About Me

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

D Is For Dragons


I thought I’d take a look at dragons today and was quite surprised at what I learned. A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. Varying stories about monsters have been grouped together under the dragon label.

Did you know there are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern mythologies and the Chinese dragon with counterparts in Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries?

Dragons are often held to have major spiritual significance in various religions and cultures around the world. In the New Testament book of Revelation, the devil takes the form of a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns in his battle against Archangel Michael.

Dragons and dragon motifs are featured in many works of modern literature including J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, and Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern. The popular role playing game system, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) system makes heavy use of dragons, and has served as inspiration for many other games' dragons.

A good friend of mine, Galand Nuchols, has incorporated dragons in the children’s books she writes. Dragons for Kris and its sequel, Dragon Hatchling, focuses on a young boy who is abused by his uncle and has to find a way to get out of the abusive situation.  You can find out more about her books at: http://www.dragonsforkris.com/.

2 comments:

  1. The kids who have read Dragons for Kris and Dragon Hatchling say they like the dragon scenes. I enjoyed writing the dragon scenes. The scene of the young dragons banding together to fight the enemy was easy to picture in my head but hard to write on paper. Still it was fun when I finally finished it. Thanks for thinking of me.

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