A Fascination of Dragons
The Dragon at the Well, by Teresa Bateman, involves a prince who is of less than sterling quality. Prince Peter deems it possible to trick a dragon, which had made great demands upon him in the way of a promise that by its nature indicated that it need not be paid back for many years. In return for the promise, the dragon delivered fair service. Incidentally, this story carries the most blatant foreshadowing. There is a promise of dire consequences if Prince Peter remains in a state of denial. The reader seems to want to ignore the consequences too because they are too awful to contemplate.
Prince Peter is not a bad person. His tragic fault is confined to the arrogance bordering on contempt with which he holds the dragon that he is beholden to. He tries to make an end run around his obligation to the dragon and the dragon will have none of it. Once you've made a promise to a dragon, you'd better live up to it, or heaven help you. Of course the story ends with a twist for dragons are unpredictable as is the beautiful daughter of Prince Peter. Of course there is a beautiful daughter for even dragons require a love interest. I'm not telling you another word about her except to say that her name is Merin and she is better with the sword than most men of her time for raising her as a boy was part of Prince Peter's ploy to deny the dragon his due.
What can we learn from dragon stories? From the Dragon at the Well, we learn that dragons will not be denied. In that story, we also learn about dragon transformation. Dragons morph at will it seems but at other times, it takes the love of a fair maiden to make it happen. It is not a good idea to try to trick dragons. If we let them, dragons will bring out the best in us. The worst scenario, in dealing with dragons, you don't even want to think about.
Jane Yolen
Carus, Marianne, Editor, "Fire and Wings." Carus Publishing Company, Peru, Illinois, 2002. ISBN 0-8126-2664-8
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