, this is a main event fight because there isn’t just one round. Oh, no. In the first version of the story, the serpent wins, forcing the storm god to visit a goddess (Inaras) for advice in how to defeat his foe. She sets a trap for the dragon, convincing him to gorge on food and drink until, much like with Orochi, the beast is intoxicated from the booze. Once that’s done, the dragon is bound with a rope and left as easy pray for the storm god (along with help. He brought the crew of other gods to officially make this an epic beat down in total unsportsmanlike conduct) and as you can imagine, the storm god kills the dragon.

You might find it odd so many of these stories about ancient dragon slaying are similar. Well, that’s because that’s how a lot of religions and epics were. They were traded, traveled, inspired others, and it’s hard to trace them all back to the origin of origins (if that exists) because we’ve lost so much oral history (and Vedic stories for example were orally performed for far longer than we have written record of). But what it does say and show is the similarities of tales and humans loving them, sharing them, and spinning them anew.

Tales of Tremaine is built on this and as a love letter to the history of comparative mythology and storytelling, relying on beats and tropes that have existed forever and been plucked at will for stories throughout the ages.

But I suppose the simple lesson you can take away from this is, next time you’re facing a dragon, try praying to a storm god for help. I hear they hate those serpentine suckers, and they might just help you smite them.