The Dragon Knight Series by Gordon R. Dickson
The Dragon Knight Series follows the adventures of Jim Eckert, a doctoral student in medieval history who finds himself projected into a fantastical world after his girlfriend, Angie, is accidentally sent there during an experiment. Jim awakens in the body of a dragon named Gorbash and soon discovers that Angie has been captured by a malevolent dragon named Bryagh. To rescue her, Jim gathers a diverse group of companions, including knights, a woodswoman, and a master bowman, leading to an epic confrontation against the forces of evil. As the series progresses, Jim transforms from a dragon into a human knight, Sir James, and must navigate various challenges, including rescuing captured royalty and battling magical threats.
The series combines elements of fantasy, adventure, and medieval lore, showcasing Jim’s growth as he learns magic and takes on feudal responsibilities. With each installment, Jim and his companions face new threats, including ghostly adversaries and sea serpents, while also exploring themes of loyalty and courage. The narrative is rich with character development and imaginative world-building, appealing to fans of fantasy literature. The Dragon Knight Series is an engaging blend of humor, action, and magic, ultimately culminating in the anticipated continuation titled The Dragon and the Djinn.
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Subject Terms
The Dragon Knight Series
First published:The Dragon and the George (1976; based on the novelette “St. Dragon and the George,” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September, 1957), The Dragon Knight (1990), The Dragon on the Border (1992), The Dragon at War (1992), and The Dragon, the Earl and the Troll (1994)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Fantasy—heroic fantasy
Time of work: The fourteenth century
Locale: An alternate Earth
The Plot
The Dragon and the George features Jim Eckert, a doctoral student in medieval history who is frustrated with the twentieth century. His girlfriend, Angie, is a research assistant to a scientist experimenting with astral projection and accidentally gets sent to some unknown world. Jim tries to follow, but only his mind is projected. He wakes up in the body of a dragon named Gorbash. Angie, a “george”—as all humans are called by dragons—is captured by the dragon Bryagh. Gorbash’s uncle, Smrgol, convinces the dragons to hold her for ransom and sends Jim to the magician S. Carolinus to arrange the negotiations.
Jim and Angie see Carolinus as their only hope of returning home. Jim meets the mage and reveals his situation. Before the mage can do anything, Bryagh takes Angie to the Loathly Towers, the fortress of the Dark Powers. Jim is caught in a battle between the forces of good and evil and is told that he must gather “Companions” before he rescues Angie.
Over the course of a few days, Jim meets Sir Brian Neville-Smythe, a knight; Aragh, the English Wolf; Danielle of the Wold, a woodswoman; her father, Giles of the Wold, an outlaw; and Daffyd ap Hwyel, a Welsh master bowman. They have a few adventures, then approach the Loathly Towers. They are joined by Caro-linus, Smrgol, and Secoh (another dragon) to face the champions of the Dark Powers, including the evil Sir Hugh de Malencontri, Bryagh, and an ogre. Jim and his Companions win the battle and rescue Angie, though at a price. Jim and Angie decide to stay instead of returning home, and Jim is given back his human body.
The Dragon Knight takes place approximately ten months after the battle of the Loathly Towers. Jim, who is now Sir James, Baron de Bois de Malencontri, has married Angie and controls the Malencontri lands. He begins changing into a dragon: Because he is a magician and has not been using his magic, it has started to use him. Jim becomes apprenticed to Carolinus and begins practicing magic.
Meanwhile, Prince Edward of England has been captured in France, and the English knights mount a rescue force. Jim must go as part of feudal duty. He and Brian join the English forces. They meet Sir Giles, another English knight and a “silkie,” a man on land and seal in the sea. They are given a special assignment to rescue the prince from the hands of the evil magician, Malvinne.
They go to France and meet Sir Raoul, a French knight who wants to save his king and country from Malvinne’s machinations. After a few solo misadventures, Jim returns to his group to find that they have been joined by Aargh the Wolf (the spelling has changed from the first book) and Daffyd. The force eventually penetrates Malvinne’s fortress and rescues the prince. They are then charged with taking the prince back to the English forces and stopping the battle between the English and the French. Jim uses his twentieth century cunning and fourteenth century magic to win the day, but Malvinne escapes.
Jim returns home to find his castle occupied by Malvinne and Sir Hugh de Malencontri. He duels with Sir Hugh and wins, but he has to face one last magical battle before he is returned safely to Angie’s arms.
In The Dragon on the Border, Jim, Brian, and Daffyd head to Northumberland to visit the home of the de Mers. Besides finding their friend, they find a new menace: The Hollow Men are ghosts who inhabit armor and terrorize the area. They can be killed, but if even one survives, the rest will be resurrected in two days.
To make matters worse, word comes to the de Mers and Jim that the king of France is paying the king of Scotland to invade England. The Scots king plans on using the Hollow Men in the first attack. Jim decides that he has to destroy the Hollow Men all at once and comes up with a plan to do so, employing the help of Liseth de Mer, Snorl the wolf, a Scotsman named Lachlan MacGreggor, the Little Men, Brian, and Daffyd, as well as his magical abilities. The Dark Powers have set a trap for him, however, and he must battle a Worm to win the day. He does so, and as a reward for his success he gets a higher rating as a magician.
The Dragon at War takes place immediately after Jim’s battle with the Hollow Men. Carolinus has been attacked by a mysterious mage, and Jim and Angie rescue him. Carolinus sends Jim, along with Giles and Brian, to the bottom of the sea to visit a kraken. He then sends them to France with Secoh and Daffyd to get information from the evil sorcerer Ecotti. They learn of a French attack on England using sea serpents but discover no information about the mysterious mage.
Jim and his Companions return to Jim’s castle. The sea serpents, who hate dragons—especially English dragons—attack England and swarm Jim’s castle. Jim engineers a plan with the help of the English and French dragons and the Sea Devil, Rrrnlf, but he is forced into a duel with the leader of the sea serpents. He wins, but the secret mage appears, and Jim has to shock Carolinus out of a depression to battle the other mage.
The Dragon, the Earl and the Troll takes place a few months after Jim defeats the sea serpents. This time, he is faced with different problems. Carolinus senses the Dark Powers at work and tells Jim and Angie that they must go to the Christmas Feast at the home of the earl of Somerset. They reluctantly agree.
On the way, they encounter a party slain by outlaws and rescue a baby. When they get to the castle, Jim discovers a set of problems. A troll is shaking the castle to pieces because he smells another troll upstairs. The earl hates the troll. More trolls have surrounded the castle. Lady Agatha Fallon, the baby’s aunt, wants to be queen and will do almost anything to achieve that goal. The dragons want to come and be blessed by the prince of England. Compounding these problems, Jim is in danger of being stripped of all of his magical abilities. Once more, with the aid of Brian, Angie, and Aargh, Jim comes up with a plan. It solves his problems and creates a new type of magic. The Dragon and the Djinn, a continuation of the series, was scheduled to be published in 1996.