Facts and Lore about Dragons

The dragon is one of the most, if not the most, common mythical creatures in human folklore. Every culture from Asia to America, Australia to Albania (I fixed it, you happy?) has had its own version of the myth. This is one of the only mythical creatures to have been mentioned in the bible (several times in Revelations and Ezekiel, along with the Leviathan and unicorns).

English "dragon" derives (via Middle English, Old French, and Latin) from Dacian dracon, "serpent, dragon"; the Greek word derives from Indo-European *derk-, "to see", and may originally have meant something like "monster with the evil eye."Notwithstanding their folkloric associations, there is no etymological connection between dragons and the ghoulish figures known as draugar in Old Norse, who haunt rich burial mounds.

Dragons of Asia

There are several variations from country to country. The largest variations are in the European and Asian countries. Dragons in Asian mythology all have similar characteristics, whereas European dragons can differ a great deal. Asian dragon characteristics are most commonly a large, bearded serpent with an extremely long body, four legs, and typically has no wings.

Chinese Dragons, called Lóng or Lung, have four claws on each foot, unless it is used as a representation of the Emperor, in which case it has five claws. The dragons have many animal-like forms such as turtles, fish, and imaginary creatures, but they are most commonly depicted as snake-like with four legs. In yin and yang terminology, a dragon is yang and complements a yin fenghuang ("Chinese phoenix"). Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, hurricane, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it. With this, the Emperor of China usually used the dragon as a symbol of his imperial power and strength.

(Imperial Chinese, Typical Chinese, and Japanese Respectively)

Traditionally, the Japanese dragon, Ryu, is much the same as its Chinese counterpart, with the exception that it has three claws on each foot. Most Japanese ones are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water. The modern Japanese language has numerous "dragon" words, including indigenous tatsu from Old Japanese ta-tu, Sino-Japanese ryū or ryō 竜 from Chinese lóng 龍, nāga ナーガ from Sanskrit nāga, and doragon ドラゴン from English "dragon" (the latter being used almost exclusively to refer to the European dragon and derived fictional creatures)

The Naga

The Naga found in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism folklore is a serpent dragon, often depicted with five heads in a cobra-like hood. The heads are depicted either human or snake. Naga is the male form. The Female is referred to as Nagi or Nagini. Naga means “cobra” in Sanskrit. In the great epic Mahabharata, the depiction of nagas tends toward the negative. An epic calls them "persecutors of all creatures", and tells us "the snakes were of virulent poison, great prowess and excess of strength, and ever bent on biting other creatures" (Book I: Adi Parva, Section 20). At some points within the story, nagas are important players in many of the events narrated in the epic, frequently no more evil nor deceitful than the other protagonists, and sometimes on the side of good.

Kadru, the ancestral mother of snakes, made a bet with her sister Vinata, the stakes being that the loser would be enslaved to the winner. Eager to secure victory, Kadru requested the cooperation of her offspring in order to fix the bet so that Kadru would win. When her offspring balked at the request, Kadru grew angry and cursed them to die a fiery death in the snake-sacrifice of King Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit, who was the son of Abhimanyu the son of Arjuna. The king of the snakes Vasuki was aware of the curse, and knew that his brethren would need a hero to rescue them from it. He approached the renowned ascetic Jaratkaru with a proposal of marriage to a snake-goddess, Manasa, Vasuki's own sister. Out of the union of the ascetic and the snake-maiden was born "a son of the splendor of a celestial child." This son was named Astika, and he was to be the savior of the snakes

In Europe, the dragon is extremely diverse, having been culled from many countries, empires, and myths. The Scultone of Scandinavia is described much like a Basilisk, being able to kill its victims by looking at them. The Germanic Lindworms are similar in style to Asian dragons, except they either have wings and no legs or two legs and no wings. The Wyvern Is a serpent-like dragon with wings and only two legs, and are often depicted as guardians of castles or manors. They are most commonly used in heraldry to depict dragons.

In Welsh mythology, after a long battle (which the Welsh King Vortigern witnesses) a red dragon defeats a white dragon; Merlin explains to Vortigern that the red dragon symbolizes the Welsh, and the white dragon symbolizes the Saxons – thus foretelling the ultimate defeat of the English by the Welsh. The ddraig goch appears on the Welsh flag.

The most typical, widely recognized dragon (large, four-legged, winged lizards) are actually French. Authors tend often to present the dragon legends as symbol of Christianity's victory over paganism, represented by a harmful dragon. The French representation of dragons spans much of European history, and has even given its name to the dragoons, a type of cavalry. From 1066 for about six hundred years, French was the common tongue in England among the nobility, so it’s not unusual that much of French folklore was borrowed during that time. The French variant became the common European myth through the centuries, and from Europe was transplanted to America.

Slavic dragons are similar to the conventional European dragon, but multi-headed. They breathe fire and/or leave fiery wakes as they fly. In Slavic and related tradition, dragons symbolize evil. Specific dragons are often given Turkic names (see Zilant, below), symbolizing the long-standing conflict between the Slavs and Turks. However, in Serbian and Bulgarian folklore, dragons are defenders of the crops in their home regions, fighting against a destructive demon Ala, whom they shoot with lightning. (I know the picture is a Wyvern, but I couldn't find any examples of the Slavic dragon.)

The Dragon

Many European stories of dragons have them guarding a treasure hoard. Both Fafnir and Beowulf's dragon guarded earthen mounds full of ancient treasure. The treasure was cursed and brought ill to those who later possessed it.

The poem Beowulf describes a draca (dragon) also as wyrm (worm, or serpent) and its movements by the Anglo-Saxon verb bugan, "to bend", and says that it has a venomous bite; all of these indicate a snake-like form and movement rather than with a lizard-like or dinosaur-like body as in later belief (though the dragon of Beowulf does show several features that would later become popularized with dragons–namely, it breathes fire–lives underground, and collects treasure).

Thanks for Reading!

Sauce:
Wikipedia (Wikipedia has it's own resources you can check for yourself, making it a valid source. It's the entire point of Wikipedia.)
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/legends/the-dragon-in-folklore-legend.html
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/science-nature/where-did-dragons-come-from-23969126/
http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/ddl/ddl11.htm
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/mythic-creatures/dragons-creatures-of-power/asian-dragons

My other Albums:

The Black Dog: https://imgur.com/gallery/7PEio
Witchcraft: https://imgur.com/gallery/eOeiT
Vampires: https://imgur.com/gallery/40LAv
Werewolves: https://imgur.com/gallery/ugbAp
Halloween: https://imgur.com/gallery/oxyXt
Twelve True Tales: https://imgur.com/gallery/tF4ZC

Update! New Album is up: Mummies: https://imgur.com/gallery/Zkrmd

More to come!

***Edit: I read some of the comments and fixed the mistakes you guys mentioned.

******Update! Voodoo and Zombies: https://imgur.com/gallery/Y6nr2
Demons: https://imgur.com/gallery/8ysTE

Dragons

The dragon is one of the most, if not the most, common mythical creatures in human folklore. Every culture from Asia to America, Australia to Albania has had its own version of the myth. This is one of the only mythical creatures to have been mentioned in the bible (several times in Revelations and Ezekiel, along with the Leviathan and unicorns).

Read More: http://imgur.com/gallery/Vi9e8