This is a list of dragons in literature. For fictional dragons in other media, see the list of dragons in popular culture. For dragons from legends and mythology, see the list of dragons in mythology and folklore.

Before 1900

Antiquity (until fifth century AD) Epic of Gilgamesh (2150-1400 BC): Humbaba, a dragon slain by Gilgamesh. Book of Job (5th century BC?): Leviathan (chapter 41). Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica (3rd century BC): the dragon guarding the golden fleece (Book 2), and the dragon whose teeth can be sown like seed to make an army grow (Book 3).Translation of Argonautica, Book 2 Translation of Argonautica, Book 3 Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca (after 1st century BC): the sea monster Perseus slays to rescue Andromeda, and the dragon guarding the apples of the Hesperides (Book 2).Translation of Bibliotheca, Book 2 John of Patmos, Book of Revelation (1st century AD): Satan as a dragon (chapters 12-13, 16:13, 20:2).

Middle Ages

Beowulf (8th - 11th century): The unnamed dragon from the end of the Old English epic, which dies by the combined efforts of Wiglaf and Beowulf. Life of Efflamm (late 11th-12th century): The dragon defeated by Efflam and Arthur.English translation of the dragon episode from the Life of EfflamCf. John B. Coe and Simon Young, ed. and trans., The Celtic Sources for the Arthurian Legend. Felinfach, 1995. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae (c.1136): the dragons in the underground lake whose fighting upsets Uther Pendragon's tower, as revealed by Merlin. Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend (c. 1260): the dragon slain by St. George. Fáfnismál in the Poetic Edda (by 13th century): Fáfnir. Völsunga saga (late 13th century): Fáfnir. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (14th century): The "worms" Sir Gawain battles. Amadis de Gaula (14th century): Endriago, a monster Amadis battles. Jacques de Longuyon, Les Voeux du Paon (1312): Melusine, a beautiful woman who seems faithful but refuses to take communion in church. When confronted, she turns into a dragon and flees. She has been depicted in Russian art of the 18th century as a woman's head on a dragon's body.

Early modern period Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1590): Unnamed dragon slain by Redcrosse knight (Book 1, Canto 11-12). Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (1604): The dragons that draw Faustus's chariot. Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy, The Green Serpent (1698): A handsome king turned into a green dragon by enchantment.

Nineteenth century Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, "The Two Brothers" (1812): A seven-headed dragon who demands maidens in one of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Fitz-James O'Brien "Sir Brasil's Falcon" (poem; United States Magazine and Democratic Review, XXXIII, 248-257, Sep. 1853): Sir Brasil, exhausted after a long day of hunting, stops to drink from a small pool of water. Each time he raises the cup to his lips, his falcon strikes it from his hand, spilling the water. Enraged, he kills the bird, only to discover moments later that the water had been poisoned by the saliva of a sleeping dragon, revealing that the falcon had been trying to save his life. "The Dragon Fang Possessed by the Conjuror Piou-Lu" (short story, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, XII, 519-526, Mar. 1856): A political satire set in ancient China, the story follows the conjuror Piou-Lu, who acquires a dragon’s tooth that grants him the power of shapeshifting, abilities he uses to manipulate appearances, authority, and social order. Lewis Carroll, "Jabberwocky" in Through the Looking-Glass (1871): The Jabberwock, a fearsome dragonlike beast with "jaws that bite", "claws that catch", and "eyes of flame." Richard Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (1876): Fafner. William Morris, The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs (1877): Fafnir. Kenneth Grahame, The Reluctant Dragon (1898): A dragon who does not want to act like a dragon.

Twentieth century

By publication date of first installment in a series.

1900s L. Frank Baum, Land of Oz series (1900): dragons appear in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908), Tik-Tok of Oz (1914), and The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918).

1910s Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, "Dragon: the Old Potter's Tale" (1919): a vague shadowy image which observers believe is a dragon ascending to heaven.

1920s E. Nesbit, The Last of the Dragons (1925): the last dragon on earth, who is tired of being expected to fight a prince for a princess, and becomes the princess's pet instead. Drinks petrol ("that's what does a dragon good, sir") and, at his own request, is eventually transformed by the king into the first aeroplane.

1930s C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim's Regress (1933): the cold Northern dragon, slain by John, and the hot Southern dragon, slain by Vertue. The Northern dragon is so greedy that his anxiety for his gold hardly lets him sleep. He recalls eating his wife, saying, "worm grows not to dragon till he eats worm", a loose translation of the Latin saying, Serpens, nisi serpentem comederit, non fit draco. The Guide explains that dragons always live alone because they have become dragons by eating their own kind. Lewis reiterates the notion of cannibalistic dragons in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (see below). J. R. R. Tolkien, world of Middle-earth (1937): Glaurung is described as the Father of Dragons in Tolkien's legendarium, and the first of the Urulóki, the Fire-drakes of Angband (first introduced in The Silmarillion, 1977; also appears in The Children of Húrin). Ancalagon the Black, who is the largest dragon of Middle-Earth (The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954; The Silmarillion, 1977) Scatha the Worm (The Return of the King, Appendix A.II, 1955) Smaug the Golden (The Hobbit, 1937): Smaug is a classic, European-type dragon; deeply magical, hoards treasure and burns innocent towns. Contrary to most old folklore and literature, J. R. R. Tolkien's dragons are very intelligent and can cast spells over mortals. See also dragons listed at Dragon (Middle-earth).

1940s Ruth Stiles Gannett, My Father's Dragon (1948): a young dragon rescued by a little boy from its abusive animal masters. J. R. R. Tolkien, Farmer Giles of Ham (1949): Chrysophylax Dives.

1950s Robert A. Heinlein, Between Planets (1951): the sentient inhabitants of Venus are huge flightless dragons, who are described as highly intelligent with an enormous aptitude for scientific research, who are very warm and friendly to humans. Since humans can't pronounce their real names, they habitually take - while conversing with humans via a special device - the name of a prominent past human scientist (the book's main dragon protagonist calls himself "Sir Isaac Newton"). C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), one of the Chronicles of Narnia: The unnamed elderly dragon who dies, and then Eustace Scrubb, who becomes a dragon by magic when he greedily sleeps on the dragon's hoard. Eustace actually eats much of the dead dragon by instinct; Lewis explains that dragons like to eat other dragons, and are therefore usually alone, echoing his thoughts on dragons in The Pilgrim's Regress (see above). Ray Bradbury, "The Dragon" (1955): set simultaneously in the recent and distant past, the short story features a pair of knights setting out to fight what they think is a dragon. After they are killed by it, it is revealed that the "Dragon" is actually a steam train.

1960s

Michael Ende, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (1960): Nepomuk, half-dragon by birth – his mother was a hippopotamus –, kind and helpful, later on warden of the Magnetic Cliffs. Frau Mahlzahn (Mrs. Grindtooth): A pure-blood dragon and the main villainess of the story. Very knowledgeable, runs a school for human children in Sorrowland, likes to torment lesser beings with her power. Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, The Ice Dragon (1962), one of the books in The Saga of Noggin the Nog: an ice dragon whom Noggin intends to fight, but instead helps."The Ice Dragon." nogginthenog.co.ukLater editions on Worldcat.org and Amazon.com Ursula K. Le Guin, world of Earthsea (1964): the portrayal of dragons undergoes significant changes from book to book. In the original, they resemble Smaug, with unbounded greed for hoards of precious jewelry; later, they grow in stature and nobility, to become virtual demi-gods who speak the "Language of Creation" as their mother tongue. Later still, it is revealed that they share an ancestry with humanity, and that some rare humans (always women) can change into dragons at will (or they may be considered as dragons who can take human form at will). In contrast to the dragons of C.S. Lewis's fiction, the dragons of Earthsea do not eat each other." [Arren:] 'Do they... eat their own kind?' [Ged:] 'No. No more than we do.' " "The Dragons' Run" (chapter) in The Farthest Shore Like Tolkien's Smaug,"[Smaug's] enemies were on an island in deep water—too deep and dark and cool for his liking. If he plunged into it, a vapour and a steam would arise enough to cover all the land with a mist for days; but the lake was mightier than he, it would quench him before he could pass through." Chapter XIV ("Fire and Water") in The Hobbit they are susceptible to drowning.Ged says that "plunging into the sea [is] a loathly death for the fire serpent, the beast of wind and fire." "The Dragons' Run" (chapter) in The Farthest Shore Kalessin the creator of the world of Earthsea. (The Farthest Shore, 1972) Orm, the great dragon who slew and was slain by the legendary Warrior Mage Erreth-Akbe. Orm Embar, Orm's descendant, who died battling the evil magician Cob on the eastern shores. (The Farthest Shore, 1972) Yevaud (A Wizard of Earthsea, 1968) Orm Irian and Tehanu, each of whom was a dragon in human form who acted as a diplomat between her races. Various additional dragons Ruth Manning-Sanders, A Book of Dragons (1965): 14 fairy tales about dragons. Anne McCaffrey, Dragonriders of Pern series (1967): The (genetically engineered) Dragons of Pern. Dragons in Pern (genetically modified fire-lizards, which were Pernese natives) are ridden by "dragonriders" to protect the planet from a deadly threat, the Thread. The dragons include Faranth, Mnementh, Ramoth, and Ruth. Clifford D. Simak, The Goblin Reservation (1968): A beautiful dragon from a previous universe plays a key role in the novel's unexpected denouement. Tilde Michels, Kleiner König Kalle Wirsch (1969): The six-legged dragon Murrumesch, who long ago stole the uranium-stone from the earth manikins.

1970s John Gardner, Grendel (1971): Grendel's omniscient advisor, revealing to Grendel the meaning of the universe, and enchanting Grendel to be impervious to man-made weapons. (Based on the unnamed dragon from Beowulf.) Astrid Lindgren, The Brothers Lionheart (1973): Katla. Gerald Durrell, The Talking Parcel (1974): Tabitha, last remaining dragon and Keeper of the Eggs. Gordon R. Dickson, Dragon Knight series (1976): Bryagh, a major character. (The Dragon and The George, 1976) Jim Eckert, main character in the series: reluctant knight and magician, part-time dragon and de facto member of the Cliffside dragons Gorbash, major character in The Dragon and The George novel and minor character in the rest of the series: largest dragon of the Cliffside dragons, grandnephew of Smrgol Secoh, major character in the series: a member of the Mere-Dragon clan, which have become diminutive as the result of a blight Smrgol, major character in The Dragon and The George novel: an elderly and respected member of the Cliffside dragons and the paternal granduncle of Gorbash Various other dragons. Piers Anthony, Xanth novels (1977): Stanley Steamer, the Gap Dragon; and Stella Steamer, Stanley Steamer's female counterpart. Diana Wynne Jones, Charmed Life (1977): Chrestomanci's pet dragon (rescued from poachers who killed its mother). Robert Asprin, MythAdventures series (1978): Gleep.