Anglo-Saxon stories are full of dragons guarding wonderful treasure. The Anglo-Saxons believed that it was a dragon's task to seek out such treasure and guard it fiercely. They thought that dragons lived underground beneath hills, and many place-names like Dragley (meaning Dragon's Mound) in Lancashire or Drakelow in Derbyshire show this. Place-names with 'Worm' in them may also show that the people living nearby once feared that a dragon had its home there.

The Anglo-Saxons liked to use the twisting shapes of dragons to decorate jewellery, armour and other objects.