Sir Lancelot confronts two diabolical dragons

Dragons are naturally found in Arthurian “Matter of Britain” (the body of medieval literature associated with the legendary kings and heroes of Great Britain and Brittany), starting with the name of Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon. Nourished by a rich iconography, the confrontation between knight and dragon became one of the shared foundations of the fantasy genre. Modern rewrites of the Arthurian cycle, such as the film Excalibur (John Boorman, 1981), take up the image of the dragon as a source of power: it is from its spirit that Merlin derives his magic.