Dragons

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HYDRA
Origin: Norse/Greek Myth
HERACLES& THE HYDRA

Hera (Heracles's stepmother) decided that Eurystheus, and not Heracles, should become the king of Mycenae. Eurystheus commanded Heracles to perform twelve labors in twelve years in order to keep him away from his kingdom, afraid Heracles would take his throne. The Hydra was was Heracles' Second Labor, the first being the Lion of Nemean.

Eurystheus ordered Heracles to kill the Lernaean hydra. This hydra, raised in the swamp of Lerna, would go out into the plain and destroy both property and livestock. The hydra is a gigantic multi-headed dragon, with anywhere from 6 to 9 heads (depending on which version of the story you read) with the middle one being immortal. It's breath and blood were deadly.

He travelled to Amymone, where the Hydra's cave was near. After finding the hydra he forced it to come out by shooting burning arrows at the enterance. When the creature emerged, Heracles grabbed it and held on. The hydra coiled around Heracles' feet and tried to smother him with the huge coils of itself. Heracles' attempts to smash its heads with his club were unsuccessful, for whenever he smashed one head, two would grow where the one was originally. Additionally, a huge crab helped the hydra by biting Heracles' feet.

The crab however, was not immortal, so Heracles smashed the crab into mush. After killing the crab, Heracles called to Iolaus for help. Iolaus, after setting fire to part of the nearby grove of trees, stopped the heads from sprouting up by cauterizing the stumps with torches as they came up. Heracles, having killed all the other heads, he cut off the immortal head, buried it beside the road and put a heavy rock on top of it. With that done, he cut open the body of the hydra, and Heracles dipped his arrows in its deadly bile. Eurystheus, however, said Heracles could not count this labor among the ten, since he cheated by having Iolaus help him defeat the beast.
The Hydra has a constellation named after it .

SAINT GEORGE
Origin: English History

Saint George is known as a Martyr and the Patron Saint of England.
He was originally a Roman Calvary officer who was known for his courage in war. He was a mighty site on his white war-horse. He eventually converted to Christianity, and to show the people that Christians did not have to be meek, he sought out to fight a dragon who was destroying the area around Cappadocia. The people of the town tried to calm the beast with sacrafices of their best sheep. This worked for a while, but then the dragon attacked again. The poor people had to give up what they thought would rid the animal of their town: a virgin princess. George slayed the dragon with the lance he had in his hand while charging with his huge steed. Because of this heroic deed, other Christian Knights sought out to save damsels in destress from dragons, and how dragons eventually got slaughtered into being just a myth.
Saint George's red cross that he wore over his armor became the banner of England. Saint George Feast Day is April 23rd. Reynold's Metals even uses a symbol of St. George as their logo!

SIGURD & THE DRAGON FAFNIR
Origin: Norse Myth
Sigurd (also known as Siegfried) Volsung was told by the dwarf Regin to gain fame and power to slay a terrible dragon named Fafnir that guarded a huge mound of treasure.
Sigurd took up interest in this dragon, and recently was awarded with his father's broken sword (named Gram) which Regin forged back into one whole massive sword. Sigurd and the dwarf rode to find the fearless beast. What Sigurd did not know is that Regin's brother murdered their father to gain the wealth of the kingdom. This brother's name was Fafnir. Fafnir, because of his greed for gold and jewels changed his corrupt self into a massive dragon to protect his hoard better.

From what Sigurd knew of dragons, their tough,scaly hide on the top of the body was impregnable to any weapon. Regin suggested building a pit in which Sigurd could hide. So they both dug a pit outside of the dragon's lair. With Sigurd hiding, Regin covered the pit with branches. He waited hours for the dragon to come back from its daily visit to the watering hole nearby. Finally, a shadow covered the top of the pit, and Sigurd took the huge sword Gram in both hands and shoved as hard as he could up towards the exposed, soft belly of the dragon. With the dragon dead, Sigurd climbed out of his hiding place.

Regin then caved out the beast's heart to roast. When handing it to Sigurd to share, he burnt his hand and sucked on his fingers. Moments later he heard chattering, and surprised, looked up to see birds talking. They were saying how the dwarf was planning Sigurd's murder. He saw the truth in the dwarf's eyes and took out the sword and sliced off Regin's head. He went into the cave to claim the treasure as his own.

JORMUNGAND, THE MIDGARD SERPENT
Origin: Norse Myth/Scandinavia
This was the son of Loki and Angerboda. This serpent was expelled by Odin, and forced to encircle the earth and hold its tail in its mouth under the depth of the seas. Thor and the giant Hymir were fishing using an ox head as bait when something very powerful grabbed the hook. The gigantic head rose up out of the water, and Thor was ready with his hammer, but Hymir lost his nerve and cut the line. the serpent dissapeared beyond the waves.

Many ages past, then the Day Of The Last Battle came. This was a war with god against giant, deity against demon, and man against monster. The Midgard Serpent let go of its tail and uncoiled itself to go ashore to fight Thor, the only being that would be worthy challenge. They met on the beach, and Thor immediately slammed bolts of lightning at the monster. Jormungand snapped its jaws at Thor trying to bite him fatally, with no luck. Thor raised his War Hammer and slammed it on the skull of the dragon. With an massive roar the dragon died. Thor also died that day, suffacated from the dragon's venomous breath.

THE LAMBTON WORM
Origin: English History

John Lambton, heir to the Lambton kingdom skipped out on church one Sunday, and decided to go fishing instead at the river Wear. When he tossed his line into the water something grabbed his line and yanked hard. He finally managed to bring whatever it was at the end of his line to shore, and to his amazement it was the most disgusting, ugliest creature he as ever seen. It was about 3 feet long, with slimy, blackish skin, with the head of a dragon. Repelled at the sight, Lambton just wanted to get rid of the beast. There happened to be an unused well nearby so he dragged the creature by the tail and tossed it into the deep, dark well.

That day changed John Lambton's world. When he looked into the evil creatures eyes, he saw himself. A person who did many wrongs, and wanted to correct them. A few years passed, and he made up his mind to redeem himself and all the bad things he did in childhood. He left his castle far behind and travelled to the Holy Land. Unknown to him, the wicked worm he caught years before grew in the well.

While John was away, the gigantic worm, now so huge it could wrap itself around a hill nine times, crawled out of its hiding place and terrorized the town. It killed cows, chickens, and even the townsfolk. Some brave townsmen tried to kill it, and once even sliced it in half, but to their amazement and dismay, the dragon would just join together again. The towns people then tried calming the great creature with milk (knowing the other legends of placating beasts). They filled a cow-trough with 20 gallons of milk. When the worm smelled this, it came out to drink, then sluggishly went back to its place in the hills.

When John Lambton came back from his deeds in the Holy Land, he saw to his horror, the beast he put upon the town. He went to a local witch to ask her advice on how to destroy the monster. She informed him that the only way to kill it, is if he wore a suit of armor with spikes all around the surface, and if he confronted it near the river where he originally caught it. The other thing the witch told him surprised him. He would have to kill the next living thing that he saw or if he didn't the Lambton name would be cursed for nine generations, and no heir would die at home.

Understanding the warnings, John decided to still at least try to get rid of the worm. He had a local blacksmith create the special armor and off he went to try to get the worm to follow him to the river. The worm, knowing that another victim was near raced to John. John with his sharp sword slashed at the monster, and the monster wrapped its coils around John not knowing the blades that stuck out of it... The creature fell in many pieces to the ground, and with John slicing them into very small pieces, the worm finally died.

When he was walking back to the castle, to his horror, he saw the next living thing. That thing was his father. Knowing that he could not kill his father, he killed his favorite dog instead trying to sacrafice that to the curse. It did not. So the Lambton heir has a terrible, tragic end to their lives, and they were never at home in the comfort of their own bed.

NIDHOGG / NIDDHOGG / NYDHOGG
Origin: Scandinavian/Germanic Mythology.
The monster serpent, hid in the pit Hvergelmer, which for ever gnaws at the roots of the ashtree Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil isknown as "The World Tree"which supports the universe. The tree is a place where the gods judge and continually gnawed on by the dragon trying to destroy the universe.

THE PIASA
Origin: North America
The Piasa. originated in North America, and was worshipped by the Algonquins. It had the body of a dragon, the head of a person, a lion's mane, and a tail twice as long as a person. This was a neo-dragon which lived near the Mississippi River. This dragon did not bother humans until it found dead ones and tried the meat. To its surprise, it liked the taste. It now hunded humans and abducted people to bring them back to its lair for dinner.

THE ETHIOPIAN DREAM
Origin: Ethiopia
There is another neo-dragon known as "The Ethiopian Dream." This type of dragon had four wings and two feet with claws. They have no breath, but they ate poisonous plants to make their bite and their scratches deadlier. They were large enough to kill elephants. Once four of them were reported to have woven themselves into a raft and sailed over the Red Sea to Arabia, where there was better places to hunt.

BEOWULF & THE DRAGON
Origin: Anglo-Saxon
(In Brief) This is a story itold in an eight-century poem written in Old English. It combines three major stories, which tell of Beowulf's battle with the monster, Grendel, whom he ripped an arm off Grendel during a struggle. The second story tells of his fight with Grendel's mother a watertroll beneath the waters of a lake. And the third story tells of his combat with a fire-dragon.

One of Beowulf's servents was in trouble, so he ran away to hide from the trouble he was in. The servent accidentally discovered a dragonhoard at a burial ground near the town. Thinking that a nice gold goblet would buy him out of trouble, the servent quietly took it, and ran back to the kingdom. The dragon woke up at night, and checked his treasure. Upon finding one of his favorite trinkets gone, the dragon was extremely angry. To vent its anger the dragon sweapt through Beowulf's lands and set fire to the villages.

Beowulf, even though he was up in age, decided he had to rid his land of this terrible dragon. He gathering a small band of the best warriors and went off to find this creature. He gathers up some warriors and heads off to find the dragon. A young man of the group, Wiglaf begs Beowulf to help him fight the dragon, but he refuses and goes t the dragon alone. At the cave enterance, Beowulf challenges the dragon to come out so he could destroy it. The dragon belched flames at him as Beowulf raises his shield against the burning fire. He rushes the dragon and strikes the dragon, but breaks his sword. He reaches for his dagger but is too late as the dragon bites him.

Wiglaf rushes to the King's side and jams the sword into the soft underside of the dragon's jaw. The dragon lets go and Wiglaf and the King hack the dragon until it collasped. The poison from the dragons mouth was killing Beowulf. Eager to please the King, Wiglaf grabs an armful of treasure to show Beowulf. The king gives Wiglaf his helmet and ring, and tells him he is King of the Geats now.

SMAUG
Origin: Tolkien Stories.
In the famous story "The Hobbit", Smaug was a dragon who guarded the Dwarven riches in Lonely Mountain. Bilbo Baggins a hobbit, Gandalf a wizard, and a band of 13 dwarves go on an adventure to reclaim the mountain of the dwarves and the riches that are deep inside.

A PARTIAL LIST of EARLY EUROPEAN MAPS
containing DRAGONS and similar BEASTS

The following references have been compiled from MapHist's archive. Names of those who supplied the reference are given after each entry (apologies to anyone whose name is mis-spelled, missed-out, or otherwise mis-represented). Additional information from standard reference texts has been added by the compiler in a haphazard fashion. For more descriptions, see Wilma George, Animals and Maps (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), and Judy Allen and Jeanne Griffiths, The Book of the Dragon (Chartwell Books, 1979).

# Ptolemy's Atlas (originally 2nd century, taken up again in the 15th century) warns of elephants, hippos and cannibals [Ian Seymour via Jeremy Crampton]
# Tabula Peutingeriana (medieval copy of Roman map) has "in his locis elephanti nascuntur", "in his locis scorpiones nascuntur" and "in his locis cenocephali nascuntur" ("in these places elephants are produced, in these places scorpions are produced, here dog-headed beings are produced") [Susan Weingarten]
# Cotton MS. Tiberius B.V. fol. 58v (10th century), British Library Manuscript Collection, has "hic abundant leones" ("here lions abound"), along with a picture of a lion, near the east coast of Asia (at the top of the map towards the left); this map also has a text-only serpent reference in southernmost Africa (bottom left of the map): "Zugis regio ipsa est et Affrica. est enim fertilis. sed ulterior bestiis et serpentibus plena." [Helen Wallis cited by Geoff Armitage]
# The Psalter map (ca. 1250) has dragons in the bottom "frame", below the world (but no text), balancing Jesus and angels at top; verso has a T-O map with Christ standing on dragons; i.e. related to victorious ruler trampling enemies (the calcatio motif) where the dragon stands for the devil or death [Sinclair A. Sheers]
# The Ebstorf map (13th c.) has the draco in the extreme south-eastern part of Africa, together with the aspis and basiliscus [M. Hoogvliet]
# The Borgia Map (ca. 1430), Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, has text above a dragon-like figure in Asia (the upper left quadrant of the map) which reads "Hic etiam homines magna cornua habentes longitudine quatuor pedum, et sunt etiam serpentes tante magnitudinis, ut unum bovem comedant integrum" ("Here also are huge men having horns four feet long, and there are serpents also of such magnitude that they can eat an ox whole") [Geoff Armitage; Alice Hudson; Margaret Wilkes]
# Giovanni Leardo's map (1442) has, in southernmost Africa, "Dixerto dexabitado p. chaldo e p. serpent" [M. Hoogvliet]
# Waldseemüller's Carta marina navigatoria (1516) has "an elephant-like creature in northernmost Norway, accompanied by a legend explaining that this 'morsus' with two long and quadrangular teeth congregated there", i.e. a walrus, which would have seemed monstrous at the time [Kirsten A. Seaver]
# Waldseemüller's Carta marina navigatoria (1522), revised by Laurentius Fries, has the morsus moved to the Davis Strait [Kirsten A. Seaver]
# Bishop Olaus Magnus's 'Carta Marina' map of Scandinavia (1539) has many monsters in the northern sea [Kirsten A. Seaver; Ian Seymour via Jeremy Crampton]

On the Origin of Dragons

During the middle ages no one ever pondered over the question where dragons might originate from. They were thought to have existed from the beginning of the earth. This changed at the turn of modern times. During the 17th century scientists began to doubt the real existence of dragons, but conceded that phantastic creatures were at least possible. As a consequence "faked" dragons compiled of mumified rays, bats and other ingredients found their ways into the early museums (or rather cabinets of curiosities) as examples of possible but yet undiscovered creatures (STECKNER, 1997). Simultaneously a new question arose. How came dragons into existence? The old Christian explanations on the creation of the earth crumbled. Additionally there was severe doubt, whether such fierce animals were really God´s creatures. But the Bible never explicitely mentioned creative powers of the Devil. Could there be another way for the origin of dragons?

In 1683 to 1691 Eberhard Werner HAPPEL published his Relationes Curiosae, a collection of curiosities. There he commented on events of the day and reported stories from exotic countries, he presented scientific discoveries of various disciplines as well as descriptions of landscapes, their inhabitants and folk lore. The book gained such popularity that during the ensuing decades faked editions and sequels were issued.

Of course HAPPEL could not ignore the dragon. He first presents the story of Deodatus de Gozon, a young knight of St. John who killed a dragon on the isle of Rhodes in 1345. HAPPEL afterwards lists some well-known facts: Dragons are manyfold - some possess wings and others don´t, some have four and others two legs. Their feet could be compared to those of goose, lions or eagles, but all dragons are said to be venomous. But then he suddenly states that they are monsters or miraculous creatures which could not spring from an ordenary copulation of two common animals of different species. (of course he mentioned the mule as an example of such a bastard). And he gives the explanation: It is well accepted that dragons inhabit the remotest dwellings such as caves, cliffs or deserts. Only eagles, vultures and other birds of prey are their companions. In fact they dwelled there even before the dragon. To these places they brought their prey - snakes, birds, rabbits, lambs, dogs, and even little children! - to lacerate and devour them. And there the remains decayed. But still remnants of the semen of these unlucky victims survived. Of course it was impossible that this seed could develop ordenary animals. But through time the semen of various creatures would intermingle and at last a kind of "fermentational putrefaction" would give birth to a dragon. Logically, this dragon will show features of all animals involved: head and tail of the snake, wings of a bird or bat, ears of a rabbit and legs of whatever kind of being.
Leviathan, 5 kb

HAPPEL certainly had not invented this strange and peculiar theory. But where was it derived from? Here we have to leave our friends, the dragons, for a while and face another phenomenon that puzzled scientists of the 16th and 17th century: formed stones. The term "fossil" then was still used in its original, very broad sense for everything unearthed from the ground - petrified animals as well as roman coins, minerals or pottery. The origin of formed stones (or fossils in its modern meaning) was a matter of scientific debate. It was not before 1708 that Johann Jakob SCHEUCHZER (amongst others) recognized their real nature. The main theories have been summarized by Johann Bartholomaeus Adam BERINGER (1667-1740) in his Lithographiae Wirceburgensis (1726).

The story of his "lying stones" forms one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of palaeontology (KIRCHNER, 1935; JAHN & WOOLF, 1963). BERINGER was a virtuoso - a "learned dilettant". Figured stones fascinated him. On May 31, 1725 the worthy physician was presented three stones, one bearing the figure of the sun, the other two a kind of worm. His interest was roused. During the ensuing months BERINGER found plenty more on a hill near his home town Würzburg (Germany). He not only studied his findings but also reviewed all theories that could explain their origin. The results were published in 1726. Soon afterwards he found a stone having his own name engraved upon it - and suddenly realized that he had been fooled. His treasures were man-made! He tried to buy back all copies of his book and was soon financially ruined.

There were many riddles about the authors of this hoax. One explanation often heard was that the stones had been used by a lover of BERINGER´s wife to get his rival out of the house keeping him occupied for a significant time. Others spoke of a foul joke by some of his students. However, the hoax had an academic background. The artefacts had been produced and laid out by J. Ignaz RODERIQUE, professor of geography, algebra and analysis at the University of Würzburg, and Johann Georg von ECKHARD, libriarian to the university, who systematically ruined their colleague (KIRCHNER, 1935) because "he was so arrogant and despised them all" (JAHN & WOOLF, 1963).

BERINGER had pondered much over the origin of formed stones. The english translation of his Lithographiae Wirceburgensis (JAHN & WOOLF, 1963) is supplemented with notes by the editors which give a good synopsis of the most important theories. A common explanation well in accordance with the doctrines of Christianity interpreted fossils as tokens of the omnipotence of the allmighty God. Some people believed that formed stones were extraordinary manifestations of platonic archetypes. And for others they were just a lusus naturae, a caprice or fancy of nature. BERINGER was inclined to that view.

Robert PLOT (1640-1696), the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, secretary of the Royal Society, and editor of the Philosophical Transactions rejected both these popular theories as well as the idea of an universal Noachian Deluge (see below) as the origin of formed stones. His basic observation was that salts allways crystallized into specific geometrical figures such as, e.g., cubes or octahedrons. He attributed this phenomenon to a special plastic power (vis plastica). And if that power could form salt into complicated geometrical shapes, why could it not create stones with the appearance of animals? To him formed stones were lapides sui generis generated by a "plastick power [or virtue] or whatever else it is that effects these shapes".

Johann Jakob SCHEUCHZER (1672-1733) rejected these ideas. He was a dedicated follower of the diluvial theory. You may remember his famous paper Homo Diluvii Testis (1726) in which he misinterpreted the skeleton of a Miocene giant salamander (which today bears his name: Andrias scheuchzeri TSCHUDI) for the remains of an unlucky human drowned in the Noachian Flood. His most remarkable book, however, is Piscium Querelae et Vindiciae - "The Grievances and Claims of the Fishes". Fossil fish from all over Europe appeare before an imaginary - or should I say "virtual"? - court. They accuse and attack the adherents of odd theories, such as the vis plastica, lusus naturae or aura seminalis, who deny their true nature. According to SCHEUCHZER they are real fish that once had lived and had been drowned during the Biblical inundation because of man´s wickedness, and indeed perished with him. Don´t raise the objection that fishes are creatures of the water and therefore will never drown! SCHEUCHZER of course had thought of that. With a few exceptions (e.g., the eel or the salmon) fish prefer and are restricted to water of a specific salinity. During the Deluge marine fish were exposed to fresh water. On the contrary lacustrine and fluviatile fish were washed into the sea. Both could not endure the enormous amounts of mud created during the flood. They were suffocated and perished (remember that not a single creature besides those on the ark survived; Gen. 7, 23).

Karl Nikolaus LANG, a colleague of SCHEUCHZER´s, advocated a different point of view. He assumed that formed stones originate within the earth where animal seeds were activated by sbterranean heat, proper fluid matter, latent plastic power and the seminal breeze. He stated that this process is more rapid than that of natural generation, but in most cases terminates in the creation of a partial body. Snow water should exert a major positive influence on this process.

However, this was not an original theory. LANG had just modified an older hypothesis by Edward LHWYD (1660-1709). LHWYD succeeded PLOT as the keeper of the Ashmolean Museum in 1691, but he never subscribed to his predecessor´s and teacher´s ideas on the origin of fossils. He became one of the greatest proponents of the "Spermatick Principle" or aura seminalis. For centuries it had been assumed, that the active power of reproduction belonged exclusively to the male. It was believed that the head of a sperm allready containes a tiny creature resembling the later adult. Of course this sperm needs an appropriate environment and nutrient to develop which are provided by the female. But why could not also the earth contain some sort of nutrient to stimulate development, a kind of "saline moisture of an occult sort"? Then nothing would prevent development once the spawn or semen of an animal had insinuated itself through cracks and fissures into the earth. The result, however, should not be a perfect creature. Only the female uterus could provide the environment for the proper growth and development of the offspring. Semen embedded into the womb of Mother Earth will accommodate to this new milieu and bring forth stony adults. And sometimes it has not enough power to create complete specimens so that major parts of the petrified animal could be missing.

It was LHWYD´s theory of the "Spermatick Principle" which had been modified to explain the creation of dragons. We should add, that some followers of this theory saw the whole world saturated with semen: Water contains the spawn not only of fish. When it evaporats the spawn not simply desiccates and dies, but is transferred into a new medium, the air. Later it will be washed to the ground again during rainfalls. We should thus not be astonished by the idea that semen of various animals abounds in the vicinity of an eagle´s or vulture´s eyrie. And it shurely gets intermingled before it finds its appropriate "saline moisture". Similar to spawn in rock fissures the semen of a single animal is not able to develop a complete, proper creature. But mixed with other sperms it will bring forth a monster or dragon.

The "Spermatick Principle" was only a short-lived episode in the history of palaeontology. However, it gained much popularity amongst common people, so that, e.g., in 1734 ZEDLER still could attribute the creation of dragons to this hypothesis.

Fiziologija

THE SKELETON
The Western dragon Eudraco magnificus occidentalis has a sturdy skeleton structure. Large head, long neck, broad shoulders, thick legs, strong tail, and very large wings. The dragon's bones are very strong, but hollow and light. A dragon's jaw is large to accommodate the very strong muscles around it. The dragon is able to dislocate its jaw, as some snakes are able to do, to grab large objects. The dragon has two types of teeth because of it being an omnivore (It will eat meat and plant food). The canine and incisor teeth of a dragon are long and razor sharp, but also have molars to chew their food instead of eating it whole. The shoulder bones are thick to handle the large wing muscles needed to fly. The wing "finger" bones are very long to wrap the thin flight membrane taut around them. There are many species of Western dragon, and this is only one example showing the different bones of the skeletal system.

The Oriental (or Eastern) dragon Dracoserpens Lung orientalis has a extremely long, thin skeleton structure. It has a medium sized head, very long neck, short legs, small hips, and a long tail. This skeleton is very maneuverable because of the shape, such as a long snake is. It can twist and turn its body in all sorts of ways. This type of dragon does not have hollow bones, and the dragon's skeleton is thin because it doesn't need the mass to accommodate flight muscles. This dragon does not have any type of wings as it flies with earth-magic verses brute strength.

MUSCLES
Western dragons have many more muscles then their Eastern cousins. This is mainly due to their massive flight muscles that have to lift their weight into the sky with the thrust of their wings. The main wing muscles are the Supraspinatus and Flexor alae major. Notice that the actual wing does not have many major muscles, it is all near the chest area. Other large muscles account for a very strong tail, and rear legs. The Western dragon could easily hold a human male's weight while in flight. Also notice the large jaw muscle Masseter, this muscle can easily crush bones.

OUTSIDE OF THE BODY
The dragon can be a huge creature depending on the breed. The one shown here is roughly 20 feet long with a wingspan of 35 feet. This type of dragon has extremely small ears, large eyes, spines down its back, and a bone-type spade at the end of its tail. All dragon breeds are different. Some have long ears, and no spade, and some have a fleshy-type triangle-shaped spade. This type of dragon also does not have scales, it has tough leathery skin. Most dragons have scales of some sort.

SCALES
Scales (and horns/claws) on a dragon are densely packed cells made up of keratin, a tough fibrous protein. When born, a dragon's scales are as soft as tissue paper, and slowly harden while the dragon grows. The iron from the blood, or vegetable matter the dragon eats is absorbed by the dragon's blood stream and mixed with the keratin to create steel-hard scales. The process of getting scales as tough as they can get takes about one year after being hatched.

COLOR
Scale color is determand by the genes of the parent dragons. Usually only red dragons will mate with other red dragons, etc. But if a mating took place between a gold and a green dragon, the result might be a bronze colored offspring. Scales on a dragon are never simply one shade of color. If a dragon is blue, there will be many, many shades of blue. Light, medium, dark, blue-black, etc. Scales are bright and shiny in a healthy dragon, but dull and muted if a dragon is ill.

CAMOUFLAGE

In some breeds of dragons when the dragon is mature, the cells in the scales are able to change color such as a chameleon due to chromatophore, the pigment cells in the scales.This reaction can be caused by emotion (anger, happiness,etc) or by the will of the dragon to change color. If the dragon is angered it can change from its original color to a bright, fierce color such as red, to look more intimidating or during mating rituals, it can flow certain color patterns on its body to attract other dragons. Since dragons are extremely intelligent, it can choose which colors to change into to match the exact background it is near including subtle shadow and highlights. It is so good at this, most things would just walk past a 65 foot dragon hiding in the sand.

A DRAGON'S ARMOR
The main function of scales is protection of the soft skin tissue of the dragon. An adult dragon can easily take a direct blow from a knight's sword and hardly flinch. Adult dragons have 4-6 inch wide, and 7-9 inch long teardrop shaped scales covering its body. The pattern of the body scales is a flat, rotating design that overlap each other. Easy movement is due to the unique depression on the top side of each scale that allows them to lay evenly flat on the body.

The scales on the chest area are the largest; easily being over a foot wide. The chest scales are one to three flat "scale flaps". These are shaped differently than a regular scale as they are more squarish. The pattern of the chest scales is overlapping and flat running from the throat, under body to the end of the tail. All of the scales lightly slide over each other, so when a dragon walks it will make a soft scraping sound. The overlapping scales make it difficult for anything to successfully injure a dragon.

An interesting fact is that the dragon can make the scales stand on end for washing. Also, when angered, the dragon can puff up, spread its scales, and look a lot larger than the dragon actually is. Lifting the scales is also an effective heat reducing element. Making the scales stand on end allows the skin underneath to release heat, thus cooling the large animal down quickly. A favorite past-time of dragons is to stand the scales up and go into a cool pool of water to allow it to run in between the scales and onto the sensitive skin.

THE WING

The wing. The part of the dragon that distinguishes itself from all other creatures. The dragon wing is a huge, leathery appendage that is found on several different species of dragon. The wing is usually larger than the dragon's body to accommodate the incredible force needed to lift and maintain flight.

BONES
The wing is essentially another arm and hand. If you look at the skeleton of a dragon front arm and claws, you will notice that the wing is just a very stretched out version. The two thick "arm bones" (humerus and wing radius) runs from the body of the dragon attaching itself with cartilage and muscle to an "elbow" of the wing. There are usually 4 or 5 elongated "fingers" on a wing each ending in a claw. One short "thumb" claw is at the "wrist". The "fingers" then attach themselves to the "wrist joints" to form the complete wing.

HOW DO THEY FLY?

The actual force of flight is the continuous down sweep of powerful wings scooping, and thrusting the body upwards. An immature dragon does not have the strength needed for a vertical jump from flat ground to take off. They will usually stay near higher cliffs to use the heat updrafts to keep aloft. It takes a few years of flying to build the extremely strong flight muscles needed to lift the dragon body from the ground. The wings make actually look small for the mass of the dragon, but all dragons have an innate magic ability to help them fly. This magic helps keep dragons from straining themselves during long flights.

WEAPONS
Dragons can also use their wings as an attack weapon if need be, but this is a last resort. The wing membranes are easily damaged compared to the rest of a dragon body. If a dragon wing membrane is slashed, it takes a very long time to heal, and there is a chance the dragon might never fly again if it does not heal correctly. If attacked on the ground, the dragon will usually run then jump in the air and fly off avoiding the attacker. But if the dragon is trapped on the ground it will tuck its wings tightly against its body and use its breath weapon and claws to protect itself. If the dragon has to use its wings to attack it will scoop down and slash with its razor sharp wing claws to immobilize the attacker.

SENSES
Dragons have the same senses as humans; sight, hearing, smelling, touch, and taste. But some have a six sense which is being able to "read" the emotion of another being. Their regular five senses are incredibly sensitive. For example, the sense of smell is about 100 times more sensitive than a bloodhound dog. They can smell and hear a person or animal from a couple miles away!

Their six sense is very accurate at close range. If a person or animal is feeling a strong emotion, such as fear or hate, it will register very strongly to the dragon, even if it is not in visual range of it. This is where dragonfear comes from. Dragonfear is an all encompassing, frozen-in-place fear that the dragon causes upon the animal or person seeing a dragon. The dragons sometimes use this advantage to beat its foes, such as thieves or knights. Only the very bravest (or very dim-witted) are not affected by this terrible fear. This is usually an aura around evil-minded dragons, but in a friendly dragon, such as the Faerie Dragon, this aura is non-existant.

THE FIRE BREATHERS!

Fire: the thing that makes the dragon most feared. It's a hellish belch of flame that can turn flesh and bone into ash. Though, not all dragons breath fire. Some have freezing cold breath, others have acid, and some don't use their breath as a weapon at all! The two that have fire breathing power are the Red Dragon and Fire Drake.

HOW DO THEY BREATH FIRE?
It all starts when the dragon catch their prey. When dragons eat, they digest the food in a regular stomach. The digestion then continues in a second stomach that breaks down the food even further. After the dragon's body has used all it can from the second digestion, the body then turns the leftover food and acid into a byproduct of hydrogen. The dragon can hold the hydrogen in various large glands in it's body for later use, and can call upon it at any time it needs to. When the dragon needs to belch it's flame, the glands release the hydrogen into the lungs where it mixes with other various chemicals the body creates. Once this mixture finds oxygen, it burns extremely hot, and very quick. The dragon usually has enough hydrogen in its body for about three spits of flame, but that should be plenty for anything coming up against a large red dragon. This explanation is about the same for dragons that breath other types of breath. Their bodies just break down food into different compounds.

Hydrocarbon Spit

This is the first theory I will try to explain. It is based on the assumption the fire that is spitted (or
breathed) is based on light hydrocarbons, ranging from methane (natural gas, 1 carbon atom) to octane
(common car fuel, 8 carbon atoms), or some of its derivatives (see below).
Therefore, this kind of fire requires the presence of oxigen in the ambient the fire is spitted on. Or the
dragon must also produce and breath the oxidant agent mixed with the fuel and ignite it to produce the fire.
This way, the fire is merely a variation of our well-known flamethrowers, but until now we were unable to
study with more details and conclude if this second mechanism involving oxidizer exists in the wild, though
theoretically possible.

Which hydrocarbon? How is it produced? How it is breathed?

If dragons spit some compound, which one they do? Do they breathe gases of liquids? It is assumed
here that dragons probably breathe a mixture of hydrocarbons of 3 to 8 carbon atoms in lenght, some of which
may be linear and others branched, saturated and insaturated. (ask a dragon for a sample and do the analysis
yourself..., doesn't matter a lot at all!) . These are the easiest compounds the dragon can produce in its normal
biochemical reactions, are easy to store (unlike the hydrogen gas of the previous theory and methane or
ethane), are quite inert chemically until mixed with an oxidizer (like air) and ignited and because they do not
require very complex, pressure resistant structures for its production, storage and elimination. And they have
very high calorific power (this is one of the reasons our cars run on gasoline) in contrast with common
alcohol, a great property for something that was designed by evolution to burn with the greatest efficiency.

Now, over on the biochemical part of the process (at the end of this article), on the anatomy of the fire-
gland and the ways of release of the flame. Most dragons release fire through the nose or through the mouth
(maybe some of them through both ways), this varies from species to species, and is not very clear which
evolutionary facts led to one or another way.
In most cases the so-called fire-gland is a system of two small sacks, egg shaped of about 15 to 25
centimeters long (this size refers to a adult small, (five meters) dragon and varies wildly from dragon to
dragon), filled with a very volatile and flamable liquid of strong smell. The gland itself is a muscular structure
linked to the nervous system, allowing them to control when the fire is spitted. There are two conducts that
lead from the gland to the mouth or nose, depending of the dragon species. Since the structure of these ducts
are quite similar to the esophagus (though far smaller), they have been misplaced as being some part (or kind)
of the esophagus for a long time, as well as the glands were mistaken as a part of the digestive system.
The ducts end in a muscular "mouth" that usually folds over itself, both to close the duct and to
extinguish any residual fire that may be there when the dragon decides to end the flame.

The "Flamethrowing Action"

The sequences of actions the dragon does to produce a flame was elucidated through the hard work of
our team of seasoned scientists (some of which died in the attempt) and the great help of a dragon friend (no
names, please!). Fire-spitting proceeds as follows:
- Dragon inhales air deeply (as deep as it wishes to make the flame last longer or shorter, or if the
flame itself is to be long or short) and the fire-gland is contracted, forcing the fuel through the
ducts and the ducts mouth.
- Dragon starts to expel the air and the air flow from the lungs mixes with the fuel forming a fine
mist (somewhat like a car's carburator). Simultaneously, the duct-mouth starts a very small
amount of a very high heat-releasing reaction (which is being studied right now...), igniting the
mist and starting the fire. High-speed photografies shown that these are very finely synchronyzed
events and in almost every case the fire starts at the edge of the dragon's mouth. So, it is correct to
say that a dragon breathes fire and not spit fire.
- Dragon continues to exhale the air, spreading the flame as it wishes. From this we deducted the
duration of the flame depends mostly of the amount of air inhaled and the strenght it is blown out
of the mouth and shown less relationship with the size of the fire-gland, although the number of
fire-spits it can spit is directly regulated by its size (a normal small dragon could spit from three to
six times, and recovers at variable rates depending on the individual). However, statistics shown
that the age of the dragon (and therefore its experience and training) relates with its ability of
producing more efficient flames, longer or shorter, or special effects like the fireball (below).
- Finally, when the air ends or the dragon decides to end the flame, first the duct-mouth folds in
itself, cutting the flow of fuel, the fire-gland is relaxed and a split second after, the flame ends
itself. Again, this is a highly coordinated action taking less than 0.2 seconds.

Special Effects

Some dragons shown the ability of spitting something more than a simple flame. Some are capable of
hurling fireballs of different sizes at their targets, while others are able to control with great precision the
lenght, shape, duration and efficiency of the flame. It seems to be involved with the degree of experience the
dragon has, which relates directly (but not always) to its age. As well as with humans, there are very strong
reasons to believe there are "naturals" in the dragon society, and this ability varies from dragon to dragon.
Fireballs: Fireballs are simple "balls" of fire hurled through the fire or nose of dragon. They seem to
be created (and this is being studied) by conscient compression of the fuel-air mist created in the mouth or
nose of the dragon followed by its sudden (but controlled) release in the air. Nothing was concluded about the
presence of a core of fuel in the ball. At least until now.
Fine Control of Flame: This seems to be achieved through training (or natural ability). This allows to
control the flow of fuel, air, its mixing, speed and so on, but, again, we are conducting aerodinamic computer-
simulations to best understand this control.

Another Effects

Other kinds (or species) of dragons may produce effects very different from simple fire. Some are able
to spit acids (through ways somewhat analogous to the fire-spitting), poisons and so on. These effects may be
explained with simple knowledge of the biochemistry, anatomy and physiology of the dragons, but there are
others, like the lightning breathers or the frost breathers. Unfortunately, our preliminary studies have shown
nothing conclusive, and most believe the answers are in the field of the miracle-level science (mostly known
as magic), which some creatures master with ease and humans have not been able to understand it
scientifically so far. The quest therefore is far from the end.

Final Notes

Nothing stated here is said to be definitive, since our knowledge about the vast world of mythical
creatures is very small and we cannot underestimate things in a field where humans may be compared to a
child. We hope you enjoy this information since we had to do great efforts to make it available. This branch
of science is very new and sudden, radical changes are around the corner.

The information above is almost not-understandable by people
without scientific background. So, if you do not want to be confused
by heavy p-science, stop here!!!
(Although it makes the theory quite solid and plausible...)

The hydrocarbons are produced by the normal methabolism of lipids (fats) in the cells of the dragon,
more specifically talking, this reaction in particular occurs in the most extent in the liver, as a part of the lipid
assimilation from the food. Well, meat, in special the meat eaten from sedentarious animals (like humans or
cattle) may have a lot of fat, but plant food also may have a great amount of fat in the form of oils. Obviously,
most of this fat is naturally metabolised in the energy generation processes of the dragon's body, only a minor
amout is deviated to the process of fuel production. There is nothing special about the absorption of fats in
dragons (except their incredible powerful enzymes capable of digesting the hardest hide ou meat).
Usually, the fats apported to the liver are then processed through the beta-oxidation pathway, for the
energetic processes, being mostly converted in ATP and exported out of the mitochondrion. However, in
dragons, there are a set of mitochondrial membrane proteins plus an enztme for the descarboxilation of
uncompletely oxidized chain of the fatty acid.

1) The decarboxilase enzyme: This enzyme is a bifunctional, water-soluble complex formed by two
subunits of 85 and 10 kD of molecular weight. Studies done on the kinetics of this enzyme from
several subespecies of dragons have shown that kcat is maximum for the small fatty acids, from
four to seven carbons long, and is very low for the other lenghts of chain, although is not selective
when this chain is branched or substituted. This explained why we were able to detect many
derivatives of fatty acids in the fire-gland. The first subunit does the decarboxilation reaction,
requiring the fatty acid intermediate, NAD+ and wields NADH, H+, carbon dioxide and the
decarboxilated product, which is sequentially bound by the second subunit that acts as a carrier for
this molecule to reach the membrane transporter. Since the complex is soluble in the
intramitochondrial matrix, this happens through diffusion. This also means the concentration of
free decarboxilated products is very low. The low diffusion coefficient of the complex also means
the reaction is blocked most of the time, since binding of the hydrocarbon virtually blocks the
binding of substrate in the first subunit, and the product is unbound from the carrier only when it
reacts with the first membrane transporter.
2) The Mitochondrial Membrane Transporter: This transporter is a 110 kD protein bound and
crosssing the outer mitochondrial membrane. It has one binding site for the carbon chain
generated by the enzyme complex plus a site which binds one of the chains of the carrier. Binding
of the carrier promotes the transfer of a pyrophosphate moiety from the transporter to the carrier,
which in turn changes its spatial configuration, releasing the hydrocarbon. Because of the
proximity, the newly-released product is bound by the transporter. Hidrolysis of the
pyrophosphate releases the carrier from the transporter. The transporter itself only gates to the
outside when another molecule of ATP binds the pyrophosphate site, wielding AMP.

The hydrocarbon released from the mitochondrion is readily captured by another carrier protein in the
cytosol, involved also in the mechanism of vesiculation and exocitosis. Vesicles formed in the liver cells also
contain a membrane-bound lipoprotein that is recognized by the fire-gland cells and intermediate its
assimilation and storage of the product. Also is included a protein that reduces greatly the solubility of the
membranes in the hydrocarbons. In an unusual system, the vesicles pass intact through the fire-gland cells,
being digested by protheolythic enzimes in the lumen of the gland and releasing the hydrocarbons.

The ignition reaction is being studied now, but seems to be based on the exothermic reaction of an
organic peroxide (which releases pure oxigen) and some kind of phosphor containg, unstable compound
(probably some derivative of ATP). The reaction seems to produce a very small "spark" of incandescent
material that ignites the fuel-air mix.

Život

KNOWLEDGE & HOARDS

A dragon's life is a very long one compared to humans. On the average, dragons live 1,200 human years. A dragon's life is not boring by any means. They live to learn, and to gather knowledge, as well as a huge hoard of treasure. Gathering knowledge of every type, from how a sword gets forged, to how insects help the environment, is a high priority in a dragons life, and does take up a good part of a dragon's day. If a person has knowledge the dragon does not have, after it learns it (willingly given from the person), it will give that person a token of gratitude such as a trinket from its own treasure. Gathering treasure is a favorite past-time of Western dragons. Dragons begin at a young age, when they get their own cavernous home, to start their own hoard. All dragons love beautiful things. Western dragons are fickle, and only gather the most beautiful goldsmith work, such as crowns, the best cut jewels, and well minted coins. Some theories say that a dragon's hoard is a symbol of rank in dragon-society, but other theories say that the dragons just like the look and feel of the coins and other sundry items. Some dragons inherit previous treasures from their parents, but most of the time dragons will gather items here and there from around the world, and bring them home. Some dragons are very well organized and will go so far as to separate gold, silver, jewels, etc. in separate piles. To find a dragon abode and steal some treasure is a quest for some thieves and rogues to be ranked in their guilds.

THE MATING FLIGHT
Dragons usually lead a solitary life until they meet their life-long mate during their mating flight ritual. A female will mate only 1 to 4 times in her life. It is a grand site to see. When a female dragon is ready to mate. She will sound a resonating "mating-call" to all the mature males around the area. She will then fly as fast, and as high as she possibly can. The female can easily out-fly any male, due to her weight, and wingspan. Only the strongest and fastest of the males will catch her. When a male dragon finally catches the female at the climax of their flight, they will literally hang for a second in mid-air with the male wrapping his tail and wings tightly around the female's, and grasp her with all four claws. The female will follow suit as they begin a free-fall which is the mating session. Falling fast, the mating only lasts a few seconds, and both dragons will break off just before crashing into the ground, and glide together to the female dragon's cave to prepare their nest.

NEST BUILDING
The nest building begins the same day as the mating takes place. Both the male and female dragon add to building their nest. The nest materials can consist of woven tree branches, and fresh leaves intertwined with gold and jewels. The floor of the net consists of flat coins that are melted into a bowl by the dragons breathing fire and melting them into the woven branches. Dragons apparently like a very beautiful nesting area. The nest will be built upon part of the two dragon's combined treasures. It is theorized when the dragons sit upon the nest, the body heat will warm the gold and keep the nest warm even when the dragon is not directly on the eggs. Building the nest will be slow, it takes roughly a year and a half, human years to build it.

LAYING OF THE EGGS
After 2 years of gestation, a female will lay several (1-6) ovoid leathery-hard eggs, called a clutch. The ratio of male to female hatchlings is 3 to 1. During the nesting, the male and female will take turns either finding food, and keeping the eggs warm. The dragon hunting will bring an elk, or some other large animal back for both to share in the cave. After both have their fill, the carcass is tossed over the edge of the mountain where the various animals near the lair will get their meal. A tell-tale sign that a dragon-cave is nearvis the fact that there are a large number of bones near a mountain.

THE HATCHING
After 2 months of nesting, the baby dragons emerge from their eggs. Each baby dragon has an egg-tooth, which is a sharp, pointed bone at the front of their snout. This is used to break out of the shell. When the first dragon starts to emerge and cry, it urges the other baby dragons to hatch. Dragon's hatch ferociously hungry, and if are not fed immediately after hatching, they will eat the yolk and albumen (white part of an egg). If not fed immediately after this they will go after their siblings. It is very important for the parents to know when the dragons are ready to hatch so they can have fresh meat to satisfy their sons and daughters. This first feeding bonds the newly hatched dragons to their parents. After the hatching, both adult dragons fiercely guard their hatchlings. One dragon will always be awake to keep watch over the nest, until the newly hatched dragons can defend themselves.

THE WYRMLING
A baby dragon when born, weighs 80-odd pounds and its about 6 feet in length. The wyrmling is born able to see, and hear. They also have a full set of razor sharp baby teeth. Their wings are too small and weak to fly. The tiny scales covering their body are very soft when first hatching, but will harden within a year. Some species of dragon are born with an innate ability (some say magic) such as to become invisible at will. The dragon is considered a wyrmling from hatching until age 15.

THE GROWING PERIOD

During the growing period which lasts 140+ years, the dragon continues to grow over 6 inches a year until young adult-hood when the growing period slows. The hatchling will eventually loose it's egg-tooth around age 15 when the dragon is now considered a dragonet. The dragonet will gain weight, and muscle strength during this time. Horns will start to grow on it's head, and spines will start to show along the dragonet's back. The wings will become strong enough to lift the dragon, but not for extended flight.

At age 40, the dragon is considered a juvenile. At this age, the juvenile dragon will test its flying abilities, and will make its first flight. The mother and father dragon will teach the dragons on how to take off from a cliff, how to use the thermals, and how to land. There is some natural instincts that the dragons have when first learning to fly, such as how often to flap the wings to stay in the air. The juvenile dragon will revel in the act of flying, and will be in the air most of the time during the next few years to keep gaining wing length and strength in the flight muscles.

At age 60, the dragon is now considered an Young Adult. He has learned all the aspects of flying, including how to take off from flat land which is most difficult for a young dragon, due to the immense force needed to do so. Around age 65 the dragons leave their hatching grounds to find their own caves to take as their own. They prefer to own places that are on sheer cliff faces, with a large enterance, and large living area, with smaller caves and tunnels weaving in and out of the cliff-face.

At age 90, the dragon is almost fully grown and is considered an Adult Dragon. The dragon will search miles around its own territory, and learn every nook and cranny about the area. The adult dragon will mark its territory by secreting a substance, and spitting it on rocks, and trees clearly defining his circular area around his cave. All dragons have an incredible sense of smell and this secretion is a beacon that another dragon is near. During this time, adult dragons will search out an elder dragon to learn magic. An Elder will teach the adult dragon the ways of the past through magic and knowledge.

Around age 100, the dragons will have a hormonal change within their bodies and will get urges to mate. Females will change to a brighter shade of their regular color during the mating season due to this change. The males will notice this change and get riled up so much as to fight with other males that are ready to mate as well. These fights are never fatal, but sometimes do cause some serious damage to the males, especially the wing membrane, which is the most vulnerable part of a dragon's body. The fights usually consist of dragons diving towards each other and butting heads, and swiping with claws on the tough scales of the chest. When the male dragons hear the females mating call, the dragons at once take to the skies to find her, and the chase is on!

At age 150, the dragon is now a Wyrm. This age is a continuing cycle of learning knowledge, learning magic, and raising a few more clutches of young. And of course, hoarding as much treasure as they can find to fill their caves. The pair of dragons will live together for the rest of their lives together even after all matings have finished.

THE GREAT WYRMS
If a dragon lives past the age of 900 years, they are considered a Great Wyrm, and an Elder of the dragon community. All dragons will hold a great meeting to admit the new Great Wyrm to the society of dragons. Great Wyrms are highly regarded for their knowledge, their magical ability, and their prime wisdom. Elders are responsible for the teaching of past history of dragon kind, history of the world, and magic to the adult dragons. If there is an emergency that includes the dragon community, the Elders will call a grand-meeting to discuss the problem and what to do about it. These are the only two times in a dragon's life that they will see so many of their kind in one area.

END OF THE LIFE-CYCLE
A dragon rarely lives past 1,500. When the time comes, the dragon realizes his life-cycle has come to an end. He will gather all Great Wyrms at the rim of a great volcano. All the Great Wyrms will howl a great song named "The Passing Song". This song will continue for a full half hour, and can be heard for 300 miles around. This announces the passing of an Elder. Once the song is heard by Adult Dragons, they will howl the same song for all to hear until all dragons on a world will understand they have lost a great member of their community. During the song, the dying Great Wyrm will circle the live volcano and then dive straight down into the lava to give himself back to the earth that spawned him.

Vrste

Western Dragon

PHYSIOLOGY: Thick, long bodied, scaly skin, four strong legs, two bat-like wings, wedge-shaped heads, and long necks. They usually are portrayed as breathing fire. Some breeds of these dragons have been known to be shape changers, and others have the chameleon power to change color of their background. They are sometimes displayed as having a spade or spiked tail. They eat but once a month on a sheep or ox, or even a human (myth says they prefer virgin maidens). They can be any color, or many colors, depending on the breed of the dragon.

HISTORY: When most people think "dragon" they most likely think of the Western dragon. Western dragons are usually portrayed as evil, mean, and bloodthirsty. They were also known to have huge hoards of gold and jewels hidden in their lairs.

The most famous dragons are portrayed as Western-type dragons: St. George and the Dragon
, Beowulf and the Dragon, and Draco in the movie DragonHeart. Some stories have the western dragon as the Devil in Christianity. Other stories in legend say that eating a dragons' heart will give the consumer the power of understanding birds, eating the dragons' tongue enables the person to win any argument, and rubbing the dragons' blood on skin will protect against stab wounds. Another myth references Vlad Drakul to mean Son of the Dragon, or Devil. The end of the dragon came with Christianity, and knights that were eager to prove their faith. The knights quickly discovered that dragon-hunting was very profitable, and soon most the dragons in the world were destroyed in a very short time. Vikings had dragon figureheads on the prow of their ships. The dragons on the ships were believed to endow keen site and cunning to the Viking warriors. Today the Welsh flag still has a red dragon on a green/white background, and the red dragon is their national symbol.

Eastern Dragon

PHYSIOLOGY: These three species of dragons look very similar, but come from different parts of the world. They all have sinuous serpentine bodies, have four legs, they do not usually breath fire, usually shown not to have wings, but are illustrated to have them which is the Adult Imperial Dragon. The dragons are said to be made up of many different types of animals of the Earth: the body of a snake, scales of a carp (fish), head of a camel, horns of a giant stag (deer), the eyes of a hare (rabbit), ears like a bull, a neck like an snake, belly of a clam, paws like a tigers, and claws like an eagle. Most of the time they are shown to have a lion-type mane around its neck, on its chin, and on each elbow. They have two antler-type horns decorating their wide-mouthed head, and two long "feeler" whiskers spreading out from their snout. Eastern dragons have 117 scales, 81 infused with yang, the good, and 36 infused with yin, the bad. This evens out the dragons temper and personality.

There are three families of Eastern dragons: 3 toed, 4 toed, and 5 toed. Three toed dragons are Japanese. Four toed dragons are Indonesian or Korean. Five toed dragons are Chinese. They are shown in the colors blue, black, white, red, or yellow. Oriental dragons are usually shown with a pearl in their mouth, under their chin, or in their claws. This is apparently where the dragon gets its power, and how it ascends to heaven. Roasted swallows are the Chinese dragon's favorite food.

HISTORY: In China dragons are known as Lung. There are four main kinds of Lung: Tien-lung , The Celestial Dragon: who protect the places of the Gods, Shen-Lung, The Spiritual Dragon: who control the wind and the rain, Ti-Lung , The Earth Dragon which control rivers, and water on the Earth, and Fut's-Lung , The Underworld Dragon which guards precious metals and gems. Separate dragons control the rivers of the North, South, East and West. The commander of all the River Dragons is Great Chien-Tang who is blood red, has a firey mane, and is 900 feet long.

Eastern dragons are portrayed as good, kind, and intelligent. Oriental Dragons have the most recorded history in the world, especially in China going back thousands of years. In history they have a very close link to the weather. It is said that some of the worst flooding in Asia's History were caused when a mortal has upset a dragon. In Chinese history, the 5 toed dragon is the symbol of power, and are considered "Imperial Dragons". Long ago, it became law in China that only the Emperor could have a five-clawed dragon displayed on his robes or illustrated on anything the Emperor owned. It was usually a Yellow dragon, thought to be the most superior of all the colored dragons. If someone other than the Emperor was caught wearing the symbol of the 5-toed dragon, he was put to death. More about the Chinese Dragon.

Eastern dragons are still shown in parades around the world celebrating the Chinese New Year with the Dragon Dance.

Faerie Dragon

PHYSIOLOGY: Very small dragons, being only 1'-5' long, any color, with large eyes, and large butterfly-type wings. These dragons are vegetarian as they only eat fruit, vegetables, nuts, and so on.

HISTORY: These are the rarest of all the dragon, as only a few have ever been reported. Some myths might come from some large butterflies that are around the world. It is said in legend that these dragons sometimes carry faeries from city to city. Since only a few have ever been seen, the history of these types of dragons are next to none.

Wyvern

PHYSIOLOGY: These are dragons which have two wings, but only two legs. Sometimes shown as having claws on the wings, acting like another pair of "hands". The Wyvern is sometimes depicted as having a razor sharp stinger filled with poison on the end of its tail.

HISTORY: The history of the wyvern seems to come from Europe. The history of this dragon is not so clear, it seems to be mixed in with the history of the 4-legged dragon. Wyvern's have been depicted in heraldry on shields and banners for hundreds of years, and is considered a sign of strength to those who bear the symbol. One of the more famous wyverns is Vermithrax in the movie DragonSlayer.

Hydra

PHYSIOLOGY: These are dragons which have multiple necks and heads. They may or may not have wings or legs.

HISTORY: In Greek mythology Hercules fought a grand hydra with 8 heads (history tells us 6 to 9 heads for this particular hydra). Every time he managed to slash one off with sword, two would come in its place. He finally figured out by burning the stump with a torch, it could not grow another head. That is how Hercules rid the world of the mighty hydra. Also in Greek mythology, Jason killed a hydra to get the Golden Fleece.

NEO-DRAGONS

Pernese Dragon

PHYSIOLOGY: These dragons have four legs, and two wings. They have smooth, leathery skin without scales. The dragons eyes are compound and faceted like a fly's that can change color depending on the mood of the dragon. They have a telepathic abilities with other dragons, and their rider. Pernese dragons can also teleport into "between", which is a void, to escape danger. Gold and green dragons are Female. Bronze, brown and blue are Male. They can breath fire by first swallowing a certain type of flammable rock known as Firestone.

HISTORY: The colonists of Pern (A world created from the stories by Anne McCaffrey) genetically engineered these huge dragons from their small cousins, Firelizards. Pernese dragons and their riders have a life-long relationship, this is started at the Impression. This is when the dragons hatch and choose their human partner. If the human partner dies without the dragon, the dragon will go between permanently. If the dragon dies, the human usually wastes away until they pass on.

Drake

PHYSIOLOGY: This is a Western-type dragon with only legs and no wings. There are two types of drakes, Fire and Cold. FireDrakes have the breath of flame, and are usually reddish in color. ColdDrakes have the breath of snow and hail, and are usually white or light bluish in color. These types of dragons do not fly, they look like large lizards being about 4' - 40' long.

HISTORY: This dragon has links to the Western dragon in history, but no solid history has been produced. Sometimes young western dragons are mistaken for drakes because of the lack of wings until they reach maturity. In Europe there are many cities named after this dragon: Drakeford, Drakeshill, etc.

Amphiptere

PHYSIOLOGY: These are dragons with only wings.

HISTORY: The most famous amphiptere is Quetzalcoatl (kwet-zah-coat-al), the winged and feathered serpent god from Mexican history. Scientists think that the myth of Quetzalcoatl started with a bird, the Quetzal. This bright green bird has tail feathers of over two feet long, and when it flies, the bird looks like a shimmering serpent.

Wyrm/Worm

PHYSIOLOGY: These are dragons which have no legs or wings; Or sometimes referred to as a very ancient dragon. Also known as The Guivre (Gy-veer).

HISTORY: These dragons seem to have originated in England, and are said to live in forests and wells. They love any place near water.There are many famous worms in England's history, the most famous perhaps is the Lambton Worm. This is about an Heir to Lambton Hall in England who caught the small worm, but thought it too ugly to eat, so he thew it in the local well. Over the years the worm grew to enormous proportions and left the well to harass the locals. When Lambton came back from a war to see the horror he had created, and was told by witch he must slay the worm, but also must kill the next creature he saw. He slayed the worm, but unfortunately, the next living creature he saw was his own father, of whom he could not kill. It was said that the Lambton family was cursed for the next nine generations, and doomed to die abroad, and never at home.

Lindworm/Lindorm

PHYSIOLOGY: These are dragons which have two legs, and no wings. They usually have very long tails, and short legs.

HISTORY: Lindworms were apparently discovered by Marco Polo while crossing Central Asia. He described them as, "Swifter than it looks. Easily able to take down a man on a galloping horse." These types of dragons (along with the Oroboros) are frequently represented as "prima materia" in the first stage of the Alchelmy process.

Sea Serpent

PHYSIOLOGY: These are dragons that live in water, fresh or salt.

HISTORY: Since man has been sailing on boats, sea serpents have been in history. These creatures were shown on maps early in European history, where unknown territory was marked "HERE BE DRAGONS". Some scientists believe in what these sea serpents sailors saw were actually gigantic squids, large masses of sea kelp, or even seafaring dinosaurs. The Basilosaurus had a very long body, and short neck, its mouth filled with long sharp teeth. If it came out of the water near a boat, it could very much be thought of as a sea serpent. "Nessie" the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland, is one famous "sea serpent".

Ouroboros

PHYSIOLOGY: This is a dragon who holds its tail it its mouth.

HISTORY: First discovered in Egypt, and later in Greece,it is the symbol of the universe. It also is sometimes referred to being the symbol of "eternity" or "never ending". The name Ouroboros means "tail eater".
A similar dragon is his Norse cousin the Midgard Serpent whose huge body circles the entire world. He was also known for biting his tail, when he was not trying to bite the Norse god Thor, whom was eventually killed by the gigantic dragon.

Amphisbaena

PHYSIOLOGY: This is a dragon that has two heads, one in the front of the body, and one at the tip of its tail. With one head holding the "tail-neck" it can roll around in any direction in a hoop. It is usually portrayed as having a scaly body, feathered wings, and feet of a rooster. It's name means "one that goes in both directions".

HISTORY: This dragon originates from Africa. Stories say when the female amphisbaena was looking over her eggs, she could keep one head awake at all times. Today, there is a lizard named after this dragon which has markings on its tail that look like a head. When threatened, it lifts its tail and scatters back and forth to confuse its attacker.

Naga

PHYSIOLOGY: These are pseudo-dragons who are usually portrayed as having a human head and serpentine body, and no wings.

HISTORY: The history of these creatures seem to come from India, which the Nagas worked with the gods. Nagas were patrons of water and clouds, but could cause flooding or drought if disturbed. In some stories, the naga can shape-change at will from human to snake form. It's been told that their race was very magical, and were scholars to those who met their interest.

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petak, 29.09.2006.

Dragons