Dragon

The Dragon is a persistent figure in the symbolic landscape of the abbey, appearing in the marginal art of the scriptorium, in the apocalyptic visions that terrify the monks, and in the very structure of the Aedificium. It represents the monstrous, the diabolical, and the chaotic, a visual and thematic counterpoint to the divine order the library is meant to preserve. The creature's presence underscores the novel's central tension between the desire for knowledge and the fear of its consequences, between the order of the cosmos and the chaos of the abyss.

Appearance and Symbolism in the Scriptorium

The Dragon is most vividly encountered in the illuminated manuscripts created by Adelmo of Otranto. In a psalter, Adelmo depicted a world reversed, where the margins teem with fantastic creatures, including dragons with zebra-striped hides and serpentine necks twisted into inextricable knots. These images, which William of Baskerville calls "babewyn," are figures of an inverted world, where the normal order of creation is subverted. The Dragon, in this context, is not merely a monster but a symbol of the chaotic, the laughable, and the potentially heretical, a visual jest that Jorge of Burgos condemns as a lie about the form of creation. The Dragon also appears in a Mozarabic Apocalypse that Adso of Melk encounters during his first, terrifying visit to the library. The book is open to a page depicting a great dragon with ten heads, dragging the stars of the sky with its tail. This image, combined with the vision-inducing herbs burning in the room, overwhelms Adso, causing him to hallucinate and faint. The Dragon here is a direct agent of terror, a manifestation of the apocalyptic warnings that Jorge preaches and a guardian of the library's forbidden secrets.

The Dragon in the Architecture of the Aedificium

The Dragon's influence extends beyond the pages of books to the very architecture of the abbey. The Aedificium, an octagonal construction that seems to grow from the cliff, is described by Adso as a work of giants, inspiring fear and a subtle uneasiness. Its bulk and inaccessible position make it awesome, and Adso feels it is fortunate he did not first see it on a stormy day. The building itself, with its labyrinthine library, is a kind of dragon, a monstrous structure that guards its treasure of knowledge with traps, mirrors, and poisoned books. The sculpted doorway of the church, which Adso contemplates with terror, is populated by a bestiary of infernal creatures, including dragons, which serve as a vestibule to the vision of the Seated One in the tympanum. These stone dragons are the defeated of Armageddon, facing Him who will come to judge, and they reinforce the novel's theme of a world teetering on the brink of the abyss.

The Dragon as a Symbol of Forbidden Knowledge and Heresy

The Dragon is inextricably linked to the forbidden knowledge that Jorge of Burgos seeks to protect. The book at the heart of the mystery, Aristotle's lost second book of the Poetics, is a treatise on comedy and laughter, which Jorge believes would unleash a destructive force upon the world. He fears that laughter, like the dragon, would overturn the established order, making the base and the ridiculous central to human understanding. The Dragon, in this sense, is a symbol of the heresy and chaos that Jorge believes must be suppressed at all costs. The creature's appearance in the apocalyptic visions of the library, alongside the mulier amicta sole, reinforces this connection. The Dragon is the adversary, the beast from the abyss, whose power is unleashed when the seals of forbidden knowledge are broken. The destruction of the library by fire, which Jorge himself initiates, is the final, catastrophic victory of the dragon's chaos over the fragile order of the abbey.