A dragon from a medieval bestiary (c1270) by an unknown artist. Courtesy the Getty Museum, Los Angeles
A dragon from a medieval bestiary (c1270) by an unknown artist. Courtesy the Getty Museum, Los Angeles
A great many cultures have legends of dragon-like monsters. Of course, humans have, by definition, never come across mythical beasts. So where in our collective memory do the origins of these ‘great and terrible’ creatures lie? It’s a tricky question to untangle, as the historian Ronald Hutton makes clear in this lecture from February 2024 at Gresham College in London, where he is professor of divinity. But, armed with curiosity, humour and scholarship, Hutton sets out to slay myths and conquer mysteries about dragon lore, and account for its many permutations across cultures. The result is part palaeontology dig, part history lesson and part literary analysis, culminating in a a riveting dive into human imagination.
Video by Gresham College
video
History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
video
Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes
video
Biology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes
video
War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
video
Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
video
Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
video
Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes
video
Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes
video
History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
6 minutes