Bo Eriksson’s love of dragons has resulted in the new book “Drakspår”.
— I’ve loved dragons since I was little. They are aesthetically pleasing, he tells TT over a cup of coffee near St Göran and the Dragon statue in Gamla stan.
In the book, Bo Eriksson writes both about the oldest dragon myths and today’s popular culture dragons such as those in “Bilbo”, “Game of thrones” and “House of the dragon”.
— But monsters on film are such an incredibly small part of monster history. In writing and in images we find the dragon more than 10,000 years back in time. And it probably goes back even much further.
“Not explored enough”
In the book, Bo Eriksson not only tells about dragon myths and stories from antiquity onwards. He also writes about how the dragon has evolved.
— I don’t think the dragon is explored enough. The attention is there, not least thanks to film adaptations and TV series, but I thought it was time to bring up the research question.
TT: What does that mean?
— Monster research is often concerned with entertainment and often does not address the underlying issues. Most people who research monsters focus on film and literature, it’s about vampires and gothic novels. I want to go deeper, does the belief in the dragon have anything to do with humanity?
In Western society, there are probably very few who believe that dragons have really existed, unlike some other cultures where dragons can still be found in folklore today.
— If there are some in the West who really believe in dragons, they probably don’t show it off.
Bo Eriksson by Saint Göran and the dragon statue in Old Town in Stockholm. Archive image.”Master of Wisdom”
His own interest in researching dragons was sparked when he wrote the book “Bestiarium” in 2009. It was then that he became fascinated by the fact that dragons exist in almost all cultures and that they have been part of stories and folk beliefs for a long time. Bo Eriksson mentions in particular how fascinating it was to read the medieval writings where it was established that dragons existed.
— If they were mentioned in, for example, the Bible, it was considered proof that they existed.
The dragon is often described as a mix of bird of prey, wild animal and reptile. It is not infrequently large and dangerous, but it can also (as Bo Eriksson himself does) be described as beautiful.
— In “Game of thrones” the dragon is big and dangerous, it spits fire. In a story like “The Neverending Story” it is kind, but can become dangerous. And in “Bilbo” Tolkien made the dragon wise and wise: Smaug was the master of wisdom.