DADA!!

[shakiracrazy.livejournal.com]

Some more Dragon info and pictures! Sorry about the weekend starting late, I'm sick and it's not fun :\ Anyways, to clear things up, weekends are basically just dates when I'm going to post a lot of fun things for you to do, contest winners will be announced, trivia, chatting, etc. :)

Western Dragons
Element : Earth and Water

Description: The Western type of dragon has been variously described. He appears to be created from parts of various creatures, having eagle's feet, two bat-like wings, lion's forelimbs, reptile’s head, fish's scales, antelope's horns and a serpentine form of spade tail, which occasionally extended to the head.He can be of any color and some species can even change the color of their skin just like a chameleon. They usually breath fire but this is not a general trait.

Powers: Those dragons usually have huge hoards of gold and jewels hidden in their lairs. They are known to live more than 300 years, some western dragons are even immortal.

Friend/Foe: They do not eat too often and can live on a sheep or ox once a month. They are usually portrayed as evil, mean, and bloodthirsty which is a consequence of the demonization exerced by the Church.

Famous: The end of the dragon came with Christianity as the Church declares them as enemies and send hords of knights to struggle against them. As a result, most dragons have been destroyed (and even more knights have been burned).

Magic: Eating a dragons' heart will give the the power of understanding the language of animals, eating the dragons' tongue enables to win any argument, and rubbing the dragons' blood on skin will protect against stabs

The Ouroboros
Aka: oroborus, uroboros, and oureboros.

Description: a serpent whose end is his beginning as he endlessly eats his own tail.

Origin: The Serpent biting its own tail is first seen as early as 1600 years BC in Egypt. From there it moved to the Phonecians and then to the Greeks, who called it the Ouroboros, which means devouring its tail

Famous: The serpent biting its tail is found in other mythologies as well. In Norse mythology Jörmungandr circles the entire world whith his huge body., in Hindu mythology the snake circles the tortoise which supports the four elephants that carry the world.

Symbol: the serpent biting, devouring, eating its own tail symbolises the cyclic Nature of the Universe: creation out of destruction, Life out of Death. The ouroboros eats its own tail to sustain its life, in an eternal cycle of renewal. It is also an emblem of immortality. Its endless representation with its tail in its mouth (Ouroboros), and the constant renewal of its skin and vigor, enliven the symbols of continued youth and eternity. Alchemically, the ouroboros is also used as a purifying glyph. He keeps the cosmic waters under control, and is symbolic of the cyclical nature of alchemical work. He is the basilisk, the alchemical serpent *insert Harry Potter connection here*.

Hydra
Origin: Greece

Description: many headed dragon who either have wings, or wingless. When one head is cut off, two more grow from the spurting blood.

Famous: the Hydra of Lernea, the Beast of the Apocalypse

My note: You can also find a Hydra in Homer's epic poem The Odyssey. Or when you watch Disney's "Hercules", you take your pic ^^;;

Info found here.



Falkor the luck dragon from "Neverending Story". Courtesy of varda__elbereth


Falkor the luck dragon from "Neverending Story". Courtesy of varda__elbereth


Western Dragon. Courtesy of varda__elbereth


Western Dragon. Courtesy of varda__elbereth


"Workers set up a giant Dragon lantern June 18 in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. Hong Kong is racing to bathe itself with lights, decorations, countdown clocks and Chinese dragons in preparation for its July 1 historic handover to Chinese sovereignty." Courtesy of _becca_


Chinese Dragon. Courtesy of _becca_


Golden Chinese Dragons at Long Tan Park, Beijing. Courtesy of _becca_

More dragon pictures can be found here. Courtesy of medens_lupus.


Book Recommendations:
Graeme Base's Dicovery of Dragons, which tells the tales of three different individuals from different backgrounds, all of whom discover a species of dragon. It is amusing and cleverly pieced together with great illustrations and tiny facts are sewn into it every now and again so it isn't just a fictional work.

A website titled Dragon's Forest has samples of the dragons drawn by Base, however the quirky stories of the discovery of the dragons, and other pictures of the dragons which are not shown on the website can be found in The Book, which I really do highly recomend to anyone who is exceedingly interested (highly intrigued... obsessed?) about dragons.
Courtesy of idleclockwork

Also, to add to the fun of our Dragon Weekend, I remembered an old game I used to play when I was younger. One person starts with a sentence, then another person adds on another sentence, just one. Eventually, the game will be over and a story will be made. The funny part is, you can't see the previous sentence (screened comments). So I'm going to post a sentence, and each of you add in a sentence. Tomorrow, I'll post our finished dragon story :D Try putting some thought into it- it can be tricky online.

Starting sentence: Wally didn't mean to be ugly, but when he compared his red scales to his brothers and sisters' fluffly fur, he felt like he was created from the ugliest dirt in the world.


~Rachel