Honeyed Words: Why do Dragons Eat What They Eat?

Why do Dragons Eat What They Eat? · 6 April 2007

Picture of a Dragon Statue

As I was mentioning earlier this week, I've been insanely busy lately. I was trying to figure out where in the world I would make time to cook the recipe (a rather involved one) for my next segment and as I was lying in that half delirious stage right before sleep I wondered, "Why am I not talking about what Temeraire eats?"

Temeraire, a dragon, is one of two main characters in His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. When I started outlining what sorts of foods I would incorporate into my features about the novel, I didn't even considered including his diet. "Realistic" dragons (those that fit our idea of a dragon that could exist given the laws of nature on Earth) eat meat, specifically raw meat, preferably snatched live from a field in a majestic hunting scene. Temeraire is no exception.

Since Temeraire was hatched on a ship, providing food was a huge problem for the crew during his first few weeks in life. He grew at an alarming and unforeseen rate. The ship was fortunately saved from starvation when Temeraire was cleared to fly and hunt his own fishy dinner. Once the ship made land, Novik highlighted the inconvenience of caring for a growing young dragon. Laurence was required to obtain permission from various officials and landowners to let Temerarie cull their herds. I'm not what you would call a fan of hunting (I don't even like fishing) and the sight of blood usually makes me queasy (I can't even watch E.R.) so there was no way I was going to set up a recreation of any of Temeraire's eating experiences.

As a reader though, I think nothing of it when dragons are muzzle deep in their prey. Dragons are obviously meat eaters. They're fierce, aggressive, and have all the other alpha qualities that we associate with predators. As readers, we think to ourselves, the Komodo Dragon (the largest living lizard) is carnivorous; it makes sense that larger dragons would be too. Then we postulate, how in the world could a giant lizard support itself on just plants? Even though many of the large dinosaurs were herbivorous, the idea of a plant eating dragon just seems wrong.

This train of thought may have been motivated by my Linguistics lecture last night, in which we were talking about the definition of words. Every word in our personal vocabulary has meaning to us. According to Linguistic theory, we come to that meaning through a variety of methods. We can define the word in terms of other words, like a dictionary does. For example, Dictionary.com defines a dragon as “a mythical monster generally represented as a huge, winged reptile with crested head and enormous claws and teeth, and often spouting fire.” As long as you know what the other words mean, you probably have a good idea of what a dragon is after reading the definition.

Clip Art of an Eastern Dragon

A dictionary, or descriptive definition, usually includes a list of characteristics that describe the word. For example we'd list "huge, winged, reptile, mythical, crested head, enormous claws, often spouts fire" as the characteristics of "dragon." Some of these characteristics are inherent, or required. You couldn't have a non-reptilian dragon for example; it wouldn't be a dragon anymore. Other characteristics are just probable, included as features of many dragons, but not required. You could have a small dragon, or a dragon that doesn't breathe fire and it could still be called a dragon. Whatever characteristics we decide should be included as the inherent and probable traits of description lead to our mental image of what we picture when someone says "dragon." From our mental image, we construct a prototype of the definition.

The prototype may be thought of as a stereotypical dragon. It includes all the inherent features of a dragon and many of the probable ones. We use the prototype to compare new things or ideas to our definition of dragon. If we come across an animal in literature that is fire-breathing but small and furry, we know that it is not a dragon because furry animals are not reptiles and dragons must be reptiles. Likewise, we are able to identify the small dragons as dragons even though they do not meet the entirety of prototypical draconic characteristics. However, the fewer of the inherent and probable characteristics a dragon displays, the further they are form the "normal" definition of dragon.

Our mental list of probable characteristics of dragons also seems to include carnivorous. A dragon that doesn't eat meat is further away from our prototype definition. But how did it become almost universally accepted that dragons are carnivorous? Those of us influenced by western culture were indoctrinated by the idea that dragons are slayers of fair maidens, hoarders of treasure, roasters of villages, and all sorts of trouble. The idea of Saint George slaying an overgrown fruit loving iguana just doesn't . . . fly. Eastern dragons are traditionally seen as more benevolent. While there aren't stories of them munching on innocents, I still imagine them hunting for their dinner.

With a history of meat loving dragons, an author that wanted to break the conventions would have to come up with compelling reasons to do so, and would also have to describe a herbivorous dragon in a way that allowed the reader to maintain their suspension of disbelief that such a creature could exist. Human nature is such that we've invented a mythical being, a fantastical creature with a rich history and personality, then summarily boxed it into a set definition. But, there are a lot of talented authors who write about dragons and a lot of dragon stories that don't conform to the prototype. Hats off those who push the envelope and redefine the stereotype in their own terms. If I ever find a dragon story in which the dragons don’t tear the flesh off their live prey, I’ll be sure to include an article on what they’re actually eating.

Stay tuned for next time to find out just what the heck pickled beets have to do with His Majesty's Dragon.

Dragons, Dragon Food, Linguistics, Prototype Definitions, Temeraire, His Majesty’s Dragon