DRAGONS from the earliest times, represented the principle of fertility. Being born each spring from an egg under the water, and the young dragon grew and flourished. Each year as Nature waned, the old dragon had to be killed to make way for the new dragon that would be born the next spring.

With Western Christian tradition the dragon became synonymous with evil, and the killing came to symbolize not merely the end of the year, but also the victory of God over the Devil. The slaying of the dragon, for this reason, has been associated with many Christian saints as, George of Lydda who slew a dragon in the name of God to convert pagans to Christianity.

This struggle with the dragon has been interpreted as symbolizing our own internal struggle between deep-seated lusts and unconscious drives, and the demands of the conscience.

While the West took the dragon to symbolize evil, the East portrayed it as life-giving and benevolent. This mystery lent itself to interpretation by symbols that made them easier to understand.

To make them more powerful than humans, our ancestors may have conceived of dragons as a mixture of different creatures to suggest supernatural powers. Just as different people interpreted the character of dragons to fulfill their own needs, they concocted the appearance of the dragon from the beasts they found most significant.

In the 2nd-century dragons were linked with guarding treasures. This link between dragons and treasure, and the caves where trasure was usually hidden, is found in many legends.

In many other legends the heroes gain new kinds of power from killing the dragon.

History is so rich and diverse with heroic fantasy that we should wonder if the dragon is really the evil beast portrayed by God-fearing Christians. Maybe, the dragon is really a gentle creature named Puff, and maybe it lives by the sea in a land called Honeli.

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