Dragons are mythical creatures. They breathe fire in our stories and fly
through our imaginations. Sometimes they guard piles of gold and are
slain by knights. In the old days, people used to believe in dragons.
They were even displayed in maps! The poor dragons were blamed for many
unpleasant things. In fact, most things that couldn’t be explained were
blamed on dragons, such as disease, failing crops, bad weather and even
war. Dragons as mythical creatures have appeared in most ancient
cultures and traditions. They could be a force of good or evil, and live
virtually anywhere: in lakes or the sea, in thunderclouds or caves. A
common feature of dragons was that they could breathe fire and had
enormous power. In many cultures, dragons were seen as the enemy of
people. The Scandinavian hero Beowulf slew the monster Grendel, and also
Grendel’s mother that attacked him. Many years later, he defeats a
dragon and gets mortally wounded in the battle. In an ancient Babylonian
story, the god Marduk famously conquers the dragon and monster of
primaeval chaos, Tiamat.
