D For Dragons

Today is the fourth day of the A to Z Challenge lasting the entire month of April, excluding Sundays. This challenge is a blog hop using the letters of the alphabet. To go to the main webpage to visit other participants, click HERE.

I chose Fantasy as my main reference for the month. Today is D for Dragons.

As we know, dragons appear in various mythologies and legends. The Greek monster Echidna was supposed to be half dragon. In Babylonian myth, Tiamat was the great she-dragon that battled the god Marduk. In Norse mythology, Fafnir kept guard over his hoard until killed by Sigurd. The hero Beowulf was eventually killed by a dragon. In English tales, St. George killed a dragon and rescued a young virgin.

The most familiar form of the western dragon is a great flying reptile. It has large batlike wings, a serpentine tail, sharp claws or talons and lots of teeth. These dragons usually breathe fire and some have a penchant for virgins. Often, like Fafnir, they are known to hoard gold and jewels. Dragons are hard to kill but almost always have one vulnerable spot for the hero to find.

In my Dragon Stone Trilogy, the dragon befriends a man and they bond as soul mates. This is something that happens in various other more modern stories about dragons. They have speech, where they can talk to their rider or in some cases, they use a king of telepathy.

Whether or not they are friendly to man, dragons have been a fascination to many throughout history. Do you like reading about dragons? What is your most memorable dragon?