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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.As far as our early ancestors are concerned, they probably first saw images of dragons on the shields & ships of the Norsemen carried images of dragons on their shields & ships. But the dragon mythology is known throughout the world in one form or another and the history goes back at least as far as the Sumerian civilisation. There are various possibilities including, big cats, predatory birds, serpents, lizards, and so on
In 1405 the villages of Bures & Wormingford in Essex were terrorised by a dragon.
"Close to the town of Bures, near Sudbury, there has lately appeared, to the great hurt of the countryside, a dragon, vast in body, with a crested head, teeth like a saw, and a tail extending to an enormous length. Having slaughtered the shepherd of a flock, it devoured many sheep....In order to destroy him, all the country people around were summoned. But when the dragon saw that he was again to be assailed with arrows, he fled into a marsh or mere and there hid himself among the long reeds, and was no more seen."
In this particular case, it is thought the dragon was a crocodile brought back to the UK by Richard the Crusader that later escaped.
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There was a mythical beast called the salamander which was believed to be able to live in fire. I don't know how our amphibious little friends got that name, since they are moisture-dependent creatures, unlike snakes and lizards (reptiles) that like to lie on hot rocks.
I've seen an illustrated book about dragon lore around the world. There do seem to be large reptilian creatures (not all of which breathe fire or fly, and only some of which swim) in many cultures' early belief systems, which makes one think there must have been some fairly widespread phenomenon which varied people interpreted in similar ways. I'm voting for dinosaur skeletons. Crocs and alligators are also possibilities. I suspect giant squid don't wash ashore often enough or in enough parts of the world to have spawned such ubiquitous myths, though I suppose it might have been more common in early human times.
100's or even 1000's of years ago dragons were supposed to have attacked brave knights and bring down mighty kingdoms but there is also the belief that in certain cultures dragons were called upon to defend a kingdom against evil spirits, this later stopped and gargoyles were put on churches and cathedrals to ward off evil spirits as well because as time went on more and more people stopped believing in huge fire breathing reptilians that lived in caves and volcanoes.
Read the description of one of God's creations , taken from the Book of Job. Job 40; 15-18 "15 Here, now, is Be�he�moth that I have made as well as you.
Green grass it eats just as a bull does.
16 Here, now, its power is in its hips,
And its dynamic energy in the tendons of its belly.
17 It bends down its tail like a cedar;
The sinews of its thighs are interwoven.
18 Its bones are tubes of copper;
AND the whole of Job 41; With particular reference to verses 19-23 " 19 Out of its mouth there go lightning flashes,
Even sparks of fire make their escape.
20 Out of its nostrils smoke goes forth,
Like a furnace set aflame even with rushes.
21 Its soul itself sets coals ablaze,
And even a flame goes forth out of its mouth.
22 In its neck lodges strength,
And before it despair leaps.
23 The folds of its flesh do cling together;
They are as a casting upon it, immovable.
AND EVEN A FLAME GOES FORTH OUT OF ITS MOUTH. ????