Dragons show up in almost every culture on earth, and that is not a coincidence. In this episode of the Faithful Fireside Podcast, we dig into what dragons actually represent across mythology, literature, and modern storytelling. From the classic 90s film Dragonheart to Beowulf, from the Eragon book series to Tolkien’s Smaug, and all the way to Game of Thrones, we trace the consistent thread of what the dragon symbolizes: the hoarding of blessing versus the flowing of it. We talk about why a good king is like a blessing dragon, why greed turns a man into the very monster he fights, and how Tolkien’s dragon sickness in Thorin is one of the most powerful uses of this image in all of modern fiction. We also get into intertextuality, how stories pull meaning from older stories, and why humans use shared narratives to build culture and identity. If yo ...