Dragons have been a part of myth and stories as long as time has been. They are a part of most fairy tales as well and stories of Knights fighting Dragons abound through the ages. Some of these stories and myths are identified below:

The naturalists of Europe, speculating about dragons, wrote of a wonderful tree called the perindeus, which grew in India. The tree's sweet fruit drew flocks of doves. Dragons, which had a particular fondness for the taste of doves, lurked nearby - but not too near, for even the shadow of the tree was poison to them. When doves left the tree's protective embrace, however, they were likely to fall victim to the serpent's swift strikes.

According to Norse belief, an immense, unseen tree called Yggdrasil stretched from the vault of heaven to the depth of hell. A dragon named Nidhoggr gnawed perpetually at the roots, seeking to destroy the order of creation, but the order had a battalion of defenders. Three godlike beings called Norns sat calmly near the dragon at the roots, spinning the threads of mortal fate. Stags browsed at the tree and watered the earth with dew from their antlers. A goat that chewed the tree's bark provided mead as milk for mortal heroes who would rid the world of the dragon race. Of the birds that perched in Yggdrasil's branches, the greatest was the eagle - a steadfast dragon enemy that sang forever of creation and destruction.

Using a chain baited with the head of an ox, the Norse God Thor hauled the Midgard serpent from the sea while the father god, Odin, watched from on high. Thor raised his hammer to kill the beast, but the chain snapped and the dragon escaped.

Babylonian priests wrote that, before light separated from darkness and time began, the god Marduk slew his dragon forebear Tiamat, enemy of order. In the depths of the void, Marduk pursued and caught Tiamat, and he split her great body asunder.

All across the ancient world, people sopke of dragons when they spoke of first things - and India was no exception. Holy men of that land said that the world was supported by Sesha, an eleven-headed serpentine creature whose title was Ananta, meaning the Endless One. Far from being an agent of disorder, as most dragons were, Ananta served Vishnu, the Lord of the Universe, offering its long back as a couch when the god chose to sleep.

Another hero of Greece was Cadmus, who braved a dragon's jaws to slay the beast with a spear. In the wilderness where the dragon had held sway, Cadmus built the might city of Thebes.

Far into the night sky the hero Cadmus and his fellows flung a dragon. It became the constellation Draco, coiled forever around the North Star. The stars Etanin and Alwaid are the watchful creature's eyes: These stars never set.

The eggs of China's dragons lay near riverbanks for a thousand years. Their cracking brought furious storms, and as wind and rain raged, small snakes emerged. These grew rapidly into wingless dragons that took to the air by aid of magical crests on their foreheads.

In the centuries of their ascendancy, dragons occasionally ravaged Europe's towns with flame. One marvelous clear sunshine day, an account from Germany begins, the people of Sanctogoarin - a small town on the Rhine - saw  soaring above them a mighty winged dragon. Its tail lashed the sky, and when the beast disappeared, fires sprang up spontaneously all over town. Nothing could quench the crackle of the flames; the dragon was the town's undoing. Because of disasters like this, the belief grew that dragons flying in daylight signified great and fearful fires to follow.

The coming of a dragon could be silent and secret: In England once, a youth tossed a worm into a village well. The creature grew in the darkness until it became a monster - which proceeded to terrorize the district of Lambton for seven long years.

Where Dragons Dwelled
(click on thumbnail for larger image)

Dragon History  /  Pics  /  Poetry  /  Dragons & Maidens  /  Dragon Links  /  Dragon Index