Analysis

The Queen Mary Apocalypse artifact (London, The British Library, Royal 19 B XV, fol. 22v) effectively demonstrates the weaknesses that dragons possess despite their unmatched physical strength. The dragon’s strength is prominent in this artifact as the humans require a large army equipped with weapons, armor, and shields to attempt to match the dragon’s raw power. Furthermore, the artifact shows that dragons are depicted as mortal living beings like The Shahnameh. The dragon is drawn bleeding from the humans’ attack implying the presence of organs and an organic circulating fluid, which in this case is blood. It also has a direct correlation to the chosen text as both the artifact and The Shahnameh illustrate the dragon being mortally wounded by arrows. The artifact also depicts the difference in intelligence between the humans and the dragon. The humans are drawn taking the high ground in battling the dragon which demonstrates their ability to use their terrain to their advantage.  

The Harley 4751 bestiary artifact (London, The British Library, Harley 4751, fol. 58v) which portrays the dragon attacking the elephant is of direct importance to the story. Ferdowsi writes, “he could snare An elephant with his two locks of hair” (Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh, 682). Similarly to the artifact, this quote demonstrates the dragon's strength as it is able to snare an animal as large as an elephant with just hair. The elephant is significant because they were considered very powerful and were used as war units in The Shahnameh time period. Both the artifact and the text display that dragons are superior to elephants which were one of the most powerful units in a human army. This shows the hierarchy between dragons, elephants, and humans in terms of strength.  

The Devil is often likened to a dragon since it is the most terrible serpent (The Medieval Bestiary 2022). Similarly, in the Apocalypse of Val-Dieu artifact (London, The British Library, Additional 17333, fol. 42v), the dragon is emerging from a hellmouth. The artifact displays the dragon attacking the city of the saints which is a parallel to how the dragon in The Shahnameh attacks the city if not fed. In both the text and the artifact, the dragon is depicted looming over the city, poised to attack at any time. If the dragon mirrors the Devil, then this can be seen as the Devil corrupting the pure townspeople. The idea is depicted in the Apocalypse of Val-Dieu artifact as well since the dragon is attacking the city of saints.    

As such, the text and artifacts demonstrate that despite The Shahnameh portraying the dragon as having unmatched strength, Sekandar identifies that it still has weaknesses that may be exploited by humans. Specifically highlighted by the text and the artifacts are the weaknesses pertaining to the dragon’s animal intelligence, habitual behaviour and mortal organic nature.