Western Dragon vs. Eastern Dragon

You can read the story about the Persian draon here: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/haftvad-haftwad

 

In the city of Kojārān on the coast of the Persian Gulf, there lived a man of meager means who “was called Haftvād because he had seven (haft) sons” (p. 140 v. 510). He also had a daughter who went daily to the field with other women to gather cotton and spin it at home into yarn. One day she found a worm in an apple and, taking it as a sign of good fortune, placed it inside her distaff case. On that day she was able to spin a double quantity. She nurtured that “auspicious worm” (kerm-e farroḵ) at home and it turned into a mighty creature, black with golden spots. By the worm’s fortune the family grew wealthy and influential until Haftvād was able to kill the ruler of Kojārān and assume royal power. He built a fort on a nearby hill, transferred the worm there, and nurtured it with milk and rice until it grew into a giant “with horns and mane” (bā šāḵ o yāl; p. 143, v. 566). Haftvād’s power grew daily. He founded (the city of) Kermān, which he named after that worm (kerm, p. 143 v. 567), and with an army of 10,000 men, led by his sons he gained mastery over the whole region.

 

The belief that a worm can transform into a dragon is found elsewhere (e.g., in Irish and Scandinavian mythology; see Thompson, B11. 13.1; B11. 1.3.1.1). Indeed in Sogdian the word for dragon is kyrm (Henning, 1940, pp. 21-22), while Ossetic has kalm for “snake” (Morgenstierne, p. 24).

 

The similarity of the legend of Haftvād’s daughter with the Scandinavian story of princess Thora as told by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus (d. 1220) has long been recognized (Liebrecht, p. 65-67; Darmesteter, p. 83; Christensen, 1941, p. 59). Herodd, king of Sweden, commanded his daughter Thora “to rear a race of adders with her maiden hands,” and they grew so large that they menaced the community. Prince Ragnar Lodbrog killed them and married Thora. In another version, the Saga of King Ragnar Lodbrog, Thora “kept a snake in a box, with gold under him. The snake grew until it encircled the whole room, and the gold grew with his growth” (Welsford, pp. 419-20).