Office Hours is a Y News series focusing on unique artifacts that BYU employees display in their offices.
If you visit Julie Allen, professor of comparative arts and letters, be ready to meet dragons — both fierce and friendly. Her office door stands out with a cheerful “dragon attack” of student notes. Step through the door, under hanging origami dragons, and you’ll experience a bright office with dragon-themed posters, books, figurines and plush creatures.
Though Allen specializes in Danish studies, her fascination with dragons stems from childhood books, such as Anne McCaffrey’s “The Dragonriders of Pern” series, and an academic interest in world literature.
“Dragons are everywhere. People are often depicted as descending from dragons or becoming dragons, but there can be different meanings in different cultures,” Allen said.
Some stories cast dragons in a negative light. In the Völsunga saga, an ancient Norse tale, a young man fights with his family over inheritance and kills his father. Greed turns him into a dragon.
In contrast, other traditions view dragons more positively. In Journey to the West, a classic Chinese text, being a dragon is admirable. The Chinese royal household is even believed to descend from dragons.
Inspired by these stories and more, Allen designed a course called A Literary Typology of Dragons in which students explore the way dragons are depicted in literature over different cultures and different time periods. Students discover how literature is rich with symbols that reflect human nature. Allen will teach this class again in Winter 2027.
“The course readings are never really about dragons. They are about everything else,” said Allen. “I want students to understand the intricacies of communication and how people are always telling stories about people.”
And human nature includes complicated characteristics that may even surprise us.
“In dragons we label the monstrous, and yet we can be monstrous ourselves,” said Allen. “They symbolize what we are afraid of, what we want to be, what we’re admiring.”
For Allen, her favorite dragon was given to her by a student, carefully made from fuzzy felt. A symbol of gratitude and friendship — some of the most fulfilling parts of mentoring students.
