No it’s not Christmas but I thought I’d shop early this year and keep the gift around until Dec. 25—you won’t mind if it’s a bit used will you?
1978 6″ GARFIELD GOOSH Clear Drinking Glass $11.00
Yes I’m still around–running all over, all weekend doing this that and what ever….it’s beautiful weather here and staying in the 80s.
IN THEIR GLORY FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS LIMITED EDITION TWIN TOWERS NUMBERED PLATE $11.70
TODAY LET’S DISCUSS DRAGONS….
IN this day and age dragons grace everything from statues to T-shirts. From cartoons to cars. I have long insisted that we got our original idea for Dragons from found Dinosaurs remnants:
I mean look at that..you could certainly postulate a lot of possibilities from finding something like this. Dragons have been about in Mythology around the world. Ancient Greeks believed that dead men turned to dragons once they descended below the earth.
Oriental dragon:
tend to be more snake like
While European ones
appear (to me at least) to be more like the dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs have a long history in fiction and legends
In fact England’s patron saint is George best known for his dragon slaying–however it is interesting to note that George was a Roman soldier, never set foot in the country and was adopted by crusading (from Asia Minor)Normans (French men who conquered and ruled the country holding court speaking French) for some unknown reason.
This just might make sense as the Celts (early peoples in British Isles and Ireland) did not have any original dragon legends but the Scandinavians did and Normandy was settle by Norsemen/Viking, so the Normans were heirs to these legends. You remember Vikings who even carved the creatures into their boats to frighten those they raided.
Edward Burne-Jones (19th c) painted the patron saint rescuing a maiden from a dragon (which to me strangely resembles an animal we see a lot of here in Florida–alligator anyone?)
There’s a St. George-in-the-East church in London. The name of the church was also the parish for the surrounding area, until subsumed into Metropolitan Borough of Stepney and abolished in 1927.
As well as one on Hanover Square which is fashionable for marriages (including Benj. Disraeli, George Elliot, Theodore Roosevelt and Percy Bysshe Shelley).
While my favorite in Bloomsbury has lions, unicorns and George I on the top of the steeple in a Roman toga.
Wales is associated with
Red Dragons that even appear on their flag. Other dragon colors: Gold for Arthur’s father, white for the Saxons (both Saxons and Britons viewed the dragon as a symbol of warlike invincibility)
Legend they live on in:
Arthur the Once and Future King’s father was Uther Pendragon (uther=Welsh for terrible, pen=son of, Dragon=chief. The Celts took the borrowed legend’s Dragon name and used it for their chiefs). In fact a dragon comet fore tells the death of Uther’s brother and his own kingship (a comet thought to be an actual event in AD 497). Tristan (in a legend that may or may not be related to Arthur depending on the scholar you’re accessing) rides out to fight a dragon that belches flame-laced smoke.
Tetonic legend has Fafnir, the dragon king of Hades who can’t bear light and robs the earth of gold. Greece had the Lernaean Hydra and Ladon, guardians who were beaten by Hercules.
and religion
Some scholars believe that the serpent in the Bible was actually a dragon–“the ultimate form of the serpent.” In fact the Greek word dracon means snake. Michael and the angels fought against a red dragon (called the Devil)
and finally is this a white horse
or a dragon? South of Uffington in Great Britian it is believed to be the oldest existing hill figures in the UK. 374′ wide . Legend puts it in the King Arthur or others with Anglo Saxon victories. But it may date to the Bronze age. Some say it’s the horse goddess Epona, another that it’s St. George’s horse or the Dragon itself (Interestingly a near by hill is called Dragon)
Vintage PEPSICOLA Bottled in Orlando BOTTLE $8.00
https://www.etsy.com/listing/225982106/vintage-pepsicola-bottled-in-orlando?ref=shop_home_active_4
“I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?”
― John Lennon
SOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George_in_the_East
http://www.medievalists.net/2013/10/13/top-ten-monsters-of-the-middle-ages/
Eyewitness Travel Guides: Millennium Edition London
Fife, Graeme, Arthur the King
Fodor’s: Exploring London 7th Ed.
Lake, Matt: Weird England