Dragons to dragoons

Q. Dragons

A. The mythical dragon, as we all know, is a winged lizard with a serpent's tail, but the word comes from the Greek drakon, which is related to drakos, meaning eye: dragons were creatures who watched over and guarded.

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Q. Watchers

A. Damsels in medieval romances were often guarded by dragons, and the hero had to overcome these beasts in order to reach the prize. Treasure, too, was traditionally watched over by a serpent of some description. Recent examples of this in literature include the dragon Smaug in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and Eustace Clarence Scrubb in C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn-Treader, who turned into a dragon after putting on an amulet he found in a hoard of treasure.

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Q. And Satan

A. Ecclesiastics in the Middle Ages saw the dragon as the symbol of sin in general and paganism in particular. This is derived from the book of Revelations, where Satan is termed 'the great dragon', as well as in Genesis, in which Satan appeared to Eve as a serpent.

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Q. Who were the dragon-slaying saints

A.

St Philip the Apostle destroyed a huge dragon at Hierapolis

St Martha killed the terrible dragon called Tarasque at Aix-la-Chapelle

St Florent killed a dragon which haunted the Loire.

St Cado, St Maudet and St Paul did similar feats in Brittany.

St Keyne of Cornwall slew a dragon.

St Romain of Rouen destroyed the huge dragon called La Gargouille, which ravaged the Seine

and St Michael, St George, St Margaret, St Samson and St Clement of Metz all killed dragons

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Q. And Arthur Pendragon

A. The dragon was the national symbol on the war banner of the ancient Britons, and a pen-dragon was a kind of overall war leader appointed in times of danger to bring the disparate tribes together. The word is most often associated with the legend of King Arthur.

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Q. And

A.

The blind dragon - one who plays gooseberry or acts as a chaperone

A flying dragon - a meteor

The Green Dragon - a pub name commemorating St George's slaying of the dragon

Dragon's Hill - the hill in Berkshire where the legend says St George killed the dragon; in legend there is a place on the hill where nothing will grow, and this is where the blood of the dragon ran out

The Red Dragon - a pub name after Henry VII, who used the device for his standard at Bosworth Field

Dragon's Teeth - whatever causes people to rise in up arms; the allusion comes from the story of Jason and the Argonauts, when �ertes, the King of Colchis, forced Jason, as one of his trials, to sow dragon's teeth and slay the armed warriors that arose from the ground; so, to sow dragons' teeth is to stir up strife or war

Chase the dragon - smoke heroin

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Q. What about dragoons

A. Dragoons are so called because they were armed with 'dragons', short muskets which spouted out fire rather like the fabulous beast; the head of a dragon was often depicted on the muzzle of these guns

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Q. And dragonades

A. The Dragonades were series of religious persecutions by the French King Louis XIV; if a 'heretic' did not return to the Roman Catholic Church, they were left to the tender mercies of the

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Q. And the Komodo dragon

A. The world's largest living lizard, the Komodo dragon (varanus komodoensis), is an overgrown monitor lizard, which lives on Komodo Island and a few neighbouring islands of the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. Growing up to 3 metres (10 feet) in length and living up to 100 years, these creatures are formidable. Cannibals and man-eaters when necessity demands, their principal source of sustenance is carrion, which probably explains their tendency to suffer from appalling bad breath - maybe fire would be preferable.

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Q. Not to be confused with

A. A griffin - or griffon or gryphon: a mythical beast, half-lion, half-eagle, which these days appears on many coats of arms, including that of the City of London. You'll see griffins marking the City boundary on major thoroughfares, such as Bishopsgate and High Holborn. At first glance you could be forgiven for confusing one with a small dragon - especially as griffins, too, traditionally guarded hoards of treasure - but don't be fooled.

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See also the article on J.R.R. Tolkien

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For more on Phrases & Sayings click here

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By Simon Smith