Oriental Dragons

[Dragons in Mythology]

Oriental dragons are long and thin. They are serpents with legs, and their heads are antlered, usually with a thick, flowing mane. They have overlapping scales, and are often playing with a spherical object (Ryujin, a Japanese she-dragon, plays with the moon for she knows in controls the tides, Chinese dragons have a ball of fire which creates storms, or sometimes a Pearl of Wisdom. Some people believe the spheres to be eggs.)
Unlike the western dragons, who needed to be slain by bold knights because they were considered evil, oriental dragons were friendly with humans and gods alike, and myths about them show off their wisdom and kindness.
The number of toes is an important feature of oriental dragons. Chinese and Korean dragons have four toes (long/lung), except for imperial ones (ryong), who have five. Three toed dragons (ryu) come from Japan and Indonesia.


There are nine types of Chinese dragons. 
-Dragons who guard the realms of the gods are called Tian-Lung.
-Dragons who guard treasure are called Fucang-Lung.
-A dragon who can control rivers and streams is called a Ti-Lung.
-A spiritual dragon has a four toed and a five toed form, and the latter can only worn as an emblem if you are the Emperor. As a five toed dragon it is an Imperial Dragon, and both forms of this dragon are called Shen-Lung. 
-Ying-Lung means 'winged dragon'.
-Jiao-Lung means 'horned dragon'.
-Pan-Lung means 'coiled dragon'
-Huang-Lung means 'yellow dragon'. A yellow dragon once rose out of a river and showed a guy called Fuxi how to write, giving the secrets of letters to humankind.
-And the Lung Wang, the dragon king. In some stories there is a Lung Wang for each of the four directions: Green in the East, White in the West, Black in the North and Yellow in the South. They also represented seasons: Green for spring, White for autumn, Black for winter and Yellow for summer.  
In addition, there are the sons of dragons. There are nine frequently mentioned in myths, but more do exist. The come in many forms, from turtles to clams. Chinese dragons are considered masculine and are allied with the Yang force, in the same way a phoenix is allied with the Yin.


Japanese dragons come in two main groups:
-Ryu, a sea dragon that lives out at sea (Ryujin is one of these. She is a pale white dragon who controls the tides)
-Tatsu, which lives on the land. Tatsus are smaller than Ryus, but have large wings.
There are also dragon-birds, called Hai Ryio. There are bird-shaped, but have large dragon heads and webbed wings.


 In the Han dynasty, a guy called Wang Fu wrote a poem to describe the nine main features of a Lung:

His horns resemble that of a stag, his head that of a camel, his eyes those of a demon, his neck that of a snake, his belly that of a clam, his scales that of a carp, his claws those of an eagle, his soles that of a tiger, his ears those of a cow.

Spyro

[Dragons in games and films]

Old and new Spyro. The one in the background is from
The Legend of Spyro, the one in the foreground
 is from the first games. Personally, I prefer the old one.

Spyro is one of the most famous dragons in the media. He is a purple dragon, always accompanied by his friend, a dragonfly by the name of Sparx. Sparx is like an extention of his soul: changing colour whenever Spyro took damage and things. Well anyhow, in the early games, Spyro is friends with an absent-minded cheetah-person called Hunter, and later friends with a once-evil rabbit called Bianca, who can do magic. There is often a bear in the games called Moneybags, who is a miser as his name suggests. ( there was also a n orange dragon called Flame who was Spyro's greatest fan, and a pink dragon called Ember, who fancied Spyro. A helpful fairy called Zoe also made a frequent appearence in games)
Other characters in the early games include Sheila a kangaroo, Sergeant Byrd a penguin, Bently a yeti and Agent 9, a space monkey. The dragons in the dojo are the Elders, and their names are Tomas, Magnus, Titan, Astor, Red (occasionally evil), Cho-lei and Sensei. 

The characters from 'The Legend of Spyro'.

In the reboot of Spyro, Sparx can speak English (in the old games he spoke like a kazoo) and Spyro is an innexperienced yound dragon who gains elemental powers, guided by the four guadians: Ignitus, Volteer, Cyril and Terrador. His enemy is The Dark Master, and in the first game he fights Cinder, who eventually turns out to be good, just corrupted by dark magic.




Games Starring Spyro
The first trilogy was created by Insomniac Games (they made Ratchet and Clank. They created my childhood ^_^ )
Spyro the Dragon Dragon's live in peace until a dragon mocks a sinister person called Gnasty Gnork on live television. Gnasty Gnork then freezes all of dragonkind in crystals, excepts for Spyro, who nimbly dodged the spell. He then has to un-freeze all of the dragons.
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! AKA Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer The Cheetah-people in Avalar run into some trouble when a wizard called Ripto moves in and starts breaking things. Spyro helps.
Spyro: Year of the Dragon Dragon eggs are stolen! Spyro must gather them back, while discovering an ancient realm once inhabited by dragons, but it isn't anymore.


And then there were more, developed by other people, such as
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly Ripto has a cunning plan to STEAL ALL OF THE DRAGONFLIES. But something goes wrong in his evil spell, and only a magic purple dragon can collect all of the little critters again, using his bubble breath!
Spyro: A Hero's Tale All of the Spyro characters come together to fight evil.
Spyro: Shadow Legacy Spyro is learning some impressive dragon skills at the Dojo, when he wakes up and discovers the world is full of sinister beasts. he soon learns that he can phase between reality and the Shadow Realm.


And then they re-booted it, gave Spyro a new voice and a new history, and made 'The Legend of Spyro'.
TLoS: A New Beginning  The dark forces close in on a dragon temple, and the elemental guardians have only a few moments to save just one egg, a sacred purple dragon egg. Spyro grows up under the illusion he is a dragonfly, until he breathes fire at some apes, and wonders off on a journey of discovery. He then has to save three elemental dragons
TLoS: The Eternal Night Cinder, the once evil- now good friend of Spyro's tries to wonder away in the middle of the night. Spyro follows her to discover that the temple is under attack. A vision alerts him that The Eternal Night is coming.
TLoS: Dawn of The Dragon After three years of being encased in a crystal, Spyro, Cinder and Sparx awake to find that the world has changed, and only they can save it. The can also fly now, which is good.


And then Skylanders happened, and I have not played any of the Skylander games, so I cannot tell you what they are about.

Ciruelo Cabral

[Dragon artist]
Ciruelo Cabral paints fantastic dragons and writes books about them - he also does brilliant calenders.
He was born in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1963. He moved to Spain in 1987, and he lives by the Mediterranean Sea with his family.
His website is www.dac-editions.com
[any images by him have been removed from this website because I don't know how copyright laws work.]

Anne Stokes

[Dragon artist]

Anne Stokes draws fantasy and gothic art that is used on T-shirts, notebooks, necklaces and similar merchandise and she draws fantastic dragons.
For the informative part of this post I can say little more than that she lives in Leeds in Yorkshire in England, and is a professional artist. Here is a link to her website: http://www.annestokes.com/
To the right there is a video interview of her.
[any images by her have been removed from this website because I don't know how copyright laws work.]

Pennykettle Dragons

[Dragons in Books] 
The author Chris d'Lacy has written many books about dragons, the most famous ones, 'The Last Dragon Chronicles'*, are about many things: legendary polar bears, ethereal thought-beings from space, creative and destructive energy and squirrels. 'The Dragons of Wayward Crescent' are books for younger readers introducing them to characters mentioned in TLDC. The book 'Rain and Fire' is a guide to the series by the author's wife, and explains things nice and clearly. 


The Clay Dragons
Elizabeth Pennykettle is a lady who makes clay dragons which are actually alive. In 'The Fire Within' we learn about the creative auma, a delicate force that animates the clay, turning the quirky semi-bipedal, four-winged, large eared, spiky tailed green ornaments into the noble heroes of the series. When Liz the potter makes a clay dragon she takes it to her studio, the enigmatic 'Dragon's Den' and the creature is 'kindled' by two other dragons, Gawain and Guinevere. The dragon is also given a little bit of a melted snowball (later revealed to be ice from the Artic, pure 'white fire', the frozen fire tear of the last dragon, Gawain.) and it comes alive. The creature also needs to be named, and the name has to be something starting with 'G'. G represents the tail of Godith, the mighty shedragon who created the universe with one breath (The Big Bang). To have G (a tail curling around with a triangular tip) at the start of your name is a mark of respect. Any name starting with 'G' will awaken a clay dragon, even if it is merely a confused bundle of words, which the protagonist of the story finds out when he is asked to name an unusual dragon and he hesitates and says "Golly... Gosh... I can't think of a name..." and the dragon awakens, and is forever known as Gollygosh.
There are different types of clay dragons with different abilities:  G'reth can grant wishes, Glade is a mood dragon, there is a network of listening dragons, Gretel is a potions dragon, and Gadzooks is one of the most special dragons as he is a writing dragon.
Clay dragons love snow and are fascinated by it, as snow is like the frozen fire tear of Gawain. Sitting on windows is therefore one of their favorite things to do. They say 'hrrr' when they are happy, and sometimes when they are annoyed. They communicate in 'hrrr's. 
If you make a clay dragon sad, it will cry out a fire tear. Within the tear is the essence of the dragon.


The Natural Dragons
The term 'Natural Dragon' refers to BIG dragons, like Gawain, the last titanic dragon to fly the Earth. The dragons in The Last Dragon Chronicles are huge, and until Dark Fire they sleep beyond death under hills and islands. Like the clay dragons, their 'fire within', or 'auma' can be cried out in a fire tear. When this happens, the dragon's soul trickles through the ground and makes its way to the centre of the Earth, to The Fire Eternal. Without a soul, the dragon's body turns into rock or clay. Dragons are closely linked to the Earth Goddess Gaia, which is why they return to their basic elements when they die.
However, if a dragon's fire tear does not go into the ground the soul can be preserved. All the events in The Last Dragon Chronicles centre around an ancient story about a girl called Guinevere and her love for the last dragon on Earth, and the preservation of his fire tear.
In the books there are aliens called The Fain. They live to 'commingle' with other creatures: for their minds to melt together. Their ultimate aim in life is to 'commingle' with a dragon. This is why, later on in the series, the Fain try to reintroduce dragons to Earth.
Natural Dragons have four legs, two wings, and come in a variety of colours with different scale patterns and head crests. Their auma is pure creative energy, so each dragon looks a lot different from the next one.
All dragons in the series have triagnular scalene eye sockets, and all of them have a triangular scale at the end of their tail called an icosele.


Other Dragon-ish creatures in the books
-Darklings. They are made with obsidian instead of clay, and dark fire instead of white fire. Ravens can also morph into them.
-Firebirds. They are the Co:Pern:Ica's answer to the Pennykettle dragons. Their names begin with 'A' in honour of Agawin.


*
The Fire Within ~ Mostly about David Rain moving in with the Pennykettles and learning about Liz and Lucy's eccentric dragon-based beliefs. He writes a story about squirrels for Lucy, and the story concentrates on the dramatic lives of the local squirrels.
Icefire ~ The world is turned up-side down from the safe domestic drama of the first book to a world of witches, bears and real dragons.
Fire Star ~ David goes on a trip to the Artic, whilst writing a story about polar bears. A large orange star appears in the sky, heralding a change in ages.
The Fire Eternal ~ Life without David, strange goings-on and aliens.
Dark Fire ~ DRAGONS RETURN TO EARTH.
Fire World ~ Set in a parallel dimension, about the friendship of a young boy called David and his friend Rosa in the mysterious Librarium, and the secrets of Project 42. 
The Fire Ascending ~ I have yet to read this.

Dragonology

[Dragons in books]
The Dragonology series, made by Templar Publishing, is a series of 'factual' books accompanied by a mini-series of role playing books, a trilogy of short novels and a board game. The franchise is huge and popular. Dragonology combines popular myths and represents the dragons from the stories as actual creatures, with details on habitat, nests and diets of the various animals. The books explain how to become member of the SASD (Secret and Ancient Society of Dragonologists) by showing you how to study and converse with dragons. They are lavishly illustrated by Wayne Anderson, Douglas Carrel, Helen Ward and Chris Forsey.
The dragons mentioned in the books are:
-The European Dragon (Draco occidentalis magnus), a classic 'western dragon' which breaths fire and is six limbed: two wings and four legs.
-The Frost Dragon (Draco occidentalis maritimus), a cousin of the European dragon, just more frosty-looking and breaths ice.
- The Knucker (Draco troglodytes), a four-limbed serpent believed to be the inspiration for the Lampton Worm.
-The Tibetan Lung (Draco montana), an orange oriental dragon from the Himalayas.
-The Lindworm (Draco serpentalis), is a two-legged serpent.
-Asian Lung (Draco orientalis), an oriental dragon.
-The Wyvern (Draco africanus), giant four limbed dragon: two wings two legs, which snacks upon elephants in Africa.
-The Amphithere (Draco americanus), a feathered winged serpent. 
-The Marsupial Dragon (Draco marsupialis), a kangaroo dragon complete with pouch.
There are other dragons mentioned in the series. The books are useful in introducing you to the basic myths and dragon stereotypes around the world.
A link to Templar Publishing's website: http://www.ologyworld.com/

Basilisk (and cockatrice)

[Dragon-like creature]

Some people consider the basilisk a kind of dragon, or a close relative of the dragon. Those who read the Dragonology books know it to be the shape-shifting Draco basiliskos, those who enjoy myths know they were chicken-snakes that a man called Patrick had to rid an island of. Harry Potter fans will remember a giant snake, and herpetologists will think of a small cousin of the iguana with a fancy crest.

Before going into the common mythology of the basilisk, and the cockatrice, I'd like to say that 'basilisk' means 'king of reptiles' (in Greek it means 'little king'). This is why, the Jesus Lizard (for it can run on water) is named the green basilisk for it has a crest in the shape of a crown (its latin name is Basiliscus plumifrons). The first basilisk was described in the first century AD. It was a snake with a crown. (drawn by a guy called Athanasius Kircher in 1600s). King of Reptiles. It lived in the deserts of North Africa.

However, later pictures copied from the first picture made it so that the crown of the snake was a crest, rather like a chicken's. Then the basilisk got more and more chicken attributes, until there was a wealth of snake-chicken hybrids in Mediaeval art. They spread from Northern Africa to Western Europe. The more cockerel-shaped versions of the basilisk were renamed cockatrices. 

Some basilisks had a variety of numbers of limbs.

Basic Basilisk rules:

-Gaze can kill.

-Breath can kill

-Venomous bit can kill

-Weasels are naturally resistant to Basilisk bites/breath/gaze, and can attack them.

- Rue has similar resistance.

-The eggs are laid by roosters, rather than hens. This usually occurs when Sirius the Dog Star is in the sky.

-They are sometimes nursed to be hatched by toads, or sometimes adders.

-The best way to kill a cockatrice or basilisk is to let it see its reflection

Myths:

On a island somewhere in the Atlantic a cockerel laid an egg on a dung heap, under the Dog Star. A grass snake within the dung heap took the creature into its brood, until it hatched a week later. The creature was small and looked like a chicken, except for its long scaled tail which ended in a snake's head. With four pairs of eyes it looked around the snake nest and killed all of the baby snakes with its glare. Then it dug itself out of the dung heap and killed the nearby birds, and breathed on the grass and nettles until they withered. After a day, animals knew to fear it, and were soon all hiding underground. The basilisk laid an egg (SOMEHOW) and within a month the island was overrun by basilisks. People hid in their homes and animals were either killed or underground. 
One day, a knight rode out with his eyes covered with rue branches, as were the eyes of his horse. Although this made them blind, it made sure they could not look into the eyes of a basilisk. Following the sounds of the beast's screeches he speared one, but the creature's unholy blood was splattered on him during its death throes and he died.
A man called Patrick was washed up onto the shore of the island after escaping pirates by jumping off the side of his ship. A villager ushered him inside her house and explained the situation about the basilisks. Patrick decided to cover his clothes with mirrors and broken glass, and then he blindfolded himself with rue branches and walked out into the silent village, then beyond that into the wilderness the basilisks had made when the plants withered under their foul breath. As he walked blindly over the island the mirrors tinkled, attracting the attention of the basilisks. They ran at him, spitting venom and hissing, just to stop dead as they saw their reflections. The island was soon free of the menace.


Another myth was set in the Middle Ages, in England. The town of Wherwell in Hampshire a small chicken-like creature was hatched by a toad in Wherwell Priory. The nuns of the Priory did not know what it was, and thought it was a deformed bird so they nurtured it, hoping it would 'get better'. After a few nuns died when the newborn cockatrice opened its eyes at them it soon became clear that it was a deadly beast. The cockatrice was confined to the cellar, as no one could approach it without dropping dead. A servant boy who had heard a lot of stories knew the hissing snake-bird for what it was, and lowered a mirror into the celler. The cockatrice died. 


Similar creatures: 
-The inkhomi in central Africa is a deadly snake that kills using similar weaponry to the basilisk.
-A snake with wattles that made rooster noises reported by an English Naturalist during his visit to Jamaica in 1845. 
-The skoffin, an Icelandic beast that could only be killed by another skoffin, or a bullet with a cross carved onto it. 

Jessica 'Neondragon' Peffer

[dragon artists]

The Neondragon writes books on instructions for drawing dragons, the fantastic Dragonart books.
 And nope, I cannot give a mini-biography because there is nothing much in the 'about the author' section of the books I have. However, here is a website link:
http://neondragonart.com/
and here is a Deviant Art page:
http://neondragon.deviantart.com/


Her dragons are beautifully proportioned, and often drawn in a slightly-cartoonish way. Most of her drawings are based on sketches she does, which she then digitally edits using Adobe Photoshop.
Below is a video by her about drawing dragons.

John Howe

[Dragon artist]

John Howe illustrates book covers, has done work for the Lord of The Rings films and has written a few books on how to paint fantasy animals.
He was born in Vancouver in 1957, and grew up in British Columbia. He studied art in the Ecole das Arts Decoratifs de Stratsbourg. He lives in Switzerland with his wife Fataneh (who also illustrates books) and their son Dana.
His website is here: http://www.john-howe.com/

His dragons often have long coils and fantastic fins, and often have expressive, alien faces.
Here is a video about him:

[any images by him have been removed from this website because I don't know how copyright laws work.]

Dragons from Alagaesia

[Dragons in Books]
Alagaesia is a land made up by Christopher Paolini (although much of it seems to have been copied... They are still enjoyable books) and is home to many fantasy races, including the now critically endangered dragons.
THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS CONCERNING THE BOOKS. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ BRISINGR, BOOK 3, SOME THINGS MAY BE RUINED.  Also, there are many words which should have accents but don't as I am rubbish at typing.


The dragons hatch from eggs the same colour as their scales. Since an ancient bond between an elven boy called Eragon and a white dragon called Bid'daum, the dragons have required a special person to touch an egg to make it hatch. (throughout Alagaesian history dragons have been known to make powerful soul-changing magic, such as creating bonds between unborn dragons and humans and elves, and later dwarves and urgals, and hiding secrets from the entire world by brainwashing people's very essence: the most mentioned of the dragon's magic world-altering spells are the dragon rider bond thing and the un-naming of all the dragons who helped the Forsworn).
The colour of a dragon indicates the colour of magic used by their elven or human partner; an example being Saphira, a blue dragon, being the same colour as Eragon's spells. When a dragon hatches it gives its partner a silver hand, a 'gedway ignasia' or an Argetlam. (in the film adaptation of Eragon the silver palm is replaced by a small dragon symbol) . The connection between dragon and rider opens the rider's mind to be able to reach outwards for magical energy and other minds, so dragon and rider can communicate telepathically.
Alagaesian dragons are six limbed, have bat-like wings, impossibly shiny scales. Their claws and teeth are ivory white, as are the spines along their backs. In fights within the books a dragon sometimes grabs onto another dragon's crest of horns. The two main artistic interpretations come from the two main book covers: those done by John Jude Palencar and those done by Martin Bergstrom. They grow at a very fast rate: Saphira hatched kitten-size and at the end of the first book she was the size of a large horse.
The dragon's soul is kept in a gem found in the chest, its heart of hearts the Eldunari. It is the same colour as the dragon, and when the dragon's body dies the soul goes to the gem and hides in stasis. From the gem it can choose to pass into the void (die forever basically) or it can continue to exist for millions of years.
Despite a mental link between dragon and rider, dragons often have different and alien thoughts, which is demonstrated in Brisingr as the dragon Saphira describes a morning flight by naming the winds thus: 'The wind-of-morning-heat-above-flat-land, which was different from the wind-of-morning-heat-above-hills, shifted.' She describes Eragon as 'Partner-of-mind-and-heart'. 
You can find out more about Alagaesia and the books about it, The Inheritance Cycle, here:  http://www.alagaesia.com/ 


The main dragons in the books are:
Saphira - Eragon's blue dragon. Her existence re-starts the legacy of the Dragon Riders.
Shruikan - Galbatorix's black dragon. Tortured to be the servant of the evil king.
Gleadr - Oromis's golden dragon. He survived the fall of the Riders, and lives in secrecy in Du Weldenvarden - the elve's forest.
Thorn - Murtagh's red dragon. Sworn to do Galbatorix's bidding.

Dragons From The Barbaric Archipelago

[Dragons in Books]
The 'How to Train your Dragon' Books by Cressida Cowell are set in the Barbaric Archipelago. 
In the books dragons are used as hunting companions, not dissimilar to a combination of your falcon, dog and horse all rolled into one. The stories are about a young boy called Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the 3rd, and his disobedient small green Common or Garden Dragon, Toothless. His best friends, Fishlegs and Camicazi, get up to all sorts of adventures.
The dragons speak a language called Dragonese, which sounds like growls when spoken by a dragon but sounds like crazy half-words and amusing squeaks when spoken by a human. To say Hello, you say 'Howdeedoodythere', and to say thankyou you say 'Pishyou'. The dragonese changes from language to language, so if you get a German copy of 'How to Train Your Dragon', the words are slightly different.
The dragons in the books are:
Common Or Garden/ Basic Brown - small dragons which are utterly average.
Gronkle - Ugly dragon covered in spikes and warts.
Monstrous Nightmare - sleek murderous killers with long talons and teeth
Seadragonis Giganticus Maximus/ Sea Dragon - the largest dragons mentioned in the books, a giant leviathan. 
Electrosquirms - The Barbaric archipelago's answer to electric eels and fireflies rolled into one.
Deadly Nadders - often mentioned, but never fully described
Stink Dragons - tigers and skunks made dragon-shaped
Sabre Toothed Driver Dragons - large white dragons that pull sledges
The Doomfang - giant black dragon, not too dissimilar from the Sea Dragon
Venomous Vorpent - small critter with a fatal bite, the only cure to which is the potato.
Nanodragons - really small dragons
Sharkworms - crocodile sharks designed to give younger readers nightmares.


There are others, and the list goes on. For information about dragons of the Barbaric Archipelago, visit this website: http://www.howtotrainyourdragonbooks.com/