Dragons and Serpents

 The Celtic peoples often showed great reverence for dragons and serpents, depicting them by the side of their gods. They came to represent wisdom and nobility. King Arthur even used the dragon as part of the medallion he and all the "Knights" wore.

Even today, the welsh national flag has one similar to that of the picture , one claw raised as a warning of its power and its neck arched in readiness. This respect clashed with the beliefs of the Celtic new religion, Christianity.

According to both Christian and Jewish texts, they were incarnations of evil and were said to bring destruction during the end of the world, as read in the Revelations. While the serpent was blamed for bringing sin to man kind by tempting Eve into eating the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden (Christian Bible - Genesis).

The legend of St. George, in which he defeats a dragon, perhaps represents Christianity overpowering the Celtic religion. The image St. George crushing a struggling serpent or dragon under his feet was widely used in Christian art, and again may symbolise Christianity's dominance over paganism.

Introduction

Are these creatures merely fabrications of the boundless human imagination, or do they represent something of great spiritual significance for all cultures? Many are the fabulous beasts created in the stories by human kind.

For thousands of years, we have told of fantastic creatures of supernatural powers, some of the forces of good and others of the forces of evil. But of all these sensational monsters, none has slithered into as many of man's legends than dragons and serpents.

These wonderful creatures vary in description according to culture, although many striking features are retained throughout the written, oral and artistic traditions of the world. They are usually depicted as gigantic snake-like reptiles, with a long, sinuous body armoured in green, blue or red scales.

The head is typically massive, with a broad mouth full of enormous, sharp teeth and a long, forked tongue. The snout is long and sometimes horned; the eyes are usually very large and cold. Often, these creatures possess long ears and a frilled neck, resembling either a crest of feathers or webbed skin. The body itself is usually decorated with an array of small, triangular spines extending from the head down the back to the long, barbed tail.

They normally posses four, short limbs with long claws, although some serpents have no legs at all. In some cultures, they are also equipped with enormous, bat-like wings; in others, they have the ability to breathe fire. They can live in mountains, caves, seas, lakes and even the heavens.

The Chinese Dragons

Just as their appearances differ from culture to culture, these creatures represent many contrasting ideas for different groups of people. Dragons are perhaps most well recognized in Chinese tradition. The Chinese recognized them as one of the four sacred creatures to contain all elements of yin and yang - dark and light - in addition to the Phoenix, the Unicorn and the Turtle.

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The Japanese Dragons

Japanese dragons are diverse legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore. Japanese dragon myths blend native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and India.

The Kojiki (dating back to about 620 AD) and the Nihongi (dating back to about 720 AD) mytho-histories have the first Japanese textual references to dragons. "In the oldest annals the dragons are...

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The European Dragons

Dragons and serpents are often viewed as guardians of sacred places and objects. The ancient Greeks and Romans, who revered them for their wisdom but feared them for their tremendous powers, both shared this belief. One of the twelve tasks of the legendary hero Hercules (or Heracles) had to perform was to pick three golden apples from a sacred tree, protected by a fearsome dragon or Serpent.

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Sacred Serpents

Stories are told of serpents so unimaginably vast that they encircled the world itself! Jormungand the Midgard Serpent was one such monster, said by the Norse cultures such as the Vikings to live deep under the sea.

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So why have so many different cultures on Earth told stories of these giant, wonderful reptiles?

A common explanation is that the ancient peoples were so inspired by the deadliness and beauty of reptiles such as snakes, lizards and crocodiles; they began to imagine them as giant, magical beings with supernatural powers. Indeed, we have named several species of reptile with their mythological persona in mind: the Komodo Dragon, the Bearded Dragon, the Water Dragon and the Flying Dragon are all living lizards who bare dragon-like characteristics.

But all of these creatures are much smaller than the dragons of legend - even the largest lizard, the Komodo Dragon, only measures a few metres in length. Additionally, these "dragons" have a very restricted habitat, many only inhabiting remote islands or forests. They cannot be fully responsible for spawning the vast widespread beliefs in dragons and serpents.

It is widely suggested that Sea Serpents and Lake Serpents are just ordinary aquatic animals, such as eels, whales, seals or sharks. However, this theory also has a severe shortcoming, in that a large majority of precise descriptions of aquatic serpents do not resemble any of these creatures in shape, behaviour or movement. It must also be noted that there are far more reported observations of sea serpents than there are of known existing sea animals, like beaked whales and giant squid.

Dragons and serpents have come to represent a huge variety of different ideas, but perhaps the one prevailing symbolism that unites them all is man's fascination and fear of the unknown. As long as mankind is plagued by mystery, our lakes, skies, seas and even our souls will never be freed from the clutches of dragons and serpents.

Information kindly provided by - Megan Balanck

• Chinese Dragon
  
  The Chinese Dragon is predominant through out Chinese cultures. Mainly associated with controllong water the dragon plays a large part of the ancient Chinese culture..
• Japanese Dragon
  
  Japanese dragons are diverse legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore.
• European Draqon
  
  European dragons are legendary creatures in folklore and mythology among the overlapping cultures of Europe.
• Sacred Serpents
  
  Throughout the world's history we find numerous references to "dragons and serpents". It is said that myths come from fact. Were there ever "dragons and large serpents" that wondered our world since man has been here?

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