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Cover of The Penguin Book of Dragons

The Penguin Book of Dragons

Scott G. Bruce

First published 2021
Publisher Penguin Books
Format Trade Paperback
Type Anthology
Cover art Anato Finnstark
Pages xxiv+351
Price $18.00
ISBN 9780143135043

  • Only date is 2021 year in copyright and LoC Cataloging-in-Publication data block
  • Date from Amazon.com as of 2021-09-23
  • "1st Printing"
  • Cover artist credit from rear cover
  • Other prices: Canada C$24.00, U.K. £$12.99
  • LCCN per copyright page
  • Book is divided into sections. Each section has a brief (a short page) essay introducing the theme of the section.
  • Authors are not listed on content title page. Each title has an endnote specifying the author / translator.
  • Each excerpt/story is preceded, on title page, with an introduction to the excerpt/story
  • Contains excerpts from histories, lives of saints, etc. that would be considered fantasy today, but were believed and written as nonfiction. Content types for excerpts have been based on the type of the work the excerpt was taken from.
  • "Biblical Beasts" contains 4 excerpts from the Bible, each with its own subtitle: "(A) The Serpent in the Garden", "(B) The Leviathan of the Deep", "(C) The Dragon of Babylon", and "(D) The Seven-Headed Horror of the End Times"
  • "Descendants of Darkness" contains 3 excerpts from the Acts of Philip, each with its own subtitle: "(A) Against the Snake Cult", "(B) The Nature of the Dragon", and "(C) The City of the Serpents"
  • "Winged Dragons of the North" contains 2 excerpt from Saga of Ketil Trout, each with its own subtitle: "(A) The Hunter Becomes the Hunted" and "(B) Rescued from the Dragon's Maw"
  • "The Devil Is the Largest Serpent" contains 3 excerpts from a medieval bestiary, each with its own subtitle: "The Panther", "The Dragon", and "The Peridexion Tree"
  • "Four Saintly Dragon-Slayers" contains 4 excerpts from The Golden Legends, each with its own subtitle: "(A) St. George, Dragon's Bane", "(B) St. Sylvester Muzzles a Monster", "(C) St. Margaret, Breaker of Drakes", and "(D) St. Martha Tames the Tarasque"
  • For both of Yei Theodora Ozaki's stories, Ozaki is listed as translator and not author
  • Pages 323-341 contain endnotes
  • Pages 343-344 contain additional credits
  • Pages 345-351 contain an index

Page Title Author(s) Type
5 The Hydra of Lerna Apollodorus Short Story
7 Medusa, Mother of Monsters Lucan Short Story
11 Cadmus and the Dragon of Ares Ovid Short Fiction
16 The Death of Laocoön Virgil Poem
18 The Dragon of Bagrada River Silus Italicus Poem
23 Dragons Against Elephants Pliny Essay
31 Biblical Beasts uncredited Essay
36 The Guardian of Heaven's Ladder Perpetua Essay
38 Descendants of Darkness uncredited Essay
44 The Dragon Became Her Tomb Venantius Fortunatas Essay
47 Coiled Couriers of the Damned Gregory the Great Essay
50 The Monster of the River Ness Adamnán of Iona Essay
57 The Terror of Nations uncredited Poem
74 Sigurd, the Slayer of Fáfnir uncredited Short Fiction
78 Winged Dragons of the North uncredited Short Fiction
85 A Treasure of Ancient Dragon Lore Isidore of Seville Essay
87 Dark Age Creature Catalogues uncredited Essay
89 You Crushed Their Heads Upon the Waters Hrabanus Maurus Essay
91 Remembering A Pannonian Dragon Arnold of St. Emmeram Essay
96 God's Fiery Vengeance Herman of Tournai Essay
99 Bone Fires and Dragon Sperm John Beleth Essay
101 The Prophecies of Merlin Geoffrey of Monmouth Short Fiction
106 The Devil Is the Largest Serpent uncredited Essay
109 Hunting Monsters in Kara-Jang Marco Polo Essay
117 A Theologian Contemplates the Nature of Dragons uncredited Essay
120 Why Dragons Fear Lightening Michael Psellos Essay
122 A Demon in Disguise uncredited Short Fiction
125 The Treasury Dragon of Constantinople uncredited Short Fiction
129 The Terror of Trebizond uncredited Short Fiction
132 The Ogre-Dragon's Pitiless Heart uncredited Short Fiction
141 The Dragon and the Lion Chrétien de Troyes Short Fiction
143 A Dragon With the Devil Inside uncredited Poem
152 Four Saintly Dragon-Slayers Jacobus de Voragine Short Fiction
165 The Dragons of Fairyland Edmund Spenser Poem
188 A Farting Dragon Burlesque uncredited Poem
194 The Great Serpent Returns John Milton Poem
201 The Dragon of Drought uncredited Poem
204 A Black Wind from the Sea Al-Masudi Essay
206 No One Ever Escapes My Claws Abolqasem Ferdowski Short Fiction
209 The Eight-Headed Serpent of Koshi Ō no Yasumaro Short Fiction
212 Chief of the Scaly Creatures Li Shizhen Essay
214 My Lord Bag of Rice uncredited Short Story
221 The Fisherman and the Dragon Princess uncredited Short Story
239 Strange, Yet Now a Neighbour to Us uncredited Short Story
242 A World Full of Dragons Edward Topsell Essay
265 Dweller's Below Athanasius Kircher Essay
287 A Lizardy Sort of Beast Kenneth Grahame Novelette
315 Your Kindness Quite Undragons Me Edith Nesbit Short Story
xv Introduction (The Penguin Book of Dragons) Scott G. Bruce Essay

Title Year Publisher Format Type Catalog ID Cover Artist Pages
The Penguin Book of Dragons Cover 2021 Penguin Books eBook Anthology Anato Finnstark
The Penguin Book of Dragons Cover 2021 Penguin Audio digital audio download Anthology Anato Finnstark