Dragons are large Reptile-like creatures. Most of them are over 20 ft. tall or smaller. They are fantasy creatures that a lot people belive don't exist, but in some cultures, people belive they do. Dragons come from many differnt cultures. In China the dragon is one of the star signs. Also it is used a lot in clothing and in festivals. Most dragons came from fantasy stories, or in childrens stories. Dragons are usally associated with knights and midevil times. The Physical characteristics of dragons also vary but several consistencies are usally present. The beasts are typically depicted as huge lizards, larger then elephants on average. Long fangs are generally accepted as are twin horns of varying length. Western cultures generally include large bat-like wings giving the dragon the capability of flight. But eastern dragons tend to be more snake-like in nature, albeit with front and rear legs.Most dragons will be covered in scales, although there are some with a leathery skin. Some even have fur. Coloring ranges the entire gamut of the spectrum but red, green,black, and gold appear to be the most common. It is also generally accepted that most dragons are magical creatures in nature and have the ability to breathe fire (as a weapon). Some dragons may have a modification in this breath weapon (frost, lightning, gas) but this appears to be purely a fabrication fantasy role-playing games and the myths they spawn. Dragons are an important part of many Chinese festivals, including Chinese New Year. In ancient China, dragons did not breathe fire. Dragons were wise and caring. They guarded the wind, the rain, the rivers, precious metals and gems. Many countries use dragons in their art, especially China, Korea and Japan. It's easy to tell the difference between Chinese, Korean and Japanese dragons. Just count the dragon's toes! Chinese dragons have five toes! Korean dragons have four toes! Japanese dragons have three toes! Legend says . . The farther dragons travel from their home in China, the more toes they lose! Fortunately, when wandering dragons return home to China, all their missing toes grow back. But, as most dragons would prefer to keep all their toes, all the time, few dragons ever wander very far from home. 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 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 (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. To learn more, look at The Sigurd Runestone 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.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. 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 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. 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. 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.
