dr hab. Monika Opalińska

(University of Warsaw)

A dragon or a snake? On linguistic and functional ambiguities of medieval monsters

 Old English terms such as draca, snaca, wyrm and nædre were often used interchangeably to denote a variety of reptile creatures and snake-like amphibians, both mythical and real, such as dragons, (water-)snakes, (sea-)serpents and vipers. The same terms were used figuratively to signify the devil, Leviathan, the fallen angels, evil spirits and monsters. In Middle English the repository of synonymous terms expanded to include Romance borrowings, such as, serpent, basilisk and hydre. The range of concepts associated with the lexical field also broadened but the boundaries between different lexical categories and the phenomena they referred to often remained fuzzy. Although unfavourable connotations prevailed, the emblematic representations of dragons in medieval imagery were not always unequivocally negative. 

 This paper presents an overview of different representations of the dragon in medieval sources. Starting with an analysis of lexical terms in the context of selected literary works we will proceed to examine the corresponding images in medieval iconography, objects of art and material culture. On the basis of the source data we will try to reconstruct the signification and the functions that dragons, snakes and monstrous creatures somewhere in-between the two categories may have had in the medieval universe. Special consideration will be given to the evidence contained in Old and Middle English manuscripts and texts.