Do dragons eat people?

[Serebro Moniker]

I've been wondering this for a while. I have my suspicions that dragons in Skyrim don't even need to eat at all, but being dragons man-eaters is such a staple in fantasy that I'm surprised they aren't. We've seen that dragons can use their jaws and teeth as weapons, but when they grab someone in their mouth, they just shake them about a bit then throw them away again.

 

[Squirrel_killer-]

I've been wondering this for a while. I have my suspicions that dragons in Skyrim don't even need to eat at all, but being dragons man-eaters is such a staple in fantasy that I'm surprised they aren't. We've seen that dragons can use their jaws and teeth as weapons, but when they grab someone in their mouth, they just shake them about a bit then throw them away again.

Well in a fight most animals won't feed until after all threats are dealt with. After all, would you stop and eat a dead deer if the rest of the herd was attacking you? No you would kill them and then eat.

 

[andrew9300]

Yeah it is weird. I thought the same thing. Bethesda should honestly update the game to make dragons swallow characters and put that characters item's inside the dragon to loot.

 

[DB Assassin]

Pieces of armour are usually found on their corpses. Especially when you kill the first dragon, a suit of Whiterun Guards' Armour can be looted, and that same dragon killed the guards at the Western Watchtower. So yes I believe that they do eat people, but we just don't see it.

 

[Janus3003]

After all, would you stop and eat a dead deer if the rest of the herd was attacking you?

 

[Annageckos]

Yeah it is weird. I thought the same thing. Bethesda should honestly update the game to make dragons swallow characters and put that characters item's inside the dragon to loot.

I always assumed that the items (gold, weapons, armor) found in the dragons was from the people they ate. Same thing when you find a wolf or bear with gold or gems.

 

[Psiberzerker]

I'm not an authority on TES lore, so don't take this as WoG, but for what it's worth, I seem to remember several allusions to them eating Souls. Of course, that's why Alduin retreats to Sovngard after you beat him up the first time, but it could possibly explain the exchange of soul back to the Dovakiin, as another dragonlike power. Dragons are creatures of Magic, not only do they need physical food to sustain their bodies, but the energy for their Thu'um has to come from some where. The Dovak gets theirs' from souls, so it wouldn't be a stretch if the Dov did the same. Like I said, it's just a theory, but at least an internally consistent one.

 

[Apollyon Yagami]

they eat letuce.

 

[The_Madgod]

I believe that they eat mortals as sustenance for their physical bodies, and they swallow souls to sustain their own. Or Alduin needs to eat souls because he's like a god, basically.

 

[Texas fight]

I feel like I've been swallowed before. I might just be crazy.

 

[GantradiesDracos]

actually, as a terror tactic, this makes sense. the primal fear of being eaten is pretty deeply rooted in the human psyche

 

[Howarthee]

I always thought it was just Alduin that ate souls, since he's pretty much a god.. I always figured that dragons fed on animals and people nearby to their roosts, which is why the jarls always want them dead.

 

[PrisonerLizzie]

 

[Thorn]

Doesn't the guard helmet that you get from the first dragon still have a head inside it?

 

[Urzek]

Well in a fight most animals won't feed until after all threats are dealt with. After all, would you stop and eat a dead deer if the rest of the herd was attacking you? No you would kill them and then eat.

B-b-but i pick locks, drink mead and eat carrots even a whole gang of bandits or pack of wolves are attacking me.