The Snake and Dragon Motifs in the Kebra Nagast

Record summary

The Kebra Nagast, compiled in Ge’ez in the fourteenth century, combines biblical, apocryphal, Solomonic, and Ethiopian royal traditions. Its references to serpents, dragons, and monstrous imagery are relevant as textual evidence for how sacred history and creature symbolism were transmitted in medieval Ethiopia. This is not an encounter report and should not be treated as zoological testimony. The lead can help compare dragon traditions across Christian and African manuscript cultures, while keeping open questions about its sources, compilation history, regional versions, and the distinction between symbolic narrative and claims about the natural world.