Facts about Dragon
Dragons are commonly said to possess some form of magic or other supernormal powers, the most famous being the ability to breathe fire from their mouths.
The typical dragon, with wings and four legs, is the second most popular symbol, representing wealth and power.
Dragons have also been portrayed as friends of children, as in the song and poem Puff the Magic Dragon.
Their number of heads ranges from one to seven or sometimes even more, with three- and seven-headed dragons being most common.
Over the years dragons have become the most famous and recognizable of all mythical creatures, used repeatedly in fantasy, fairy tales, video-games, film, and role-playing games of pop culture fame.
From the classics, some of the most famous examples include the Old English epic Beowulf, which ends with the hero battling a dragon; and Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen, where dragon creatures appear regularly.
The most notable exception is the Ouroborus, or the dragon encircling and eating its own tail.
The best example of this is the Slovenian dragon of Ljubljana, who benevolently protects the city of Ljubljana and is pictured in the city's coat of arms.
In Britain, these types of images were made famous by King Arthur's father Uther Pendragon who had a dragon on his crest, and also by the story of Saint George and the dragon.
Dragons of Slavic mythology, known as zmeys (Russian), smok (Belarussian), zmiy (Ukrainian), are generally seen as protectors of crops and fertility.
Other dragon-like creatures in Polish folklore include the basilisk, living in cellars of Warsaw, and the Snake King from folk legends.
The story of Saint George slaying the dragon was incorporated into fairy tales at some point, a princess being held captive by a dragon becoming an almost clichйd theme.
Scholars have attempted to uncover the true source of dragon legends since reports of the ancient creatures themselves have been made public.
The dragon and dragon-like creatures are depicted fairly often in heraldry throughout Europe, but most notably in Great Britain and Germany.
Wyverns, dragons with two back legs and two frontal wings, are the most common, depicting strength and protection, but may also symbolize vengeance.
An ancient story in Britain tells of a white dragon and a red dragon fighting to the death, with the red dragon being the resounding victor.
Sugaar, the Basque male god, whose name can be read as "male serpent," is often associated with the serpent or dragon, but able to take other forms as well.
The dragon Ladon guarded the Golden Apples of the Sun of the Hesperides.
Some dragons were personified to the point that they could speak and felt emotions, while others were merely feral beasts.
More often than not dragons were similar to the wyverns of central Europe, however there were also large, flying dragons that breathed fire.
Some of the earliest references to dragons in the west come from Greece.
The dragon, because it horded gold and treasure, and lived underground in lore, thus also became a symbol of sin, particularly how greed could consume a person to the point of becoming dragon-like.
Some have speculated that it originates from Arthurian Legend where Merlin had a vision of the red dragon (representing Vortigern) and the white dragon (representing the invading Saxons) in battle.
Some take this hypothesis a step further and suggest that dragons are actually a distant memory of real dinosaurs passed down through the generations of humanity.
Modern depictions of dragons are very large in size, but some early European depictions of dragons were only the size of bears, or, in some cases, even smaller, around the size of a butterfly.
An example of this type of thinking is seen in Dragons In Our Midst, a Christian book series by author Bryan Davis.
The White dragon, which symbolizes England, and the Red dragon that appears on the Welsh flag, known as (Y Ddraig Goch).
Most of these representations of dragons were negative—more often they were a supernatural element for a hero to overcome in order to achieve his goals.
Today, there are two distinct dragons in the British Isles.
After devouring it, the dragon became so thirsty that it finally exploded after drinking too much water.
Another serpentine dragon guarded the Golden Fleece, protecting it from theft by Jason and the Argonauts.
Such fossils have been held responsible for the creation of other mythical creatures, so it is possible that the belief in dragons could have been fostered in the remains of real animals.
Many draw upon the field of psychology to enhance understandings of faith as a developmental process that evolves in certain definable stages.
Dragons generally fit into two categories in European lore: The first has large wings that enable the creature to fly, and it breathes fire from its mouth.
Chinese dragons, and Eastern dragons generally, are usually seen as benevolent and spiritual, representative of primal forces of nature and the universe, and great sources of wisdom.
Around the same time, in Catholic literature and iconography, some saints were depicted in the act of killing a dragon.
Tolken kept this view of dragons with his character Smaug, a greedy dragon who is brought down by his own pride in The Hobbit.
A metal sculpture of the Wawel Dragon is a well-known tourist sight in Krakуw.
The Medieval Church's interpretation of the Devil being associated with the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve gave a snake-like dragon connotations of evil.
The most famous sacred space for Islam in Djibouti is the tomb of Sheikh Abu Yazid, found in the Goda Mountains.
When shaped like this the dragon becomes a symbol of eternity, natural cycles, and completion.
Several writers, such as Anne McCaffrey, started to explore a kinship between humans and dragons, somewhat resembling that between horses and humans (although the dragons were generally more intelligent and could often talk).
The idea of dragons was not unique to Herodotus in Greek mythology.
The most famous dragon in England is perhaps the one slain by the country's patron Saint George.
A dragonfly is an insect belonging to the order Odonata, infraorder Anisoptera (from Greek ἄνισος anisos, "uneven" and πτερόν pteron, "wing", because the hindwing is broader than the forewing).
Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it.
This got us wondering: Where did the myth of the dragon come from in the first place? Scholars say that belief in dragons probably evolved independently in both Europe and China, and perhaps in the Americas and Australia as well.Jan 23, 2012
All dragons could have two holes in there mouth, these holes would excrete a highly flammable gas during exhaling, this gas is then breathed out of the mouth. ... When the spark hit the gas, it would light, creating a plume of fire.Sep 19, 2014