Myths and Legends

                                            Legends and Myths

    Any child knows that dragons come from both myths and legends. Beowulf's Beast of Gremarnaca was a dangerous foe. Curiously though, Ch'iu niu preferred music to tame his soul. Dragons didn't have to be huge monstrosities to instill fear and dragonets, despite their cuteness, were feared as much as Draco-splendens when they swarmed together to attack their prey.
    Even children know the unusual names of dragons and that Draco rex Cristatus, the Great Earth dragons, were the most abundant of them all. Foolish mortals sometimes took on the guise of a dragon and Fafnir, who was killed by his greedy brother Sigurd, was foolish indeed. Glaurung, the Deceiver, made Middle Earth his home while the Ministry of Magic considered the Hungarian Horntails to be the most dangerous of all dragon breeds.
    Harrowing tales have been told of peaceful dragons provoked into hunting and killing. Intruding thieves blundered in and woke them from their restful sleep by stealing from their treasure troves. Jawzahr, the comet dragon, caused eclipses whenever he swallowed the sun or the moon in ancient Persia. Krakow's dragon, immortalized in history, was slain by a peasant boy who won the King's daughter and the hoarded treasure.
      Ladon, with his one hundred heads, guarded the tree that bore the golden apples until Heracles fulfilled the eleventh labour and killed him for the King of Mycenae. Mertseger protected the tombs of the dead in the Valley of Queens. Noble Norbert loved his Norwegian Ridgeback until Hogwarts forced him to send it away.
      Obviously, dragons could do more than fly and flame and one village knew that the O-gon-cho's sorrowful song foretold imminent and profound disaster. Perhaps, dragons would have lived longer if the Piasa hadn't developed a taste for human flesh. Quetzals of Central America had four 6-meter tail feathers to distract their prey. River dragons like Ryvjin and Ti Lung loved swallows and feared centipedes.
      So many dragons have left their indelible prints such as Smaug, the Golden, who hunted Bilbo deep in the Lonely Mountain. Tien lung held a place of prominence as the celestial dragon and protector of the heavens. Urobos' penchant for biting his tail gave us the eternal symbol, the circle of life. Vritra, a demonic dragon writhed around the mountains of India. Wewilmekq, once a shaman, defeated his rival when he turned himself into a 12-meter long serpent dragon. Xak Tsaroth was the home of the black dragon Onyx who caused many a Dragonlance hero to look more than once at passing shadows in the sky. Yet, despite their history, dragons were admired and the blood-lusting Yai tzu dragons were engraved inspiration on the swords of many human warriors. Zeal for knowledge of the past and the present, any child knows, will guide them in the future.