Nine PathsNine Paths to OneThe Series

A–Z Index

Dragon Names & Serpent Names

Every dragon and serpent in the Library, listed alphabetically with its tradition and region. 92 named beings — from Aido Hwedo of Dahomey to Zilant of Kazan — each with a full entry: origin story, meaning, symbolism and its reading through Shadow · Gift · Essence.

A

Aido HwedoFon (Dahomey) · AfricaThe rainbow serpent who coiled beneath the finished world, tail in mouth, to hold it together — and who must be fed.
AmaruQuechua / Aymara · AmericasThe Andean double-headed serpent that moves between the three worlds when the order of things must change.
Ananta SheshaHindu · IndiaThe thousand-headed serpent on whose coils Vishnu sleeps between universes — 'that which remains' when all worlds dissolve.
AntabogaJavanese / Balinese · Southeast AsiaThe world serpent of the Indonesian cosmos, from whose meditation the world-turtle was born — the foundation beneath the foundation.
Apep & WadjetEgyptian · EgyptEgypt held both serpents at once: Apep, chaos attacking the sun each night, and Wadjet, the protective cobra at the third eye.
As MeigasGalician · IberiaGalicia's ambivalent wise women — keepers of herb-craft and the undoing of the evil eye. 'Haberlas, hainas.'
AvanyuTewa Pueblo · AmericasThe zigzag guardian of the Rio Grande's waters, painted as lightning on Pueblo pottery.
The Azure Dragon (Qīnglóng)Chinese · East AsiaOne of the four celestial guardians — the dragon of the east, of spring, of dawn, of the rising of things.

Ā

ĀstīkaHindu · IndiaThe boy — half Brahmin, half serpent — who stopped the great snake sacrifice with a single well-earned request.

B

C

D

F

FáfnirNorse · Northern EuropeThe dwarf whom greed literally transformed into a dragon — whose blood, tasted, grants the language of birds.

H

I

J

JörmungandrNorse · Northern EuropeThe serpent so vast it encircles the human world and bites its own tail — the boundary of the known, alive.

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

QuetzalcóatlNahua / Aztec · AmericasThe plumed serpent who gave humanity maize, the calendar and books — and created this era's people by offering his own blood.

R

S

T

V

W

X

XiuhcóatlNahua / Aztec · AmericasThe turquoise fire-serpent — the sun's own ray as a weapon, wielded at the moment of dawn against the armies of night.

Y

Z

Ž

ŽaltysLithuanian / Baltic · Slavic & BalticThe sacred grass snake welcomed into Baltic homes and fed milk — the shadow, befriended, at the scale of the kitchen.

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