An elephant with a dragon on its back
Tempera and gold leaf on parchment, 22 x 26 cm (page), anonymous, c. 1200–1210
The British Library, London

From folio 62r of the English manuscript Royal 12 C XIX, a dragon mounted upon an elephant illustrates one of the moral interpretations attached to this pairing. In mediaeval bestiaries the dragon, enemy of the elephant and destroyer of its young, lies in wait along the elephant’s path and coils about its legs to suffocate it; within this reading the dragon signifies the Devil and the elephant mankind. A dragon mounted upon the elephant therefore alludes to the triumph of the tempter over Adam and Eve after they eat the forbidden fruit, an episode understood in mediaeval thought as the fall of humanity through the Devil’s deceit.