Where to See The World's Best Dragons - with one breathing fire! In Asia, England and Poland; Komodo Dragons In Zoos and Your Personalised Dragon Book!

Dragon breathing fire in Krakov, Poland

 What's the nearest real thing to a dragon? A Monitor lizard, in Indonesia, or the Botanical Gardens in Singapore? A Komodo dragon in Indonesia and some zoos?

A dinosaur, which no longer exists, is popular amongst children, adults, in museums and monster movies (we say films in the UK).

Dragons don't even exist yet they are popular worldwide. Why? Maybe we like to have mythical monsters we can overcome. 

Overcoming Fear Of The Large Monster

I recall visiting London's home of the Duke of Wellington, which has a giant statue of Napoleon in the hall. The Duke of Wellington had a huge statue of Napoleon made, so that when he met the real Napoleon (a tiny man with a big ego - had to prove himself by winning battles) Wellington could then say to himself, he is much smaller than I imagined.

So, let's look at Dragons.

This post was inspired by my new friend Izabel, who lives in Warsaw, Poland, and she reminded me about the dragon in Krakov. I had been to Krakov, passed the dragon, been told about it on a tour, read about it in the literature, and, frankly, had not taken much notice of it. I was more interested in real people in Krakov, such as Schindler, and Helena Rubinstein, the founder of the beauty business, than a mere mythical creature.

However, dragons are such a permanent feature of crests, shields, flags, statues, landmarks, all around us, that it is worth taking a second look at the world's dragons, because, although they are not my first day out priority, they seem to fascinate everybody else. 

Here are the dragons I have found, for convenience, in alphabetical order by country.

CHINA

Dragons were symbols of the Ming dynasty.

ENGLAND

Saint George and the Dragon. the flag of England is the red cross of St George on white. You will see this at football matches in which the England team is competing. 

London Zoo (whose website says they are closed until Dec 3rd 2020, because of Covid-19) has the komodo dragon in pride of place at the top of their website. 

Komodo dragon in Chester Zoo, shown in Wikipedia.

The name St George appears in many places. For example, St George's Shopping Centre in Harrow,  has a frieze of St George way up overhead, inside the three storey building with a series of panels telling the story of St George. The dragon apparently captured a princess. The dragon ate princesses for lunch. Luckily George rescued her, as shown in several panels. 

GERMANY

George slaying the dragon. Wooden sculpture made in about 1500, displayed in Gottorf Castle in Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. Photo by Szilas in Wikipedia.

INDONESIA

The Indonesian Islands of Komodo were at one time offering tours to see Komodo dragons, also known as Komodo monitors. They have a long thin tongue. 

I've seen a horrid video of them in a gang circling an animal. They injected venom into the animal and waited for it to fall down.

At one time you could take tours to the Komodo islands, specifically to see the dragons. They used to guarantee that you would get close up to a Komodo dragon. Funny, that. I would have paid them to guarantee not to take me near a dragon. 

I think at one time the tours were stopped, then started again.

A great holiday. For those who love living dangerously. If covid-19 doesn't get you, or your pets, the dragons might.

POLAND

Dragon on a good day, not breathing fire, in Krakov, Poland.

RUSSIA

George slaying the dragon is on the roof of a shopping mall near the Kremlin.

SINGAPORE

My husband recalls seeing a komodo dragon on his many trips with visitors to the Night Safari.

I asked, "Did you like seeing the komodo dragons?"

He replied,  "I'm not sure that like is the right word. They were very interesting. You wouldn't want to be the wrong side of a metal fence."

WALES

The red dragon is the symbol of Wales, on the Welsh flag.

USA

St George and the Dragon. Alabaster Sculpture. Washington. USA.

San Diego Zoo komodo dragon in Wikipedia.

Wiki reports that in 'May 2009, there were 35 North American, 13 European, one Singaporean, two African, and two Australian institutions which housed captive Komodo dragons'.

Apparently these nasty creatures are very popular with people, no doubt some nasty people and some nice people as well. 

Toy Dragons

Finally, if you want your own dragon, Amazon, plus online toyshops and your local toyshop when Covid-19 lets them open, can offer many dragons for you and children in the family. You can find small ones from dragons on your fingers, to playmats with dragons. Playmobil has dragons, and there are other small plastic dragons, as well as large soft dragons to cuddle. 

Plus of course, books about misunderstood, friendly dragons.

Useful Websites

UK

https://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/exhibits/komodo-dragons

http://piquantphotos.blogspot.com/2010/02/photo-essay-saint-george-and-dragon.html

https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/venture-into-a-realm-of-dragons-and-beasts-in-singapore-zoo

About the Author Of This Post, Angela

Angela Lansbury, travel researcher/writer and photographer, author and speaker. 

Author of Wedding Speeches & Posts, Etiquette for Every Occasion, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When?

You can contact Angela through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters on Facebook or Toastmasters Interntional.com find a club . Angela is a member of four Toastmasters Clubs and BHA IPP, Immediate Past President, and VP PR (Vice President Public Relations) for 20202-2021

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Greek Words You Already Recognize

Greek is spoken in Greece, Cyprus and Greek restaurants. But you also use Greek words or roots regularly in English. Here is a handy alphabetical list.

Letter of the alphabet - Greek - English (meaning)
a - anti - (old) antique; agony; amphora (clay vessel for storing wine)auto - (self) - automatic,  automaton; axiom
b - bibl - bible - bibliography
c - catastrophe, chaos; criteria ; critical; cynicism
d - democracy - diabolic - dinosaur; diagnosis; dogma
e - eccentric; economic; emphatic; episode; epoch; eulogise
f - frenetic
g - gastronomic; genesis - birth - genes, genetic; generous
h - horo - hour, horoscope
i - idiom; ironic
j
k kaleidoscope (beautiful, eye); kinetic
l - logos - word -logic
m - marathon; melancholy; method
n - numismatic (relating to stamps). nemesis (Greek god)
o - organizer; orthodox
pan Greek god - panic, papyrus; phobia; phos - light (photographic); plethora; policy; poly; problem; protagonist
q (None. All the q words in my concise Oxford dictionary are from Latin.)
r
s - sarcastic;  scandal; symposia/symposium; synagogue
t -tactic; tele - far; therapeutic; thesis; tonic
u
v
w
x xeno - stranger (xenophobia is fear of strangers) ; xylo (wood (xylophone)
y
z - zeal (zealous); Zeus (Greek God)

A representative of Greece, prime minister Xenophon Zelotos, gave a speech (if I remember rightly, according to my guide to the Thessalonika,( second scity of Greece) to the United Nations) in English and all the nouns and adjectives were Greek words or words of Greek origin and roots and component parts.
Wiki says

Two of his speeches in English at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development are considered to be historic and notable because they contained mainly terms of Greek origin.^[6] Here are the texts:

1957

I always wished to address this Assembly in Greek, but realized that it would have been indeed "Greek" to all present in this room. I found out, however, that I could make my address in Greek which would still be English to everybody. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I shall do it now, using with the exception of articles and prepositions, only Greek words.

Kyrie, I eulogize the archons of the Panethnic Numismatic Thesaurus and the Ecumenical Trapeza for the orthodoxy of their axioms, methods and policies, although there is an episode of cacophony of the Trapeza with Hellas. With enthusiasm we dialogue and synagonize at the synods of our didymous organizations in which polymorphous economic ideas and dogmas are analyzed and synthesized. Our critical problems such as the numismatic plethora generate some agony and melancholy. This phenomenon is characteristic of our epoch. But, to my thesis, we have the dynamism to program therapeutic practices as a prophylaxis from chaos and catastrophe. In parallel, a Panethnic unhypocritical economic synergy and harmonization in a democratic climate is basic. I apologize for my eccentric monologue. I emphasize my euharistia to you, Kyrie to the eugenic and generous American Ethnos and to the organizers and protagonists of his Amphictyony and the gastronomic symposia.

1959

Kyrie, it is Zeus' anathema on our epoch for the dynamism of our economies and the heresy of our economic methods and policies that we should agonize the Scylla of numismatic plethora and the Charybdis of economic anaemia. It is not my idiosyncrasy to be ironic or sarcastic, but my diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. Although they emphatically stigmatize numismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices. Our policies have to be based more on economic and less on political criteria. Our gnomon has to be a metron between political, strategic and philanthropic scopes. Political magic has always been anti-economic. In an epoch characterized by monopolies, oligopolies, monopsonies, monopolistic antagonism and polymorphous inelasticities, our policies have to be more orthological. But this should not be metamorphosed into plethorophobia, which is endemic among academic economists. Numismatic symmetry should not hyper-antagonize economic acme. A greater harmonization between the practices of the economic and numismatic archons is basic. Parallel to this, we have to synchronize and harmonize more and more our economic and numismatic policies panethnically. These scopes are more practicable now, when the prognostics of the political and economic barometer are halcyonic. The history of our didymus organizations in this sphere has been didactic and their gnostic practices will always be a tonic to the polyonymous and idiomorphous ethnical economies. The genesis of the programmed organization will dynamize these policies. Therefore, I sympathize, although not without criticism on one or two themes, with the apostles and the hierarchy of our organs in their zeal to program orthodox economic and numismatic policies, although I have some logomachy with them. I apologize for having tyrannized you with my Hellenic phraseology. In my epilogue, I emphasize my eulogy to the philoxenous autochthons of this cosmopolitan metropolis and my encomium to you, Kyrie, and the stenographers.

See also

If you have a question about languages, try the Facebook page Polyglots the community.

• ἀμυγδάλη amygdala, almond;
• ἀντίφωνα antiphon, anthem;
• ἀσϕόδελος asphodel, daffodil;
• αὐθεντικός authentic, effendi (αὐθέντης via Turkish);
• βάλσαμον balsam (probably itself a borrowing from Semitic), balm;
• βλάσφημος blasphemy, blame;
• βούτυρον butyr(ic), butter;
• διάβολος diabol(ic), devil;
• δραχμή drachma, dram, also dirhem via Arabic;
• ἔλαιον elaeo-, oil, olive, oleum;
• ἐλεημοσύνη eleemosynary, alms;
• ἐπίσκοπος episcop(al), bishop;
• ζῆλος zeal, jealous;
• καθέδρα cathedra(l), chair, chaise;
• κέρας/κέρατ- 'horn' keratin, carat via Arabic;
• κόλπος 'lap, womb, hollow, bay' colp(itis), gulf
• κυβερνᾶν cybernetics, govern
• πάπυρος papyrus, paper;
• πόδιον podium, pew;
• πρεσβύτερος presbyter, priest;
• πυξίς pyx(is), box;
• σκάνδαλον scandal, slander;
• τρίπους/τρίποδ- tripod, trivet;
• τύμπανον 'drum' tympanum 'eardrum', timbre, timpani;
• φρενετικός frenetic, frantic;
• χειρουργός chirurgical, surgeon;
• χορός chorus, choir;
• χρῖσμα chrism, cream;
• χρῑστιᾱνός Christian, christen, cretin?
• ὥρα horo(scope), hour.

Useful Websites
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/21-english-words-that-are-actually-greek-and-the-stories-behind-them
Etymological dictionary
https://www.etymonline.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophon_Zolotas

More Sources
https://www.etymonline.com/columns/post/sources

About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, speech trainer, teacher of English and other languages. Member of four Toastmasters International Clubs, one in the UK and three in Singapore. Please share links to your favourite posts.