Beasts of Power

Of all mythic creatures that rise from the water, prowl across land or fly through the air, the dragon is the most famed. Stories of serpent-like beasts with fabulous powers inspire awe in almost every part of the world. Rain-bringing dragons in Asian tales can shrink so small that they fit in a teacup — or grow so large that they fill the sky. Dragons in Europe can slaughter people with their putrid breath, or spit fire and set cities ablaze. The earliest dragon legends date back thousands of years, and the creature still haunts our imagination today. Download this printable colouring page > CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THe dragon Eastern dragon Western dragon VIEW THE BESTIARY >

Debunking certain myths surrounding beasts of power

However fantastical they may seem, dragons have their roots in the natural world. Strange sights can — through misidentification, speculation, fear or exaggeration — inspire tall tales as people seek to make sense of the world around them.

• Like many mythic land creatures, European and Asian dragons can also be traced back to dinosaurs. It’s not hard to see why the unearthed fossil remains of a dinosaur such as Tyrannosaurus rex would conjure images of a monster from an earlier age.
  
  
• European naturalists once considered the dragon to be a close relative of snakes and lizards. Chinese scholars classified the dragon as one of 369 animal species with scales.
  
  
• The skull of an Ice Age woolly rhinoceros was once kept in the town hall of Klagenfurt, Austria. The residents believed it to be the remains of a fearsome Lindwurm, a serpent-like dragon that was slain before the city was founded around 1250 CE.