Dragon myths are a unifying feature of cultures across the world, and they have also long been the personal obsession of one professor, one graduate student, and one undergraduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Fortunately, these three met, and we decided to put together a comprehensive book on dragons myths! Of course, we know that we're not the only ones who love dragons, and so we invite you to come on a journey with us as we compile stories, develop original dragon artwork, and dig into dragon stories from the world over.
In our developing book, we have chosen to define dragons as any variation upon the great serpent mythologies. In other words, a supernaturally powerful creature of serpentine form. These great serpents predate our modern definitions of dragon and almost certainly inspired their creation. We posit that it is from these ancient serpents that the more modern, limbed and winged dragons, evolved. In this way, we hope to challenge the reader to redefine the term dragon for themselves, and come to understand more fully the relationship between dragon myths and human culture. There exist countless myths and variations of myths which involve dragons throughout the world. We aim to focus especially on those myths with a large cultural significance like creation stories or tales that explain the world around us.
For this, we need your help! Every week we will post a dragon myth from around the world and the artwork as it develops. If you've ever heard of the dragon in question, let us know what stories you've heard in the comments section! If there is a dragon story from your culture or from your very own hometown (we're looking at you, Darlington County SC, Fresno CA, and Gloucester MA) then pass it along to us, and it just may make it into the final book. We hope that this book will shine a spotlight on both the superstars of dragon mythology as well as some humble dragons who haven't yet gotten the respect they deserve.
Prepare yourself; here be dragons.
Sincerely,
Jean, Rachel, and Virginia
Thak you for all of your research and sharing. Do you have a link for your book?
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