Folklore and Fairy Tales
Dragons have been around for centuries, even eons of time. They have existed ever since the first man dreamt of the winged beast that cast it's shadow upon a moonlit valley. In many legends dragons personify evil, and are viscious beasts who live to wreak havoc and must be pacified by human sacrifice. Dragons were hoarders of treasure and guardians of maidens. In the medieval age one of the greatest hero's was the dragon slayer, indeed one of the most famous was King Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon (dragon's head). A common trait shared by many about the dragon is its nature to hoard gold. One explanation for this is that due to the corrosive qualities of a dragon's blood, and the fact that gold was unaffected by the chemicals, gold made for a good lair and bed on which to lie, which would otherwise be a swamp of corrosive chemicals.

The dragon, like the Unicorn, had also found it's way into the Bible. In the Book of Revelations we read of the dragon of the Apocalypse which gave rise to the association of the dragon as a symbol of the evil one himself, which we find in Christian art and literature. Dragons are even associated with the vampire, even the most famous of all Vlad Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler, who ruled Walachia as Vlad V during the 15th century. More commonly known as Count Dracula, he signed his letters Vlad Dracula, which being translated means, Vlad, son of the dragon. His father was called "Dracul" because a dragon was depicted on his coat of arms. The dragon however has not always been associated with evil it is also viewed as being benevolent.

In ancient Chinese beliefs the dragon was a representation of fertility and prosperity. In Taoism the dragon represents the yang principle. It is often portrayed surrounded with clouds or water. In Chinese mythology we learn that there are five types of dragons. There are celestial dragons, which are guardians of the dwellings of the gods, and there are the dragon spirits, who can cause flooding and rule over the wind and rain. There are earth dragons, who cleanse the rivers and deepen the oceans, and the treasure guardian dragons, whom by their name, guard treasures. And last there is the imperial dragon, which unlike the other dragons, that have four claws, has five claws.

There has been some speculation on the feasibility of the existence of dragons for there are those that say it is impossible for such a creature to exist. It has been said that a dragon would have to have a wing span about 600 feet long in order to lift its great mass in flight. To counter such accusations a gentleman named Peter Dickinson published a book in 1979 called "The Flight of Dragons" in which he postulates that since the myth of the dragon pervades so many of the worlds cultures that it must be based on an actual creature. And as to how it could carry it's immense mass into the air, it is deduced that being capable of breathing fire the dragon has some sort of mechanism to store massive quantities of gaseous chemicals inside its body, thus giving it a lighter than air quality and enabling flight. By breathing out the gases, hence fire-breathing, the dragon would release the gasses and be able to return to the earth. Dickinson also postulates that the chemicals would be highly corrosive, strong enough to melt swords and armor, and even the dragons own deceased body, which would explain the lack of fossil evidence that would prove the existence of dragons.

So where, or how, then did the myth of the dragon arise? A possible explanation is the use of the term dragon. We see many uses of the term dragon associated with several things. A red colored resin obtained from various plants called dragon's blood was believed by early Romans, Arabs, and Greeks to have medicinal purposes, and was used in the 18th century as a varnish by Italian violinmakers. A dragon's tail is used in astronomy to describe the descending node of the moon or a planet, and likewise a dragon's head describes the ascending node. A dragoness is a very watchful, tyrannical woman. In the Greek tongue, the work drakon comes form a verb having various meanings such as, "to see, to look at, to watch, or to flash." In connection with the interpretation "to flash" ancient Greeks often called meteors dragons, as we see in this verse by William Shakespeare.

"Swift, swift, ye dragons of the night: - that dawning
May bare the raven's eye."
Shakespeare: Cymbeline, ii. 2..).

The Celtic use of the word dragon, meaning "a chief", hence pendragons as in Uther Pendragon, gave rise to legends of dragons. In battle those knights who slew a chief slew a dragon which led to the mingling of fact and folklore. From the meaning to watch we read of a dragon in the garden of Hesperldes:

"In England the garden of beauty is kept
By a dragon of prudery placed within call;
But so oft the unamiable dragon hath slept,
That the garden's but carelessly watched after all."
T. Moore: Irish Melodies, No. 2 ("We may roam through this world," etc.).

When in medieval times a brave knight claimed to have beaten a dragon to rescue a fair maiden from its clasp, it was more likely that the knight was describing the castle from which the maid was rescued. The walls of many feudal castles wound around the building and the valiant knight had to scale the walls and overcome the serpent-like defense, or the dragon, that guarded the maid. Creatures that were new to man and perhaps foreign or frightening in appearance were often mislabeled as dragons. We are familiar with the age-old stories of sea monsters or sea dragons, some of which are now known as whales and giant squid. One could imagine what it must have been like to see the cresting back of a blue whale for the first time, it's leathery skin and alien mass, or seeing the 40 foot long tentacles of a giant squid could certainly it would conjure up mental images of a sea dragon, a creature too terrifying to want to see what it looked like under those waters.

Where ever the myth of dragons originated, their myth continues on, I dare say more alive today than in ancient times. Dragons live in the realm of fantasy and that realm spans many worlds, giving rise to the variety of dragons we find in fiction. They have evolved from the dark and fearsome Smaug to the intelligent, witty, and even charming Draco. So whether you believe that dragons are mindless beasts, though beautiful to behold, or intelligent individuals, capable of thought and deduction, there is a world of dragons in which to dwell.

And last I ask myself "Why do we believe in such fantastical creatures?" For me, it is because they bring to us a sense of adventure and magic that science and technology has somewhat taken away. We can generate a lifelike dragon using a computer, and yet we know that it is not real. Is technology destroying myth and magic? No, the ability to dream of such creatures is what makes them come alive in the imagination of man, and from that imagination whole worlds have been born. Man used to dream of going to the stars, and that dream became a reality. Who knows maybe someday the technology which says to us that no such creature ever existed, will one day give life the dragon.