Myths & More

Image Source Theme I always thought that dragons were the coolest mythical creatures ever created. There’s something inspirational about flying, fire-breathing serpents that soar through the sky without a care for the world below. It made me think that these fantastic creatures were destined for great things in fiction. Imagine my confusion when reading stories where the dragon was made to be an obstacle to overcome, a villain to fight, or a monster to kill. Why this creature was subject to be the source of all evil, I didn’t know—I assumed that there had to be more to dragons than just tools of destruction.  As I grew older, I did find stories where there were neutral and good dragons in writings from around the world, if not a smaller group than their insidious counterparts. Some were guardians of different lands, others were sages made to pass down their wisdom to the human race. I was happy to find a balanced variety of dragons in fiction, but that didn’t stop me from...

Quote by J.R.R. Tolkien After reflecting on what I might like to write about for my Storybook Project, I have decided that I would like to use dragons as my main topic. Reflecting on the stories that I found an interest in last week, I chose a lot of stories with dragons or dragon varieties (The Three Roses, How The Dragon Was Tricked, Ryūjin, and Hu Gadarn), so I might as well make that the subject of this semester long project. As I mentioned earlier, dragons are an interesting mythical creature to analyze, and I’d like to examine why they’re treated as the antagonist in stories. I hope that I will be able to draw inspiration from the UN-Textbook and the Sacred Texts this fall, as I think it will be beneficial to the creation of my Storybook.  Stories Mentioned: The Three Roses How The Dragon Was Tricked Ryūjin Hu Gadarn

The  Basilisk Czech: The Three Roses Original: A mother visits the local market to bring back gifts for her three daughters only to stumble across a palace rose garden on the way home. When she takes three roses for her younger daughter Mary, a basilisk appears and threatens the mother to send her daughter to the castle. After nursing the Basilisk for three days, she is told to cut off his head twice and turns into a handsome youth, who she marries. Retelling: I’ve already written retelling of this story during week 2, where Mary and the Basilisk have a strongly developed relationship and the Basilisk has a more complex character. Still, I really enjoyed this story any would like to develop it further if it became a final project, making a definitive beginning, middle and end.  The  Dragon Greece: How the Dragon was Tricked Original: After escaping a trap by his older brother, a young trickster is brought to the king and is told that his life will be spa...