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From: Lil Stinker NP-g07 <lilstinker@pu.net>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rolex
Subject: Introduction to Dragons
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 16:31:40 -0500
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Introduction to Dragons
Everybody knows what a dragon is: an enormous, fierce, bloodthirsty
creature appearing in fairy tales and legends as an accessory whose
main function is to set off the bravery of knight challenging him. The
dragon is an obscure, mysterious character, described in broad terms,
and is little more than foil to enhance the hero's valor.
Dragon is a legendary beast in the folklore of many European and Asian
cultures. Legends describe dragons as large, lizardlike creatures that
breathe fire and have a long, scaly tail. In Europe, dragons are
traditionally portrayed as ferocious beasts that represent the evils
fought by human beings. But in Asia, especially in China and Japan,
the animals are generally considered friendly creatures that ensure
good luck and wealth.
According to some medieval legends, dragons lived in wild, remote
regions of the world. The dragons guarded treasures in their dens, and
a person who killed one supposedly gained its wealth. The English epic
hero Beowulf died in a fight with a treasure-guarding dragon.
In China, the traditional New Year's Day parade includes a group of
people who wind through the street wearing a large dragon costume. The
dragon's image, according to an ancient Chinese belief, prevents evil
spirits from spoiling the new year. Another traditional Chinese belief
is that certain dragons have the power to control the rainfall needed
for each year's harvest.
However the dragon is something else. He is admirable, intelligent and
educated creature, who leads a most interesting life. He has some
fascinating characteristics in addition to those occasional glimpses
we are given through fairy tail and legends.
In the world of fantastic animals, the dragon is unique. No other
creature has appeared in such a rich variety of forms. It is as though
there was once a whole family of different dragon species that really
existed, before they mysteriously became extinct. Indeed, as recently
as the seventeenth century, scholars wrote of dragons as though they
were scientific facts, their anatomy and natural history being
recorded in painstaking detail.
The naturalist Edward Topsell, for instance, writing in 1608,
considered them to be reptilian and closely related to serpents:
"There are divers sorts of dragons, distinguished partly by countries,
partly by their quantity and magnitude, and partly by the different
form of their external parts." Personifications of malevolence of
beneficence, paganism or purity, death and devastation, life and
fertility, good or evil. All these varied, contradictory concepts are
embodied and embedded within that single magical word.
The dragon has always been slandered and misjudged, persecuted and
hounded by man, simply because they are different. Like so many other
living beings, he has experienced death and persecution in the name of
so-called superiority of civilized man.
Perhaps, in the future, man will learn with the death of a single
animal or plant species an irreplaceable asset - something more
precious than all the wealth in the world - is lost. Only then will
the Earth continue to be a brilliant blue jewel in the universe, for
in its heart will be locked the priceless treasure of the diversity of
the species, and man will have recognized his duty to cherish every
single one.
Lil Stinker
"just havin' fun!"
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