Here be dragons …

In honour of St George’s Day this week we decided a blog on dragons was called for.

Here be dragons (or more accurately as it was mainly written in latin … hic sunt dracones) means dangerous or unexplored territories, from the use of putting dragons, sea serpents and other mythological creatures in uncharted areas of maps by tudor mapmakers.  Only two maps survive from this period featuring this saying but it has lasted until today to indicate danger. 

In myths and legends they are often depicted as winged, fire-breathing reptilian beasts with talons and a long tail.  In Western culture they are usually evil, frightening and destructive and the heroes of the stories must slay the dragon but in China and Japan, they are viewed in a positive light and are often depicted as symbols of good fortune.

It’s no wonder that there was a belief in dragons around the world.  For millennia no-one knew what animal the giant bones belonged to that were occasionally unearthed.  Dragons are a logical choice for people who had no understanding of dinosaurs.

Many of the western tellings of the dragon stories have symbolic religious meanings.  In one famous legend, St George, the patron saint of England, saves the daughter of a king from a dragon which was meant to symbolise the triumph of the church over the devil. The dragon played a similar symbolic role in Christian art, representing sin overcome by saints and martyrs.

But it’s not just myth and legend where dragons are prevalent.  Modern authors have weaved dragons into their books too.  JRR Tolkein featured Smaug in The Hobbit and the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling feature several varieties of dragons.  And, depictions of dragons range from the child friendly versions of “How to Train your Dragon” to the more adult oriented “Game of Thrones”.

The word dragon comes from the ancient Greek word “draconta” which means “to watch”.  This has commonly been used to explain dragons watching over valuables particularly gold and treasure which is a recurring motif in literature and art.

Whilst we are on the subject of dragons let’s not forget that it wasn’t until around 1910 that western scientists verified the existence of them … the Komodo dragon that is! There are some interesting facts about the Komodo dragon on the National Geographic website. Click here to go to the website. And if you want to have one of your own have a look at our dragon pencil by clicking here.