Eastern Dragons
Compared to Western dragons, these beasts are quite small. Their bodies are long, and they have two horns for ears. They have no wings
Monday, May 17, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
There is a widespread belief that earlier cartographers used the Latin phrase hic sunt dracones, i.e., "the dragons are here", or "there are dragons here", to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of the infrequent medieval practice of putting sea serpents and other mythological creatures in blank areas of maps. However the only known use of this phrase is in the Latin form "HC SVNT DRACONES" on the Lenox Globe (ca. 1503-07).[16] 
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
n modern fantasy, dragons are usually defined by their color. 
Black Dragons
Black dragons are vile, evil tempered, and obsessed with death. They live in fetid, swampy habitats. They find comfort in the sickening-sweet aroma of drowned, rotting carcasses. The black dragon's domain is the swamp and the jungle. They are abusive, quick to anger, and malevolent. Their hearts are as black as their slimy scales.
A black dragon can be identified by his grim, skeletal appearance. His eyes lie in deep sockets. His two great horns curve forward and down. The flesh of his face appears to have partially deteriorated, as if burnt by acid. Acidic slime drools from his menacing grin. He smells of rotting vegetation, foul water, and poisonous acid.
Living in sticky, wet habitats, black dragons dine mostly on fish, eels, and other water creatures. They will eat meat, but prefer to allow their victims float in ponds for days, or even weeks, before being eaten.
If you ever encounter a black dragon, be careful—he prefers surprise attacks instead of fair fighting. He is most active in the darkest hour of night, wherein the darkness he feels confident and powerful. He breathes a poisonous, sizzling acid.
Red Dragons
Red dragons are greedy and covetous, and obsessed with increasing their treasure hoards. They live in warm habitats, such as volcanoes or tropical islands. The red dragon's domain is is the mountain and the island. They are vain, cunning, and terrible.
A red dragon can be identified by is long wings and two long horns. He has a long, red, forked tongue. Tiny flames often dance in his nostrils when he is angry. His eyes gleam with unrestrained greed when he has seen treasure. He smells of smoke and sulfur.
Red dragons are fiercely territorial. They prefer to eat meat, especially people. Red dragons have been known to force villages to sacrifice maidens to them. (This is a matter of taste. As you would have it, apparently maidens "just taste better.") The best part of a meal for a red dragon is drinking the blood.
Red dragons breathe a deadly fire.
Blue Dragons
Blue dragons are pensive, lawful, and vain. They live in hot, dry areas, such as sandy deserts or arid steppes.
A blue dragon can be identified by his frilled ears and a single horn upon his head. His eyes are smooth, glossy, and without pupils-when looking at them, you may feel as though you are looking into eternity. The dry scent of ozone and sand follows a blue dragon wherever he goes.
He loves to soar in the hot desert air. He is a dedicated carnivour who will eat snakes, lizards, and occasionally even desert plants, but truly prefers herd animals such as camels. Blue dragons are a real threat to caravans crossing the desert. He prefers to attack people in ambush. Surprise and distance is his greatest ally. They enjoy sitting and reflecting. He is blue-blooded (that is to say, cold, effete, or noble.) He is lawful and has some sense of morals.
He is good at tracking.
The blue dragon is large and vibrant.
Blue dragons breathe lightning, that is, a lightning bolt.
Green Dragons
The green dragon is a belligerent creature and master of intrigue, politics, and backbiting. He is cruel. He prefers forests—the older and bigger the trees, the better. Instead of being overtly aggressive, he prefers to concoct elaborat schemes to gain power or wealth with as little effort as possible. He may make his lair behind a waterfall or near a lake, pond, or stream that provides a submerged entrance. The closer one gets to his lair, the darker the woods become. Evil hangs in the air, mingling with the forest scents to produce foul odors.
The green dragon's head is covered in hornlets. He has a long neck and legs, and resembles a brontosaurus.
The green dragon reaks of chlorine.
The green dragon is a liar and master of verbal evasion. Just talking to a green dragon can lead to ruin. When attacking, he will usually stalk his prey first, sometimes for days. The green dragon has a palette for elf flesh. He loves to play with his prey. He will subside on practically anything, including shrubs and small trees. He uses camoflauge to his advantage. He is obsessed with life and growth, and wants to live eternally. He is envious.
He is good at tracking.
The green dragon likes to instill terror in lesser opponents before torturing them to death.
Green dragons breathe poisonous gas, that is, a toxic chlorine gas.
White Dragons
White dragons are small and intelligent. They live in frigid, icy climates — usually arctic areas, but sometimes very high mountains. They travel alone, and have very good memories. They prefer the solitude of snowy plains and caves, far away from the warming rays of the sun.
A white dragon can be identified by his sharp, intelligent-looking eyes and intense expression. His scales resemble fur, or even feathers, in places. His wide feet and sharp claws help him to walk atop snowbanks. An aura of coldness seems to eminate from the white dragon.
Living in frosty climes, white dragons prefer their food to be suitably chilled. If their victims have not frozen to death already, white dragons will often pack them away in the snow until they are properly frozen.
If you ever encounter a white dragon, be on your guard— he is swift and alert. Your best bet is to scare or intimidate him, as white dragons are sometimes known to be cowardly. He breathes a chilling frost.
nother story is about another young man who fought a dragon for the reward of bringing the king's daughter to his master for marriage. In this story Tristan is tricked by another man who wants the princess for his own wife. In the end Tristan cut off the dragon's tongue as proof of his accomplishment and the lies of the other man were discovered. 
During the times of dragons in England, anyone who killed a dragon was awarded knighthood. In ancient Rome, dragons were thought to hold the mysteries of the earth. Romans looked to dragons as a source of knowledge and used them as symbols of strength for their military. They used two forms of dragons, one which was used for heroism, to protect them, and the other, a fearsome dragon, used as a threat.
Stories of dragons appear all throughout history and almost every culture has their own idea about dragons. Some reasons for this could be the finding of dinosaur fossils. Dragons could be used to describe the indescribable bones of unknown creatures. There are stories about dragons in every part of the world, with the exception of Antartica. Even though there are no people in Antartica, which in that way would seem to make it attractive to dragons, the climate proposes a problem for these creatures who like fire or live in water, but not ice water.
One type of dragon, or sea monster, was feared back in the time of Christopher Columbus. During this time when the world was thought to be flat, these dragons were said to be at the edge of earth, waiting to eat any one who dared to sail that far into the ocean. This story kept many people from exploring farther into the world. Maps were even made marking the place where these dragons lived. At the edge of the map the words "Here Be Dragons" was almost always printed.
Dragons have also appeared in stories that go back to the time of the gods in mythology. The story of Perseus and the Dragon of Posdeidon tells of a vain queen who almost sacrificed her daughter to the dragon, had it not been for Perseus.
Main article: Dragons in Greek mythology
In Ancient Greece the first mention of a "dragon" is derived from the Iliad where Agamemnon is described as having a blue dragon motif on his sword belt and a three-headed dragon emblem on his breast plate.[7] However, the Greek word used (δράκων drákōn, genitive δράκοντοϛ drákontos) could also mean "snake". δράκων drákōn is a form of the aorist participle active of Greek δέρκομαι dérkomai = "I see", derkeîn = "to see", and originally likely meant "that which sees", or "that which flashes or gleams" (perhaps referring to reflective scales). This is the origin of the word "dragon". (See also Hesiod's Theogony, 322.)
The whole of India is girt with dragons of enormous size; for not only the marshes are full of them, but the mountains as well, and there is not a single ridge without one. Now the marsh kind are sluggish in their habits and are thirty cubits long, and they have no crest standing up on their heads, but in this respect resemble the she-dragons. Their backs however are very black, with fewer scales on them than the other kinds; and Homer has described them with deeper insight than have most poets, for he says that the dragon that lived hard by the spring in Aulis had a tawny back; but other poets declare that the congener of this one in the grove of Nemea also had a crest, a feature which we could not verify in regard to the marsh dragons.
Aži Dahāka is the source of the modern Persian word azhdahā or ezhdehā اژدها (Middle Persian azdahāg) meaning "dragon", often used of a dragon depicted upon a banner of war. The Persians believed that the baby of a dragon will be the same color as the mother's eyes. In Middle Persian he is called Dahāg or Bēvar-Asp, the latter meaning "[he who has] 10,000 horses." Several other dragons and dragon-like creatures, all of them malevolent, are mentioned in Zoroastrian scripture. (See Zahhāk).
In Jewish religious texts, the first mention of a dragon-like creature is in the Biblical works of Job (26:13), and Isaiah (27:1) where it is called Nachash Bare'ach, or a "Pole Serpent".[11] This is identified in the Midrash Rabba to Genesis 1:21 as Leviathan from the word Taninim (תנינים) "and God created the great sea-monsters."[12] In modern Hebrew the word Taninim is used for Crocodiles - however, this is a 20th Century usage unconnected with the original Biblical meaning.[citation needed]
In Jewish astronomy this is also identified with the North Pole, the star Thuban which, around 4,500 years ago, was the star in the Draco constellation's "tail".[11] However this can also have been either the celestial pole or the ecliptic pole. The ancient observers noted that Draco was at the top of the celestial pole, giving the appearance that stars were "hanging" from it, and in Hebrew it is referred to as Teli, from talah (תלה) - to hang.[13] Hebrew writers from Arabic-speaking locations identified the Teli as Al Jaz'har, which is a Persian word for a "knot" or a "node" because of the intersection of the inclination of the orbit of a planet from the elliptic that forms two such nodes. In modern astronomy these are called the ascending node and the descending node, but in medieval astronomy they were referred to as "dragon's head" and "dragon's tail".[14]
In the early Vedic religion, Vritra (Sanskrit: वृत्र (Devanāgarī) or Vṛtra (IAST)) "the enveloper", was an Asura and also a "naga" (serpent) or possibly dragon-like creature, the personification of drought and enemy of Indra. Vritra was also known in the Vedas as Ahi ("snake"), and he is said to have had three heads.
Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and India. Like these other Asian dragons, most Japanese ones are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water, and are typically depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed feet. Gould writes (1896:248),[9] the Japanese dragon is "invariably figured as possessing three claws".
Chinese dragons (simplified Chinese: 龙; traditional Chinese: 龍; pinyin: lóng), and Oriental dragons generally, can take on human form and are usually seen as benevolent, whereas European dragons are usually malevolent though there are exceptions (one exception being Y Ddraig Goch, the Red Dragon of Wales). Malevolent dragons also occur in the mythology of Persia (see Azhi Dahaka) and Russia, among other places.
Dragons are particularly popular in China and the five-clawed dragon was a symbol of the Chinese emperors, with the phoenix or fenghuang the symbol of the Chinese empress. Dragon costumes manipulated by several people are a common sight at Chinese festivals.
In the book An Instinct for Dragons[6] anthropologist David E. Jones suggests a hypothesis that humans just like monkeys have inherited instinctive reactions to snakes, large cats and birds of prey. Dragons have features that are combinations of these three. Our instinctive fear for these three would explain why dragons with similar features occur in stories from independent cultures on all continents. Other authors have suggested that especially under the influence of drugs or in dreams, this instinct may give raise to fantasies about dragons, snakes, spiders, etc, which would explain why these symbols are popular in drug culture. The traditional mainstream explanation to the folklore dragons does however not rely on human instinct, but on the assumption that fossil remains of dinosaurs gave raise to similar speculations all over the world
The word dragon derives from Greek δρακων, via Latin draco. It is attested in Middle English from the 13th century, in the context of medieval bestiaries and legends.
The Greek and Latin term referred to any great serpent, not necessarily mythological, and this usage was also current in English up to the 18th century. Today the great komodo lizard Varanus komodoensis is also known in English as the Komodo dragon. The King James Bible uses the words "serpent", "dragon" and "Devil" in a fairly interchangeable manner
Although dragons occur in many legends around the world, different cultures have varying stories about monsters that have been grouped together under the dragon label. Some dragons are said to breathe fire or to be poisonous. They are commonly portrayed as serpentine or reptilian, hatching from eggs and possessing typically scaly or feathered bodies. They are sometimes portrayed as having especially large eyes or watching treasure very diligently, a feature that is the origin of the word dragon (Greek drakeîn meaning "to see clearly").[2] Some myths portray them with a row of dorsal spines. European dragons are more often winged, while Oriental versions of the dragon resemble large snakes. Dragons can have a variable number of legs: none, two, four, or more when it comes to early European literature.
Dragons are often held to have major spiritual significance in various religions and cultures around the world. In many Asian cultures dragons were, and in some cultures still are, revered as representative of the primal forces of nature, religion and the universe. They are associated with wisdom—often said to be wiser than humans—and longevity. They are commonly said to possess some form of magic or other supernatural power, and are often associated with wells, rain, and rivers. In some cultures, they are also said to be capable of human speech. In some traditions dragons are said to have taught humans to talk.
The two most familiar interpretations of dragons are European dragons, derived from various European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern mythologies, and the unrelated Oriental dragons, such as the Chinese dragon (Traditional: 龍; Simplified: 龙; Pinyin: lóng). The English word "dragon" derives from Greek δράκων (drákōn), "dragon, serpent of huge size, water-snake", which probably comes from the verb δρακεῖν (drakeîn) "to see clearly".[1]
Monday, May 3, 2010
Dragons are usually shown in modern times with a body like a huge lizard, or a snake with two pairs of lizard-type legs, and able to emit fire from their mouths. The European dragon has bat-type wings growing from its back. A dragon-like creature with no front legs is known as a wyvern. Following discovery of how pterosaurs walked on the ground, some dragons have been portrayed without front legs and using the wings as front legs pterosaur-fashion when on the ground.
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