Dragons

Dragons are mythical creatures, they appear in many diffirent cultures, countries and time periodes. Some describe them as monsters, serpents or beasts. The magical idea of dragons has been kept alive over many centuries.

Dragons were first thought of, of magical creatures who live mostly in water. Now dragons are usually thought of to have wings and breathe fire, with scales and sharp claws, some also horned. Almost always dragons are said to be venomous. Some dragons may have two or more heads. They may also have more than one tail. Dragons are said to eat things such as rats, birds, snakes, bats, or even humans, especially children. Dragon stories often has the dragon playing the part of the story's villian. The hero has to defeat it. They are always said to live in remote areas , far away from any humans who might spot them, in places that are dark, damp and secluded, such as caves.

There are thousands of Dragon stories, told for thousands of years. Passed on and always keeping everyone who hears it's attention.

The Golden Legend

In Europe, the story of Saint Goerge and the dragon is a very populer one. The legend takes place in a town called Silene, in Libya. The legend states that this town had a large pond where a plague-bearing dragon dwelt. To please the dragon, so that it wouldn't hurt them, they fed it sheep and maidens.

Lots were drewn between the maidens of the town to see who would be sacrificed to the dragon next. One day, as the maidens were drewing lots, the lot fell upon the princess of Silene. The king, filled with unbearable grief, told the people they could have all his gold and silver and half of his kingdom if his daughter were spared. The people, fearing the rage and power of the dragon, refused. The people all loved the princess, but feared the dragon. So, the princess was sent out to the lake, dressed as a bride, to be fed to the dragon.
When Saint Goerge heard about this he rode on horseback to the lake. The princess, trembling, sought to send him away, but George vowed to remain and fortified himself with the Sign of the Cross.
The dragon reared out of the lake as George and the princess were talking. Saint George charged at it on horseback and stabbed it with his lance. Then he called to the princess to throw him her girdle, and put it around the dragon's neck. When she did so, the dragon followed the girl like a dog on a leash. They led the dragon back into town, where it terrified the people at its approach. But St. George called out to them, saying that if they converted to Christianity and were baptized, he would slay the dragon before them.
The king and the villagers agreed, 15,000 men plus women and children, and were converted and baptized. George then drew his sword and slew the dragon. On the site where the dragon died, the king built a church, which bore a spring whose waters cured all diseases.

The Bride of the Lindorm King

Centuries ago in sweden, the queen layd in her bedchaimber about to give birth to twins. She had wanted children very badly, for many years, and she thought that it was never going to happen. She smiled as she remembered how she had consulted a soothsayer, who had promised her that in less than a year she would be granted two handsome sons, provided that she ate two fresh onions as soon as she returned to the palace.

Although this advice had seemed quite bizarre to her, the queen had been so desparete to have children. So wanting it to work that she had rushed away, ignoring the voice of the soothsayer calling after her. Arriving back home, the queen ordered two crisp onions to be brought to her at once.

The queen was so happy and excited by the promise the onions held that she quickly ate the first one without stopping even to peel the skin from it. It tasted horrible, not suprising though. So the second onion she peeled carefully, stripping away every layer of skin before eating it. It had tasted much better. Nine months had passed since then, and now, precisely and exactly as foretold by the soothsayer, her greatly wanted sons were about to be born.

the courtiers and the palace staff, all the maids and gardeners were eagerly awaiting the official announcement of the birth of the new princes. They were waiting right outside the bedchamber. Suddenly, they all heard a horrible shriek, an ear-splitting scream coming from the chamber. The shriek of horror wasn't the sound of a newborn baby.

a wail of the royal midwife when she set eyes upon the queen's first child. It was a male - but it was not human.

The queen had given birth to a lindorm, a hideous, snakelike dragon, whose wingless body thrashed upon the marble floor in scaly coils, and from whose shoulders sprang a pair of powerful limbs with taloned feet. The queen was so repulsed by the creature that she couldn't scream. She was speechless. She couldn't even whisper, the queen leaned down, took the ugly lindorm in her arms and threw it out the palace window where it landed in the forest surrounding the palace. Weakened from the exertion, the queen sank back upon the bed and gave birth again, this time to a perfect healthy, fresh-faced boy, with golden hair and sparkling blue eyes.

Years passed, and the boy became a youthful, handsome prince. He was searching for a bride, but what he found was his brother, the lindorm. The prince was riding around the edge of the vast forest around the palace when, without warning, a huge head emerged from a thorny bush directly in front of him. Rearing up until his green scaled body looked a little like a tall tree, he looked down at the prince with unblinking youthful amber eyes which penetrated his innemost thoughts.

mesmerised and motionless the prince stared back, he heard its voice assuring him with cold, reptilian detachment that certainty he would never find a wife until the lindorm, the elder brother, had obtained the true love of a willing bride.

Over the next few months, the prettiest of the village maidens were given to the lindorm in hope that he would find the right maiden, so that the young prince could too find a bride. Needless to say, none of these maidens came willingly, but none was accepted by the monster. The situation seemed irredeemable, until the next maiden selected to be the bride of the lindorm, had the good fortune to encounter the same soothsayer which the queen had consulted so many years before.

After listening to the maiden speaking of her impending plight, the soothsayer whispered into her ear a few words that swiftly replaced her sadness with a smile of delight.

The maiden was presented to the lindorm that night who gruffly told her to take off her dresses, of which she seemed to be wearing a surprising number of. She agreed to do this, but only after extracting from the lindorm the promise that for every dress she took off, it would shed a layer of skin. This it did, until only one remained, and until the maiden was clothed in just a single simple garment.

Despite remembering the soothsayer's words, it was not without nervousness that she removed this final gown and stood naked before the great dragon. The lindorm moved toward her, and the maiden tensed - fearing, yet also desiring, what was to come, for if the soothsayer had spoken truthfully there would be great happiness and great love ahead. And so she stood erect and motionless as the serpentine monster leisurely, almost tenderly, enveloped her body in its scaly coils. She had expected them to feel cold and slimy, but was pleasantly surprised by their warmth and softness when they embraced and caressed her. Even so, she felt a flicker of terror rising within her and desire to flee. Then the words of the soothsayer came back into her mind, calming her, and she relaxed again.

The maiden noticed that the lindorm's last layer of skin was starting to peel away. Gradually the skin dispersed and revealed that she was no longer wrapped within the serpentine coils of a lindorm, but held in the firm arms of the most handsome man she had ever seen.
The soothsayer had indeed spoken truthfully. By following her instructions, the maiden had broken the spell that had incarcerated him within the body of a lindorm,and here was the oldest twin, heir to the throne, which she would love to marry.

The joyful marriage took place without delay, and after the old queen had given her blessing to the newlyweds, now the king and queen, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. It was the sootsayer, who revealed the information the queen had not stayed to hear all those years ago—to be sure to peel both onions before eating them.