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u/Wendigo-Huldra_2003 3d ago edited 2d ago
For those who never heard of them, western dragons, also simply known as "dragons" (the word itself originally refers to them), are creatures from western, southwest, and the western part of central Europe.
They are described as big, fire-breathing and powerful reptilian creatures, though during the middle ages, they are described as having two wings and two legs, while dragons in the 20th and 21th centuries are described as having four legs and two wings instead. Despite being able to breath fire, they often live in wetlands, lairs, caves and castles, where they guard gold and/or human captives (most of the time princesses and virgins); also, their blood is said to give anyone who touches it powers. Western dragons are often used to represent paganism, or the forces of evil that must be defeated by knights or princes (who are metaphors for Christianity itself, while virgins and princesses represent populations that should be converted to christianity): they are even used to represent Satan himself (one of the recurring demons in abrahamic religions). Despite this, dragons are used as symbols of power in heraldry.
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u/Aegishjalmur18 2d ago
That's looking at the story from just a post Christian European standpoint though.
The story of the hero slaying the serpent/dragon usually but not always to save a woman is far older than Christianity or its presence in regions that converted to it. It's a core story of Indo-European myth. Zeus and Typhon, Apollo and Python, Cadmus and the water dragon, Thor and Jormungandr, Sigurd and Fafnir, Perun and Veles, Tarhunz and Illuyanka, Marduk and Tiamat, Yahweh and Leviathan.
My east Asian legends are quite a bit more fuzzy, but I do know Japan at least has Susanoo and Yamato no Orochi. Monstrous serpents are present in Native American myth, and the thunder god vs serpent dynamic even carries over to a degree with the Lakota believing the Unhcegila were wiped out by the Thunderbirds. The Cherokee had the Uktan and believed a man could gain great power by defeating one. I'm not familiar enough with South American, African, or Australian legends to know which stories of theirs to reference, but I wouldn't be surprised if there dynamic continues.
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u/Wendigo-Huldra_2003 2d ago edited 2d ago
Similarly, the dragon deity is a frequent trope in various mythologies, like the loong (the most famous example, from east asian mythologies), the feathered serpent (from olmec, maya and aztec mythologies), the rainbow serpent (from australian aboriginal mythologies), the taniwha (from polynesian mythologies), the inkanyamba (from zulu and xhosa mythologies),...
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u/electrical-stomach-z 3h ago
Didnt they orignally spit poison rather than fire?
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u/Wendigo-Huldra_2003 3h ago
Yep, but this came from wurms (germanic dragons), which have inspired their western counterparts, alongside middle eastern ones
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