What is it about dragons that capture our imaginations so? I started out by saying captivate but realized in the nick of time captivate would not have been precise. It would be wrong to suggest that dragons exist to titillate our senses or deign to amuse us. That is not the way that they operate. Dragons spring up from time to time in order to admonish us. A should never be consider just another pretty face that possesses talent to entertain us. The purpose of dragons is not to pander to our pettiness; it is to teach us, usually by making great demands of us. If it has to scare the living daylights out of us to drive its point home, so be it! At least that seems to be the dragon's point of view.
Larger than life, dragons make great demands of us by refusing to foist our foibles and at that the same time they provide for the well being of the helpless among us. Their fiery qualities, fashioned to involve us in delectable tidbits of trauma, are nicely balanced by wise and loving aspects used, for example, when said dragon deign rescue fair maiden. The love of a dragon burns but the anger of a dragon devours. This was said of Pele, the fire goddess, a fire-breathing dragon of considerable magnitude in the best-loved Hawaiian legends.
My favorite fascination of dragon stories is entitled Fire and Wings - subtitled Dragon Tales From East and West. So, if you're ready, we'll begin. I'll try not to give the endings away because that would be a sin of great magnitude. Besides the dragons involved would not likely be amused. Dragons hang onto their secrets for as long as possible.
My task is to examine the character of each dragon in order to fathom, dragon character. It's an impossibility I know, but that's what makes dragons so wonderful. When they are good, they are very very good and when they are bad they are wonderful. How can that be? Go figure!
Our fascination ranges from the adventures of dragons in the mysteries of the Orient, to the then known Occident for dragon heroics were mostly handed down a tremendously long time ago, long before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue or Marco Polo trudged to China in search of pasta. The dangers of life in the steppe lands of the Ukraine is a memorable story by Eric A. Kimmel. The Three Riddles took place not that long ago in dragon years because in the story there are soldiers with muskets. How do I know that? There was a piper, a drummer and a musketeer and of course a great dragon with gold scales is sort of how the story begins. This story promises to captivate you, and in a weak moment, for dragons do have their lapses, as do all of us, capture you if you're not careful. Dragons are known to let their hair down, in a manner of speaking and that's all that I am going to say about that for it would not be fair to future readers to spill the beans.
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