Concluding section of the seventh chapter of historian Frederick William Hackwood's study of dragonlore.
FULL ILLUSTRATED TEXT
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So repelling to human nature are most representatives of the reptile family, and perhaps none more so than the crocodile, of all known living creatures the most analogous to the mythical dragon, it requires a spirit as exuberant and a conceit as quaint as that of Lewis Carroll to invest the subject with any tinge of humour ; as thus :
"How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale !
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws !"
So largely has the dragon idea entered into our life and literature, quite a number of English words and names have been derived from this source. In bygone centuries, when the mysteries of the weather and other physical phenomena were little understood, hurricanes and storms, earthquakes and fiery meteors, were attributed to the influence and actions of evil-spirits such as "flying dragons of the ayre."
In some early-printed books husbandmen are warned to note how certain vapours of a dry and fiery nature may gather into an ascending heap in the air, and, being beaten back with violent agitation, take on the form of a writhing dragon, from the nostrils of which will shoot forth kindling flames of fire.
The name "fire-drake" - in which the term "drake" signifies "dragon" - has been given to the will-o'-the-wisp, as country-folk call a natural light sometimes seen floating over marshy ground, and which often misleads unwary travellers.
Thus an old poet very tragically says :
"So I have seene a fire-drake glide along
Before a dying man to point his grave."
While as showing the connection between the terms "drake" and "dragon," we may quote the poet Drayton :
"By the hissing of the snake,
The rustling of the fire-drake," etc.
The idea of a dragon being able to spit out scorching fire and flame is preserved in several of our English words. A "flap-dragon" was an old-time strong drink in which small bodies (eatable) were set alight and floated in the liquor, and the skilful toper has to swallow them blazing hot ; somewhat in the same way as children at Christmas parties play at "snap-dragon" by snapping at blazing raisins in burning brandy to eat them.
Soldiers known as "dragoons" were so called because originally these regiments were armed with muskets called dragoons, a kind of gun which spouted out fire and actually had their muzzles fashioned in the shape of a dragon's head. On their helmets they wore a dragon badge.
It will be seen what a favourite subject with ancient story-tellers the dragon was by its introduction into so many old tales, legends, and romances. And then there was the funny tale of the giant who used dragon-flesh for bait when he went a-fishing :
"His angle rod made of sturdy oak ;
His line a cable, which in storms ne'er broke ;
His hook he baited with a dragon's tail,
And sat on a rock, and bobbed for whale."
We have a way of speaking proverbially of "dragon's teeth," representing them as the seed of strife, as something which is sown and in due time grows up as men armed for deadly warfare.
The idea is borrowed from Greek mythology, in which we read that Cadmos slew the dragon that guarded the Well of Ares, and then sowed some of its teeth, from which sprang up men called Spartans, who all killed each other except five, who became the ancestors of the Thebans.
Those teeth which Cadmos did not sow came into the possession of Æetes, King of Colchis, who enjoined upon Jason, when he set forth upon his tasks, to sow these teeth and not neglect to slay the armed warriors who grew therefrom. The idea underlying the phrase, "sowing dragon's teeth," is that of pursuing some line of action that must eventually lead to armed conflict.
Quite a number of English place-names contain the word "worm" as Wormbridge, Wormsley, Wormside, Wormhill, and Wormhlaew (Wormelow). There is a similar group of names in part of Derbyshire. Other examples occur elsewhere, and there is a River Worm, a name that in this instance may be allusive to a winding course.
The word "worm," although cognate with the Norse ormr, "a serpent," seems in early and mediaeval times to have meant a reptile of almost any kind, doubtless from the kind of motion common to most animals of the class. The real serpent and the legendary dragon were, until the revival of classical learning, included under the common phrase the "cruelle worme," as many of our ancient English ballads show.
In Merlin's Prophecy "a worm with fiery breath" was among the threatened plagues.
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CH 7 (3/5) - The Dragon in Literatureby HackwoodHistory503 views
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