"Here be dragons" is a phrase used by ancient cartographers to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of the infrequent medieval practice of putting sea serpents and other mythological creatures in blank areas of maps.

The only known use of this phrase in an actual medieval map was in the Latin form "HC SVNT DRACONES" (i.e. hic sunt dracones) on the Lenox Globe ^[1] (ca. 1503-07). The term appeared on the east coast of Asia. Many other maps contain a variety of references to mythical and real creatures, but the Lenox Globe is the only one which bears this phrase.

In another context, software programmers sometimes use it to indicate especially difficult or obscure sections of code in a program so that others do not tamper with them.^[2]

Dragons on maps

Dragons do appear on other non-fictional maps.

• A dragon (associated with causing earthquakes) appears on the nineteenth-century Japanese map Jishin-no-ben in the library of the University of British Columbia
• "Here There Be Dragons" was used in a paper submitted to the planetary science journal Icarus by Michael James Gaffey of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in reference to the north polar region, labeled "Terra Incognita", of the asteroid Vesta.^[3]
• The Psalter map (ca. 1250) has dragons in the bottom "frame", below the world (but no text), balancing Jesus and angels at top; verso has a T-O map with Christ standing on dragons; i.e. related to victorious ruler trampling enemies (the calcatio motif) where the dragon stands for the devil or death.
• The Borgia Map (ca. 1430), Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, has text above a dragon-like figure in Asia (the upper left quadrant of the map) which reads "Hic etiam homines magna cornua habentes longitudine quatuor pedum, et sunt etiam serpentes tante magnitudinis, ut unum bovem comedant integrum." ("Here also are men having large horns four feet long, and there are even serpents of such magnitude that they can eat an ox whole.")

Other creatures on maps

• Ptolemy's atlas in Geographia (originally 2nd century, taken up again in the 15th century) warns of elephants, hippos and cannibals.
• Tabula Peutingeriana (medieval copy of Roman map) has "in his locis elephanti nascuntur", "in his locis scorpiones nascuntur" and "hic cenocephali nascuntur" ("in these places elephants are born, in these places scorpions are born, here dog-headed beings are born").
• Cotton MS. Tiberius B.V. fol. 58v (10th century), British Library Manuscript Collection, has "hic abundant leones" ("here lions abound"), along with a picture of a lion, near the east coast of Asia (at the top of the map towards the left); this map also has a text-only serpent reference in southernmost Africa (bottom left of the map): "Zugis regio ipsa est et Affrica. est enim fertilis. sed ulterior bestiis et serpentibus plena" ("This region of Zugis is in Africa, it is truly fertile, however it is full of beasts and serpents.")
• The Ebstorf map (13th c.) has a dragon in the extreme south-eastern part of Africa, together with an asp and a basilisk.
• Giovanni Leardo's map (1442) has, in southernmost Africa, "Dixerto dexabitado p. chaldo e p. serpent".
• Martin Waldseemüller's Carta marina navigatoria (1516) has "an elephant-like creature in northernmost Norway, accompanied by a legend explaining that this 'morsus' with two long and quadrangular teeth congregated there", i.e. a walrus, which would have seemed monstrous at the time.
• Waldseemüller's Carta marina navigatoria (1522), revised by Laurentius Fries, has the morsus moved to the Davis Strait.
• Bishop Olaus Magnus's Carta Marina map of Scandinavia (1539) has many monsters in the northern sea, as well as a winged, bipedal, predatory land animal resembling a dragon in northern Lapland.

Cultural references

• The title of a short science fiction story by Ray Bradbury, "Here There Be Tygers" is an allusion to this expression.
• In map of MMORPG RuneScape, there are a few locations on the map with reference to the phrase, including "Here be penguins" and "Here be sand".
• The title of the fifth studio album (1998) by Jupiter Coyote.
• In an episode of his geek comic XKCD, Randall Munroe has a map called "Online communities" that has the line "here be anthropomorphic dragons" [4].
• On the ABC television show Lost, a map found inside one bunker has the latin notation "Hic sunt dracones" near the map lotation of another bunker. [5]

See also

• Terra incognita
• Mappa mundi

References

• Erin C. Blake (1999). "Where Be "Here be Dragons"?". MapHist Discussion Group. Retrieved February 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• Michael Livingston (2002). "Modern Medieval Map Myths: The Flat World, Ancient Sea-Kings, and Dragons". Strange Horizons. Retrieved February 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• ^ "Lenox Globe". Cartographic Images. 1998. Retrieved February 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• ^ Michael J. Gaffey (1997). "Surface Lithologic Heterogeneity of Asteroid 4 Vesta", Icarus 127, 130-157.
• ^ Google Code Search for "Here be dragons"

External links

• Myths & Legends On Old Maps (Chapter 10)
• Cecil Adams on the Subject (see bottom of page)
• An overview of dragons on antique maps
• "Here be Dragons" by David Montgomery, Washington Post, 3/14/07