Fafnir, Dragon of the Opera

Some folks say that there are few people with mild opinions about opera; that most folks are passionate about opera, either loving it or loathing it. Richard Wagner (1813-1883) wrote a famous opera called “The Ring of the Nibelung.” Here is an opera that is sure to inspire strong reactions - the piece is about 15 hours long! Performances of the “Ring” are usually split across four nights, allowing those who love opera to attend all week long while providing for easy escapes for the opera loathers. The Libretto (storyline) of the “Ring of the Nibelung” is based on an Old Teutonic legend about a magic gold ring and the greed to possess it. As with most legends, there are several variants depending on who is retelling the story. Wagner himself used several disparate sources to weave together the story of the “Ring.”

In the Teutonic legend, the brothers were named Fafnir and Regin - while in the opera their names are Alberich and Mime - sons of King Hreidmar. When the god Loki accidentally killed Otr, the third brother, the ring was given to the Dwarf King Hreidmar (along with a grand sum of gold) as "blood money." The Ring carried a curse that it would bring its owner great wealth and great misfortune. Fafnir coveted the Ring and conspired with his brother Regin to steal the Ring and the gold treasure from their father. Fafnir killed his father and then, not wishing to share the treasure with his brother, ran off into the wilderness and hid in a great cave. There he lay down on his hoard of gold and metamorphosed into a great hideous dragon.

In the legend, Regin (still seeking to gain the treasure for himself) persuaded Sigurd to kill Fafnir the dragon. In the opera, the young hero was named Siegfried. According to Regin’s plan, he directed Sigurd / Siegfried to dig a trench in front of the cave wherein lay the great dragon Fafnir. In the morning, when Fafnir came out to drink, his path would take him across this trench where Sigurd / Siegfried would conceal himself with his magic sword. Sigurd / Siegfried would strike at the dragon as he passed overhead. Regin secretly hoped that both the hero and the vile dragon will be killed in the confrontation and he will be able to claim the gold and the Ring for himself alone.

The Teutonic Gods intervened again when Odin came in a vision to Sigurd and warned him about the burning properties of dragon’s blood, that Regin knew of this danger yet did not tell Sigurd, and to dig a second pit to crawl into to escape contact with the dragon’s blood. So Sigurd dug a second ditch, as he had been told, then waited for the dragon to emerge. In the cool of the dawn, the massive dragon emerged and the ground shook beneath his feet as he lumbered towards the river. Sigurd felt a sharp pang of fear when he saw how immense the dragon truly was, but he hid in his trench and thrust his sword deep into the underbelly of the colossal body as the dragon passed above him. As the toxic blood gushed forth, Sigurd rolled to safety into the second pit. Fafnir bellowed and writhed in pain, but the wound was fatal.

As the great beast lay dying, Fafnir asked Sigurd his name and who sent him to kill such a terrifying dragon. Fafnir figured out that it was his own brother Regin who plotted his death, and he knew that Regin would also cause Sigurd's death. Sigurd mocked the dying dragon that he would take all of the dragon’s treasure from within the cave, now that the dragon could no longer guard it from him. Although Fafnir told Sigurd that taking the treasure will mean his death, Sigurd remained defiant that all men must face death someday.

After the dragon’s death, although Regin was astonished and disappointed to see Sigurd had survived, outwardly he greeted the young hero with great congratulations and praise for his noble deed. He directed the champion to cut out the dragon’s heart and cook it over a fire that Regin might eat it in honor of the glorious deeds of the day. Sigurd built a cooking fire and cut the heart from the dragon’s chest with his powerful sword. As he was preparing this unusual dish, he burned his hand on the fire. Inadvertently, Sigurd licked his hand and in so doing tasted the blood and juices that ran from the dragon’s heart. Instantly, the taste of the dragon’s blood endowed Sigurd with the understanding of all languages, including the language of the birds. The birds told him to eat the heart of the dragon himself and become the wisest of all men. He also learned from the birds that Regin intended to kill him and, drawing his sword once more, he slew Regin with a single fierce blow.

The “Ring of the Nibelung” opera further follows the fate of Siegfried, including his own betrayal and death, and the continuing mischief of the Ring in the hands of his lover Brünnhilde. These themes are familiar to contemporary readers; the One Ring of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” invokes the same corrupting powers, the same degradation and loss of humanity for Gollum while he struggles with his greed to possess the Ring. In “The Chronicles of Narnia,” C.S. Lewis includes a character Eustace Scrubb who turns into a dragon due to his greediness over a cursed treasure.

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from all of us at The Folklore Store and thanks for a great year in 2010

Dragons of the Ishtar Gate

Some folks say that dragons never existed. They claim that stories about dragons are either totally fictional fantasies or symbols and allegories for epic struggles (such as, good against evil or Christianity against paganism). If we are going to dismiss the stories with dragons, what can we say about the ancient images?
In 1902, German archaeologist Robert Koldewey achieved great acclaim for excavating historic sites in Iraq including the walls of the ancient city of Babylon, the original “Tower of Babel,” the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar and the foundations of what Koldewey thought was the Hanging Gardens (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World). As Koldewey unearthed the walls around the great city, he uncovered a spectacular gateway covered with blue glazed tiles and a broad processional roadway leading through the gate and into the heart of the city. Parts of this impressive ancient gate and road, dating back to approximately 600 BC, have been reconstructed in Berlin using many materials from the archaeological excavation while a smaller reproduction of the gate was reconstructed in Iraq (but has been damaged by the war).

The beautiful blue gate and the processional have relief carvings of three animals; lions along the road, with aurochs (a species of now-extinct cattle) and some unidentified animals on the gate. These animals are currently believed to be sirrush (or dragons), in part because of the region’s connection with Marduk. See “Tiamat: Babylonian Dragon of Creation.”
The patron builder of these mighty works was the same King Nebuchadnezzar from the Book of Daniel in the King James Version of the Bible. In other texts not included in the King James Version of the Bible, there are additional stories of Daniel and the King of Babylon from this same time frame. In the apocryphal story, “Bel and the Dragon,” the King of Babylon owned a dragon which the people revered. The king confronted Daniel regarding the dragon, asking why Daniel would not also worship this dragon. Daniel never denied that the dragon was real but refuted the claim that the dragon was a deity to be worshipped. Daniel fed the dragon barley cakes with pitch (tar) that burst open upon consumption and kills the dragon. This act may have been what led to Daniel’s famous punishment of being thrown into the lion’s den, from which he emerged unharmed through miraculous intervention of Daniel’s Hebrew God.
It seems remarkable that there can be these references to an ancient animal that never existed alongside animals that obviously do (or did) exist, as is the case with the Ishtar Gate. The confrontation with Daniel and the King of Babylon never debates the physical presence of a dragon, only the question of the extent of its power. Perhaps dragons once existed and have since been hunted to extinction, like the aurochs.
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Sea-Monsters in Greek Mythology

SOME FOLKS SAY that we know very little about what lies within the depths of the ocean, and that our oceans remain one of the great frontiers for exploration. Mariners have told tales of many fantastic creatures from the deep. The giant squid, for instance, has only been scientifically documented within the 21st century. Who knows what else may yet lurk beneath the waves?

In the Ancient Greek tales, there were various references to sea monsters which appear to resemble dragons.
To modern star-gazers, King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia may be best known as two of the constellations in the northern sky. In Greek mythology, the pair ruled over Ethiopia. Queen Cassiopeia bragged on herself about her beauty, until she ultimately brought the wrath of the gods onto her lands and her people. This vengeance came in the form of a dreadful sea-monster, named Cetus, who devoured both humans and animals. To placate the gods and the sea-monster, King Cepheus chained his daughter Andromeda to a rock on the shore as a sacrifice.

It was at this propitious moment that our hero, Perseus, entered the story.

Perseus was on his way home from an encounter with the Gorgon, Medussa. Freeing Andromeda and vanquishing the monster, Perseus claimed the maiden for his wife. Andromeda, however, was promised to another. Of course, that turns into a messy fight later on, but that is another story.

Hercules also battled with a sea-monster. In this story, Hercules (like Perseus) was on his way home from a previous adventure, an expedition against the Amazon warriors. Similarly, he found a princess chained to a rock as an appeasement to the sea-monster. This damsel in distress was Princess Hesione, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy. Hercules bargained with King Laomedon that he would rescue the princess and slay the dreaded beast in exchange for some wonderful horses that had been given to the King by Zeus. The King agreed and Hercules engaged the sea-monster in horrible combat. The beast swallowed Hercules but, in proper heroic form, Hercules continued slashing at the beast from the inside until he emerged victorious from the belly of the monster.

With the crisis past, however, King Laomedon reneged on his bargain and refused to give Hercules his prize. This act was not only without honor, but clearly showed a serious lack of any understanding of the consequences of double-crossing a hero. Hercules returned with an army and sacked the city of Troy, killing King Laomedon. Rather than keep the princess for himself, Hercules gave Princess Hesione as a prize to his friend Prince Telamon, who may have been among the war party.

If you think you may have heard some of these themes before, consider this interesting connection: The sea-monster that Perseus confronted was named "Cetus," or sometimes "ketos" (which means "huge fish") and is very closely related to the term used in the Hebrew texts of the Biblical story of Jonah.

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The Curious History of Chang Lung

SOME FOLKS SAY that dragons are fire-breathing calamities. But the Oriental dragon is most often a benevolent guardian usually associated with waters and rain.

During the reign of the fourth T'ang emperor, Chung Tsung, around the year 684 AD, there lived an honorable man named Chang Lung. He was beloved by his wife and two sons, and highly respected by all the townspeople who knew him. Although he was a judge in the local court, Chang Lung enjoyed spending time in the temple. As time went on, the man spent more and more time at the temple after work, often staying all night.

One morning, Chang Lung's family was shocked to see him come home dripping wet. As astonishing as his wet appearance was, his tale was even more amazing. As his surprised family questioned him, Chang Lung explained that he had begun metamorphosing into a dragon. In his dragon form, he had become the guardian and protector of his village. But now he was being challenged by another dragon and needed his sons to help him defeat his foe.

The two sons agreed to fight alongside their father and returned with him the following evening to the temple, armed with bows and arrows. Their father tied a red ribbon to himself so they could recognize him in his dragon form. In front of their incredulous eyes, Chang Lung turned into his dragon form and was immediately confronted by another dragon. Seeing the red ribbon that marked their honored father, the sons shot their arrows into the rival dragon and killed it.

From that time, Chang Lung remained at the temple as protector of the village. The temple was enlarged in 894 AD and again in 1091 AD by a grateful community in honor of their guardian benefactor.

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GWIBER & Y DDRAIG GOCH, a tale of two dragons

SOME FOLKS SAY that the red dragon on the Welsh flag is a depiction of the dragon Y Draig Goch from this popular local legend. In the folklore of Wales, there are two versions of this story of two great dragons, Gwiber and Y Ddraig Goch. This one is the later, more popular, version dating from 1147 in the "Historia Regnum Britanniae" by Geoffrey of Monmouth.

During the fifth century AD, the pagan tyrant Vortigern and his Saxon hordes were fervent about conquering and claiming the whole of the British Isles. Upon arriving in Snowdonia in the Welsh mountains, Vortigern decided to build a castle fortress on a hill overlooking the Llyn Dinas River. But every morning, the stones that had been erected the day before were knocked down. Again, Vortigern would order his men to lay the foundations to build the fortress. Daily, the men would work hard to erect the proposed towers. Yet every morning, their work would lie in rubble.

Merlin, the sorcerer of King Arthur legends, then just a young boy, told Vortigern that the difficulty came from the two dragons that dwelt in a pool of water hidden within a cave beneath the site. Vortigern's men dug and found the cave with a pool, exactly as Merlin had said, and two dragons locked in combat within. One dragon, named Gwiber, was a white dragon and the other was a red dragon, named Y Ddraig Goch. As the men watched, the red dragon defeated the white dragon and drove him from the cavern through the hole that had just been broken into the underground cave.

According to Merlin, the white dragon represented the invading forces of Vortigern and the Saxons, and the red dragon symbolized the guardian of Wales and the cave itself corresponded to the British Isles. The prophecy of the dragons was that the invading Saxons would ultimately be defeated and driven from Britain (which never happened). It is not a great stretch of the imagination to understand why the Red Dragon of Wales, Y Ddraig Goch, would become the guardian symbol of Wales, popular in the local folklore and prominently displayed on the Welsh flag.

Interestingly, archeological excavations in the region during the mid-1950s found a castle fortress as described in the Historia Regnum Britanniae, including a pool inside a cave within the thick walls of the mighty stone structure.

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TIAMAT: Babylonian Dragon of Creation

SOME FOLKS SAY that the serpent in the Garden of Eden is a thinly veiled reference to Tiamat. It's unknowable, of course, but it makes some sense that it might be so - since there are two competing creation stories from the Middle East.

In the creation mythology of ancient Babylon, as told in the Enuma Elish tablets, the world was created by Apsu and Tiamat. Apsu was the male spirit of fresh water and emptiness, and Tiamat was the female spirit of salt water and chaos, embodied in a great serpentine dragon. Between them were the heavens and earth created and all the living things conceived, including the gods.

Some of the god-children were rowdy and unruly, causing a great clamor. Apsu and Tiamat were disturbed by their commotion. Apsu suggested that they should kill some of their rowdy children, but Tiamat indulged her boisterous children and rejected the plan. One of their god-children, Ea, had the power to foresee the future. So Ea could foresee that Apsu intended to kill him and so, to save himself, he rose up and killed Apsu.

This enraged Tiamat who swore to avenge Apsu's death. But Ea could foresee that, too, so he enlisted the aid of Marduk, the most powerful of the gods, to help him defend against Tiamat's fury. Tiamat created a horde of great monsters, dragons, and demons to fight Ea, but in the end the ultimate conflict came down to mortal combat between Tiamat and Marduk.

Marduk rode into the conflict in a chariot pulled by four fierce horses, accompanied by the four winds. He brought with him a bow that shot arrows of lightning. When Tiamat opened her great jaws to swallow Marduk whole, Marduk threw one of the winds down her throat, blasting her mouth wide open. He then shot one of his lightning arrows down her open throat directly into her heart.

Mortally wounded, Tiamat cried great tears as she fell; tears of grief for her fallen Apsu and sorrow for herself, slain at the hands of her own children. Marduk crushed her skull and dismembered Tiamat's body, using part of it to roof up the sky thus forming the Milky Way. Her crying eyes became the source waters for the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. And so it has been ever since.

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