Dark Age Obscured (History)

[Wile E. Coyote]

Offa of Mercia

Earth/Marsh (Sea)

These storytellers knew what they were doing.

[Ishmael]

[Ishmael]

[Wile E. Coyote]

I ran through a lot of this on the Spirals thread from page 6-8.

I really was just taking it to the max.

Apologies.

[aurelius]

The name of the beast (1)

In mainstream linguistic theory, the word dragon entered the English language in the early 13th Century from Old French dragon, which in turn derives from the Latin draconem (nominative draco) meaning "huge serpent, dragon", and from the Greek word drakon (genitive drakontos). At its root, drakontos is from drak, strong aorist stem derkesthai, ‘to see clearly’, or to ‘glance dartingly’.

This relates to many other ancient words cognate with sight, such as Sanskrit darc (see), Avestic darstis (sight), Old Irish derc (eye). However, no connection with the English ‘dark’ is made, that being traced back to the Middle English derk, from the Old English deorc ‎(“dark, obscure, gloomy, without light, dreadful, horrible, sad, cheerless, sinister, wicked”. It is said to be cognate with Middle High German derken/terken ‎(“to darken, sully”).

The obsolete form of dragon, drake, has the same root but became separated in the C13th.

In Ancient Greek, Spakov, anglicised as ‘serpent’ is said to be from the Greek aorist verb, Spakelv (to see clearly). The Oxford English Dictionary points out that Spakelv is derived from the Greek stem Spak meaning strong. This is intuitively odd, though those who are sharp-sighted may see better in the dark than those who are not. The root words may be two sides of the same coin...or a convergent evolution.

Greek dragons were mainly serpentine in shape. For instance, Python and Boa were both serpent-shaped ‘dragons’. The Romans saw dragons as winged serpents; however, since much of Greek and Roman mythology is related, it is hard to differentiate between Greek dragons and Roman dragons. Still, they share the common attributes as a serpent-like creature, usually with wings.

To confuse matters from a modern perspective the Greek and Latin terms referred to any great serpent, not necessarily mythological, and this usage remained current in English up to the 18th century.

[aurelius]

The name of the beast (2)

The best-known dragon of Wales is Y Ddraig Goch, or the Red Dragon of Wales' flag. A rampant dragon and lion co-supported the Royal Arms until the Stuart dynasty when the dragon was replaced by a unicorn representing Scotland. However a passant guardant lion stands atop the crown as a reminder that England is top dog, as it were.

In Welsh, Dragon is Ddraig/draig, with the Welsh Dreigiaw meaning “to lighten without thunder”, or, “at a distance”. Dreigiau is the plural, ‘silent lightening’. Drych is ‘sight, appearance, mirror’. Keen sight, not just power and fearsomeness, are characteristic of dragons.

The opposite Welsh variants include dduach, thywyllach and nhywell, variations on the ‘darkness’ theme.

But Dreigiawl is simply ‘like a dragon’ (Welsh and English Dictionary: Geiriadur Cymraeg a Saeseneg, Etc., by William Richards).

[aurelius]

The name of the beast (3)

In Ireland, draic/draig are figurative of a warrior or a hero. Dracoin, dracon are variants of ‘dragon’. Some claim dragons have never been part of the Irish culture, and that the Irish word for "dragon" is just a phonetic rendering of the English. This is half-true. There are many accounts of dragon-slaying epitomised in the hook of the Cashel crozier:



Admittedly St Patrick has a reputation for driving out all the snakes, though he missed Paiste/Lig-na-Baste, who St Murrough had to sort out later, banishing him to the bottom of Lough Foyle. Uilepheist, Muirdris and Suileach were all sea serpents.

[Hatty]

I looked up 'cashel crozier' and found it's a blue cheese, made from sheep's milk.

[aurelius]

[aurelius]

The Name of the beast (4)

In Norse, the word "ormr" represents ‘sea serpent’, thus the Great Orme near Llandudno, a headland supposedly in the shape of such a beast. Elsewhere it means something more along the lines of "worm" or "vurm." Hence Worm’s Head on the Gower. The terms tend to get associated with "dragon" because they all three creatures are described as scaly, reptilian and fierce.

The reason for the word not quite meaning "dragon" can be found in the dragons of the Norse. Jormungand, perhaps the most famous Norse dragon, was simple a huge serpent. Nidhogg, one of the only creatures referred to as a dragon in Norse mythology, was also described to be serpent-like.

Modern Norwegian, Swedish and Danish reserve the distinction:

Norwegian: Dragon= drage (old Norse dreki) i.e. different from snake, Serpent = Slange
Swedish: Dragon= drake, Swedish (Ancient): flugdrake, floghdraki (flying dragon?). Serpent in Swedish = Orm
Danish: Dragon= drage. Serpent = Slange

More specifically, Lindworm (cognate with Old Norse linnormr) = 'constrictor snake', Norwegian linnorm = 'dragon', Swedish lindorm, Danish lindorm = 'serpent', hence the blurring of the anatomy.

If I may tax your attention further, 'Lind' = lime tree in Swedish. You will note that the suffix Lind- is common in north European surnames, e.g. Lindenbergh, Lindenberg, Lindstrom etc.

In German, Lindwurm= 'dragon'. To ‘old’ Germans the Linden was a holy tree, a haunt of dwarfs and fairies; under it dragons lay so often in the shade or for protecting property they became known as Lindenworms. Sigurd, in the mythology of this area, after killing the dragon Fafnir, bathes in his blood but a linden (Lime) leaf falls on his shoulder preventing the blood touching his skin at that point, creating an area of vulnerability.

In British heraldry, Lindworm is a technical term for a wingless bipedal dragon, often with a venomous bite; in Norwegian heraldry a lindorm is the same as the wyvern, the commonest dragon manifestation in Wales and Somerset.

[Mick Harper]

Apologies, just got round to this

[Wile E. Coyote]

[Hatty]

Lime trees are not specially remarkable trees but do have one noteworthy aspect

[Mick Harper]

The linden tree has three interestingly quirky associations
One: It is the wood that "the Vikings" used for their shields
Two: It nearly conquered Europe -- the chief boulevard of Berlin is the Unter den Linden.
Three: "Centuries ago, hunters used to follow bees back to their hives after the insects sucked the nectar from Linden blossoms. Once there they would retrieve honey from the bees' hives" This is so ludicrous it must be important.

[aurelius]