Dragons

Most of the dragons I know are scary creatures. It is somewhat noticeable that dragons tend to be portrayed as horrible, nasty creatures in literature and by most forms of media. I'm not sure this portrayal is correct and I often wonder how nice, well-behaved dragon's feel about that. I wanted to interview a dragon or at least a dragon owner for this blog post, but I couldn't find any who were willing to go public. I feel,perhaps dragons are not emotionally open creatures. At least, after I put the word out that I was writing this, not one single dragon volunteered to talk to me. To be honest, I was a tad nervous about interviewing a dragon anyway. Normally, I might offer an interviewee a cup of tea, or coffee, or a coke, or possibly something a little stronger, like say a Lemon, Lime and Bitter. But, I'm not sure what dragon's drink, or indeed, if they drink at all. I mean would drinking extinguish that internal fire. Oh my, what if it is an insult to even offer them a drink...like telling them you want their fire to die. On reflection, I'm glad that interview didn't happen. I've only ever read about the most famous dragons, not personally met them, see? So most of what I know about dragons comes through literature. You can learn so much from books. I think when you learn about dragons, what you learn is called 'dragon lore'. Kind of cool that. I've learned a few titbits about dragons. So I guess my dragon lore goes like this. Dragons are fire-breathing creatures that can fly. They often dwell in caves. They lay eggs which have to reach incredibly high temperatures before they hatch. I think they eat horses, at least I've seen movies where horses were consumed. There are hundreds of kinds of dragons, all sizes, shapes and natures. Every region of the world has its own variety of dragons. Sometimes they are poached for their hearts, and sometimes they are hunted for their treasures (which they love to hoard). There are dragons that are live recluse lives and would kill any human who came near, and there are those who must want human company enough that they capture princesses and hold them captive until some foolish knight comes along and thwarts the dragon's plan. (You really have to be lonely to want some silly princess for company anyway.) Then there are those noble creatures that befriend someone in distress and help them overcome some huge difficulty. Surely, having a dragon on your side must be the best sort of help. Studying dragon names is interesting. Some of them have names that are barely pronounceable with too many consonants in a row. If those names are anything to go on, I think a lot of dragons come from Scandinavia. Some have nerdy names, like Norbert. Names describe the dragon are cool. Names like Fafnir the Terror tell you a lot about that particular dragon. Or like when the name has 'fire' in it. Or Smaug, that was a good name for a smoky dragon. Some of my favourite dragon names are the funny ones. I know of a dragon called Fluffy and then there was the one called Toothless. I liked those names. I think I would like to meet a dragon. Maybe I would even like to have on for a pet. I'm not sure what I would name it though. I think, before I try to get a dragon pet, I should find out more about how to care for them because otherwise, they might eat the neighbor's pets.

Trolls

When I was a girl, little plastic doll trolls were all the rage. The dolls had large noses and eyes and hair with flaming colours. Those dolls formed my mental image of trolls in the stories I read.

The first literary troll I remember is the troll under the bridge attacking three Billy-Goats Gruff. What a loser for a troll, stuck under a bridge, waiting for his meals to trot his way. That troll was easily deceived into waiting for the next Billy-Goat brother to come his way. And then, it only took one push off the bridge, and the troll was a goner, no longer to trouble anyone.

As I reflect on this, trolls seem to get a rather bad rap in most modern literature. Tolkiens trolls in The Hobbit were also easily dealt with, fooled by Bilbo into staying up till the sun turned them into stone. There can’t be any dumber-looking creature than the troll taken down by the little wizards in the HP movie.

Have you ever seen a nice troll?

What do trolls look like? Are they little, ugly, naked creatures with bright hair or frightening giants carrying clubs?