HC SVNT DRACONES –Eustace
Dragons...creatures of immense strength.
Dragons...creatures of fire.
Dragons...magical and powerful.
Dragons...creatures representing goodness and luck.
Dragons...winged beasts with serpentine or reptilian features.
Dragons...guardians of treasure.
Dragons feature prominently in literature, particularly in stories featuring heroes! As the author G.K. Chesterton stated:
"Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon."
How better to demonstrate the reality of good versus evil than by having a dragon defeated by a hero!?
Or, perhaps dragons are misunderstood creatures who really just want to be left alone and have been forced into a life of violence in a desperate attempt to protect themselves from the angry villagers with pitchforks and the knights who are just out to rescue a damsel who may-or-may-not be in distress.
This series of geocaches features some of my favourite literary (and screen) dragons.
And, ok, it lets my geek side shine. Just a little. :)
“A powerful dragon crying its eyes out under the moon in a deserted valley is a sight and a sound hardly to be imagined” (C.S.Lewis, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”).
Unfortunately, poor Eustace had an education lacking in a very important area.
“Most of us know what we should expect to find in a dragon’s lair, but, as I said before, Eustace had read only the wrong books. They had a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons” (C.S.Lewis, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”).
Eustace joins his cousins (whom he hates) on an adventure (which he thinks is all a big trick) and makes a general pain of himself. He doesn’t like his food, he doesn’t like his bed, he doesn’t like the company, and he doesn’t feel that he’s being treated with fairness and respect. Hmm. So, when Eustace spots a huge trove of treasure, he goes to check it out! Common sense would say “it’s a trap!”, but Eustace doesn’t recognize this. He puts on a gold bracelet, and falls asleep. When he awakens, he has been transformed! “Sleeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself” (C.S.Lewis, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”). Over the course of several chapters we see Eustace in a whole new light. He begins to discover that he is afraid. He is lonely. He wants to be liked. We discover that he’s been so antagonistic because he’s jealous of the bond between his cousins. Eustace is a helpful and useful dragon (which makes him sound like Thomas the Tank Engine, but I digress). Eventually, his trust in Aslan, despite the fact that he really doesn’t know anything about him, allows Eustace to be turned back into a boy.