Did Dragons Exist?

On of the things which always amazed me was the fact dragons seem to be depicted in every society. It does make one wonder where the idea for the first dragon came from? While the dragons may not look exactly alike in all societies and cultures there is no denying they are indeed dragons. Originally there was an idea put forward that ancient man had come across bones from a dinosaur and not knowing exactly what it had been, had developed the idea for the dragon. It does seem strange however every society would have suspected the bones were dragon bones. Some thought the idea for a dragon spread when the idea was first formed and every culture put their own spin on exactly what a dragon should look like. The idea of a dragon being this huge flying, fire breathing reptile was kept, but the features of the beast were altered as each culture decided what they should look like.

There still are those who think we will eventually find dragon bones, because dragons did actually exist. With all the new types of animals we discover every year there is always the possibility maybe dragons did exist no matter how remote this idea seems. It seems when dragons were first thought to be real the dragon traits became diversified between the Western dragon and the Asian dragon. Our word dragon comes from the Greek which meant a serpent of huge size or a water snake. Webster’s Dictionary describes it as “a mythical animal usually represented as a monstrous winged and scaly serpent or saurian with a crested head and enormous claws.” Were dragons always depicted the way we depict them in Western society? The answer to that question is no, they were usually much more snake like before the middle ages and closer in appearance to the Asian dragon.

There are some who think dragons were real and they point to many different sources of evidence to bolster their case. There is an account in ancient Egypt of a flying serpent. Petroglyphs exist which were created by ancient Native Americans which show dragons and they also appear on pottery and many other objects. The ancient story of Beowulf is believed to refer to a dragon when it refers to the creature Grendel which Beowulf fights. The Creation Museum now has a dragon exhibit. There are those examining the bible to see if there is a mention of dragons in it. There is a Hebrew word, tannin which is defined by the Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon as “serpent, dragon, and sea-monster.” This means when it is used in the bible it could possibly mean dragon. In English versions of the bible the word is never translated as dragon when maybe it should be, some believe. There are those who believe dragons existed, but died out just like the dinosaurs. Is it possible dragons were dinosaurs?

There is at least one more explanation for the ancient belief in dragons. We know ancient cultures had flame throwers. We think the first to use them were the Greeks in the first century, but what if an older civilization had constructed one and did what many ancient civilizations did and that is create a weapon which was in the shape of a fearsome animal, in this case a dragon. Might not this be the basis for the dragon legend? I think many of us have seen representations of fierce animals on the bows of ancient ships which were used as rams. The Vikings had dragon heads on the front of their ships. Many of the rams used against castle gates and such, depicted an animal head on them. An iron torture device was made in the shape of a bull and when someone was put into it, a fire was built under it creating an oven. Perhaps the most famous weapon of all was the wooden horse which fooled the Trojans and was responsible for destroying their city because it actually held a force of Greeks. Think of things this way, an ancient race is being attacked by a more advanced one and the advanced race is using a weapon shaped like a serpent or dragon which has some sort of animal face that holds a flame thrower and has soldiers under its body as it advances. Might not a primitive race believe this was an animal of some sort, or a dragon?

Here is something to chew on, over 200 sites in England where dragons were said to have been sighted throughout history have turned up dinosaur bones. It is suspected by some there might have been some species of dinosaurs which lived well past the age of the dinosaurs and threatened people and domestic animals and these attacks led to the stories of dragons. Where did these dinosaurs go? It is speculated they were wiped out over time by the humans who hunted them down. Herodotus the Greek historian wrote there was a place in Arabia near Buto which he went to, because he heard about winged serpents there and when he arrived he was shown their bones and spines and there were so many of them it was impossible to describe. He described the animals as a type of snake with wings without feathers like a wing of a bat. Alexander the Great claimed when he invaded India he saw a great dragon in a cave which hissed at him. He said people were worshiping it. Supposedly Morvidus, an English king from about 341 B.C. was spoken about by Geoffrey of Monmouth and he said a dragon had killed the king. There are other legends about dragons and paintings of Saint George slaying a dragon hang in many different cathedrals.

Are all these stories just fiction or are they true, or at least partially true? It seems like there are too many dragon stories for there not to be a seed of truth in them. Think about this, we have been talking about dragons since the beginning of time. It may be there were dragons living in our dim past and the stories about them were told and retold, after all an animal like a dragon would have been so scary it could have left an ever lasting impression on people. Just imagine seeing this creature attacking you family members and either eating them or burning them to a crisp. If dragons did exist at one time they might have been considered the fiercest creatures on earth.

When Marco Polo wrote about his trip to China, one of the things he wrote about were huge serpents he saw. He said they were about 50 feet long and over 7 feet in circumference. He went on to say they had two short legs near their heads and large glaring eyes. The mouth was large enough to swallow a man. He said they were terrifying but didn’t mention wings. I could recite another hundred stores or so where supposedly dragons were involved, but I think there is no sense beating a dead horse or should I say dragon? The answer to the question of whether dragons existed or not works out to something like 99.5% saying no and about .05% saying yes or maybe in polls.