Dragon Legends from around the world

by Dawid N. Copywriter

As far as dragons go they figure in many countries’ history of folklore, legends and myths with St George and The dragon being one of the most popular. St, George is always depicted defeating a dragon and is the adopted Patron Saint of England but it is unlikely he ever visited England. William Shakespeare astutely made sure St. George slaying the dragon would not be forgotten by writing the immortal line of ‘Cry God for Harry, England and St. George!’ in his play Henry V. St. George & The Dragon Day is celebrated on 23rd April coincidentally the presumed same day for both the birth and death of The Bard himself.

Wales has the proud Red Dragon as a national symbol and visibly present on the country’s flag. The Welsh National Rugby Team are known as The Dragons, how the dragon was introduced into Welsh folklore is not very clear but in popular folklore around King Arthur where Merlin predicts a great fight to the death between a red dragon being the Welsh and a white dragon representing the Saxons. A red dragon was used on battle flag standards with the frightening and intimidating Welsh archers in medieval times renowned for their accuracy and skill with the long bow.

Wales being a Celtic region also included Ireland, Scotland, Devon & Cornwall in England and the north of France. Dragon folklore in these regions mixed with Gaelic origins too. The dragon was a powerful image that expressed great strength and fertility. You will find dragons in many Celtic artworks and the Legend of King Arthur of the mythical Camelot had a dragon image embossed on his battle helmet, so it is said. Dragons for the Celts were the gate-keepers to secret worlds and worldly treasures and often depicted dragons with their Gods. The Druids who lived in the south of England and northern France believed that the dragon’s power changed the lay of land, so they would search for these magical paths and build temples and towns as this land would be fertile. Dragons are considered the most powerful of all Celtic symbols.

In Poland, Krakow and its folklore revolves predominantly around the infamous Wawel Dragon, there is the Great Dragon Parade every year when many schools show off their specially made dragons and march around Planty to then finish in Rynek the main square.

The local professional rugby team, Juvenia Krakow RFC are nicknamed The Dragons or Smoki in Polish who are hosts to the annual rugby festival. Also the Dragon of Dragons Award by the Krakow Film Foundation Programme Council to the makers of documentary and animated films that have greatly influenced their fields, the award itself is a scaled down replica of Bronisław Chromy’s Wawel Dragon Statue which can be seen by the river below Wawel Hill and if you are looking for a new trendy tattoo the local tattoo artists have plenty of dragons for you to choose from.There are even bars in Krakow which which were inspired by the dragon legend and which feature almost a real life bust of the dragon ! According to Mark Bryan- a spokesman for a Krakow based stag do organiser, there is even an interesting phenomena which has been growing amongst tour groups since the release of the Game of Thrones series "More and more stag and hen groups arriving in Krakow have a desire to have a dragon themed stag or hen weekend. Usually we are requested to organise different kind of unusual services such as partybuses, limo transfers, shooting, or even a dwarf hire ! We were first really surprised when we were asked to organise a GoT themed bachelor party. But it worked really great and we were in fact really pleased to show a bit more of cultural face of Krakow to our clients".

Let’s not omit the Chinese Dragon and the splendid dragon dances performed during Chinese festivals and celebrations. However, in Chinese or Asian cultures dragons are similar to Greek Gods representing and protecting and considered good, wise and charitable unlike the western culture as a dragon is considered devil-like and in certain instances referred to as Satan himself. The Emperors of China who ascended to the royal seat in the Forbidden city was called the Dragon Throne.

Dragons are revered in Asian cultures especially in China if you were born in the Year of the Dragon according to the Chinese horoscope it symbolizes good fortune and good luck. The traits and characteristics of people born under this sign are associated with being charismatic, strong in character and noble as well as being kind and generous to family and friends.

There is not one country, nation or civilisation that has not ever had a dragon folklore present in its history. Even the indigenous Indians in America speak of references to dragons as did the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas.

Dragons in Popular Culture

In popular international culture dragons pop up in books, comic books, films, cartoons, TV & radio, music & song and video games. The most well known dragons in literature are Ancalagon the Black and Smaug in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium and The Hobbit and he featured dragons in many other stories he wrote. J.K. Rowling had Norberta in her Harry Potter series and the one & only Terry Pratchett with Errol the Dragon in Guards, Guards!

Marvel Comic’s had Dragon Man as one of the Fantastic Four series and Dragon of the Moon from the Defenders. X-Men with Lockheed the pet dragon of Kitty Pryde. Tohru in Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, a Japanese manga comic and several dragons in the fantastic Dragon Ball Z manga series.

In films the most notable are Buraki from the 2007 Dragon Wars, which incidentally, buraki in Polish translates to beetroot juice and very healthy too unlike the malevolent dragons. Never Ending Story and Falkor already a classic Christmas film and Eustace Scrubb who is transformed into a dragon in the Chronicles of Narnia, the list is endless but a mention goes to Godzilla, Beowolf and the red & golden dragons from Dungeons & Dragons.

TVs Game of Thrones featured a black-red dragon called Drogon but on a lighter note we have Spyro the Dragon on children’s TV.

Cartoons or animation offered dragons with a more Chinese take on their characters such as Discord, Spike & Whimsey Weatherbe in the My Little pony series. How could we forget the nameless dragon in Shrek whose penchant was eating knights. However, the tougher robotic dragon, Predaking, from the world wide successful Transformer cartoons who uses his powers for good.

In the music world we have an enormous amount of songs, albums and bands using dragons in the lyrics, images and names. One children’s song was Puff the Magic Dragon a huge hit in the 60s by the trio singers Peter, Paul & Mary. A Swedish record company call, yes, Dragon Records. Vangelis had an album entitled The Dragon.

The video game sector has so many fighting dragons featured in science fantasy games as powerful enemies to be defeated by the heroes. The most widely known games offering do or die scenarios are War Craft, Final Fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons, Lord of the Rings and Diablo. Also, in Minecraft we have Ender, a giant black dragon with glowing purple eyes living in the Ender Dimension.

In sport we have the Hong Kong rugby team often listed as the Dragons and countless teams all over the world and in all sports using dragon in their team name. So the dragon is everywhere and been everywhere on land, sea, air and even in space, the SpaceX Dragon capsule to transport cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station. On land we have the Dragon Locomotives and a bus quaintly named Dennis Dragon. There was the Dragon Automobile Company which started up in 1906 then abruptly closed in 1908. More recently, in fact, in 2020 in the Middle East had the so called Dragon Storms which the region is subjected to every year, this year’s storm claimed 21 lives in Egypt. In the military we come across the use of dragon for aircraft, tanks and ships. 17th century soldiers on horseback were called Dragoons because of their issued firearm, a rifle named dragon, when it was cocked ready to fire the hammer which struck the bullet resembled the head of a dragon, hence dragoon which is also a verb in English meaning to coerce someone into doing something they don’t want to do.

The word dragon is by far the most used term but there are synonyms used through out the folklore stories. Dragons also come in different physical forms, usually more than one head and up to 100 according to certain myths and stories, the Chinese dragon has no legs or wings giving it a serpent or snake-like form and many lived not only on the land but underground or in the sea and not all of them could fly. So, when you hear or read such terms as hydra, serpent, serpentine, wyvern, basilisk, draco, firedrake or tarragon they are all references to a dragon in some way or form.

Dracarys !