Dragon Misconceptions
There is a great deal of contradicting, and sometimes misleading,
ideas regarding dragons. The origins of this erroneous information are
usually innocent in nature; a misinterpretation of a book or
distortion of second-hand knowledge as it passes down the line.
Sometimes readers may read too far into something, or not far enough.
Regardless, we have all at some point in our lives been guilty of
falling into the talons of these commonly incorrect stereotypes, and
no one among us is immune!
Here we have taken a closer look at some of the more common dragon
misconceptions, and hope you find something that dispels an old myth
or two.
Misconception 1: All Western dragons are evil:
This is probably an out-dated misconception, as recent media
portrayals take a "good" spin on Western dragons and fewer people
today consider dragons wholly evil. However, it is worth a mention, as
this is not really a recent phenomenon. Years before the dragon was
integrated into the mainstream fantasy market, dragons, such as the
small puk, were considered lucky for the wealth they brought to the
households they laired in (Cooper, 1992). The fiery-tailed aitvaras
were known to bring wealth to farmers in exchange for eggs- although
they were perhaps not so lucky for the person whom they took the
wealth from (Nigg, 2002)!
Misconception 2: All Eastern dragons are good:
This is a very easy assumption to make, considering the amount of
Eastern dragons that are beneficial. However, it is in fact not true.
Eastern dragons commonly harboured extreme tempers, and up to the
modern 20th century, people would go to numerous ends to avoid
provoking their wrath (Whittaker, 1997).
Tales detailing the fight for supremacy between the man-faced dragon
Gong Gong, and his rival Jurong (or Zhu Rong), the Spirit of Fire, do
not omit the evil nature and intentions of the dragon, who caused
havoc by throwing the Buzhou Mountain out of alignment (Littleton,
2002; Bevan, 1997). Another dragon with questionable intentions was
Gu, who plotted the demise of the gods until he was eventually
thwarted by the Yellow Emperor Huang Di (Littleton, 2002).
While Eastern dragons are primarily beneficial creatures, not all
Eastern dragons chose to follow the path of goodness.
Misconception 3: Christianity made dragons evil:
Prior to the rise of Christianity, dragons had long been viewed in a
distasteful light. In Africa, the serpent-dragon Apep represented
chaos as he tried to swallow the sun during its night journey through
Duat, the Egyptian underworld. It is important to remember here that
Egyptians did not really see "good" and "bad" in such black and white
terms as western culture, and that both were equally important
(Fletcher, 1999). However, Persian religion and mythology saw the
dragon Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) as the Devil, and this dragon was
loathed for the evil he represented and inflicted upon mankind
(Curtis, 1993).
Snakes are universally hated creatures, due to their manner of
locomotion and venom, with few exceptions. In Mongolia, the snake was
useless and evil and the people believed that the god Mongke Tengri
sent the powerful eagle to pursue and kill the serpents (Kerrigan, et
al., 1998). No wonder, then, that their mythical counterpart, the
dragon, was seen in a similar light, as this viewpoint is not unique
to Persia or Mongolia.
Although Christianity was not unique in its views of the dragon or
serpent, the religion still viewed dragons as evil beasts1, perhaps
more so than any other did. It is because this religion has had such a
massive impact on western culture, that their promotion of the
dragon's evil nature would have made a longer-lasting statement to us
than any other ancient society, and this is why we remember the
Christian views over the Persian, Mongolian or even Egyptian views.
Misconception 4: Dragons must be alive because they're found in every
culture:
The word dragon is an umbrella term; beneath it, we find a wide
variety of serpentine and reptilian beasts that eagerly await closer
examination. While it is true there are many creatures in the wilds
that are dragons, it is important to remember that the label is
something we have put upon many creatures recently; such as the
Australian bunyip, the American piasa, or the taniwha of New Zealand.
The locals themselves, however, did not consider these dragons. It
would be hard to look at a Western and an Eastern dragon and deduce
that they are the same creature because of a common name, when they
are obviously not. The word "dragon" was absent before the Hellenic
period (Allen & Griffiths, 1979), and prior to this dragons were
simply unique creatures.
Having said all the above, it is more accurate to approach such a
complex situation with this in mind; the word dragon originated to
identify a large number of pre-existing beasts that otherwise, were
completely unique among the animal kingdom. The word dragon was
sculpted to fit around them.
The reason so many dragons share similarities is because they have
all, at some stage, been influenced by the presence of snakes within
the culture that gave rise to the dragon. Both New Zealand and Ireland
are devoid of snakes, and as a result they lack dragons as we know
them2. While the New Zealand taniwha can be (and has been) classified
as a dragon, it is in fact more accurate to assume this is a monster
totally unique to New Zealand and the Polynesian region.
Misconception 5: Dragons are all huge and terrifying creatures:
This is not true; some dragons are huge and ultra-terrifying.
The smaller a dragon is, the better its chances of getting off the
ground. The largest flying creatures were the pterodactyloid
pterosaurs, with a wingspan of over thirty feet. It is hard to imagine
a larger creature possessing the ability to fly- the sheer mass and
volume of the animal would put paid to that. Added to the low
probability of a house-sized dragon taking to the air is the fact that
such a monster would require an endothermic metabolism to sustain
powered flight, and the huge quantities of food needed would result in
its vast appetite never being sated, and unsustainable. As if this
wasn't sufficient a damper on the large dragon's hopes of flight,
every weighty scale, tooth, horn and spike reduce its chances further,
leading to a massive yet ultimately ground-bound dragon.
Lil Stinker
"just havin' fun!"
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