Chapter Drac to Driver of D by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Drac to Driver

Drac, a sort of fairy in human form, whose abode is the caverns of rivers. Sometimes these dracs will float like golden cups along a stream to entice bathers; but when the bather attempts to catch at them, the drac draws him under water.—South of France Mythology.

Drachenfels (“dragon rocks”), so called from the dragon killed there by Siegfried, the hero of the Nibelungen Lied.

Dragon (A), the device on the royal banner of the old British kings. The leader was called the pendragon. Geoffrey of Monmouth says, “When Aurelius was king, there appeared a star at Winchester of wonderful magnitude and brightness, darting forth a ray, at the end of which was a flame in form of a dragon.” Uther ordered two golden dragons to be made, one of which he presented to Winchester, and the other he carried with him as a royal standard. Tennyson says that Arthur’s helmet had for crest a golden dragon.

… they saw
The dragon of the great pendragonship,
That crowned the state pavilion of the king.
   —Tennyson: Guinevere.

Dragon (The), one of the masques at Kennaqubair Abbey.—Sir W. Scott: The Abbot (time, Elizabeth).

Dragon (The Red), the personification of “the devil,” as the enemy of man.—P. Fletcher: The Purple Island, ix. (1633).

Dragon of Wantley (i.e. Warncliff, in Yorkshire), a skit on the old metrical romances, especially on the old rhyming legend of sir Bevis. The ballad describes the dragon, its outrages, the flight of the inhabitants, the knight choosing his armour, the damsel, the fight, and the victory. The hero is called “More, of More Hall” (q.v.).—Percy: Reliques, III. iii. 13.

(H. Carey has a burlesque called The Dragon of Wantley. and calls the hero “Moore, of Moore Hall,” 1697–1743.)

Dragon’s Hill (Berkshire). The legend says it is here that St. George killed the dragon; but the place assigned for this achievement in the ballad given in Percy’s Reliques is “Sylenê, in Libya.” Another legend gives Berytus (Beyrut) as the place of this encounter.

(In regard to Dragon Hill, according to Saxon annals, it was here that Cedric (founder of the West Saxons) slew Naud the pendragon, with 5000 men.)

Dragon’s Teeth. The tale of Jason and Æêtês is a repetition of that of Cadmus.

In the tale of Cadmus, we are told the fountai n of Areiawas guarded by a fierce dragon. Cadmus killed the dragon, and sowed its teeth in the earth. From these teeth sprang up armed men called “Sparti,” among whom he flung stones; and the armed men fell foul of each other, till all were slain excepting five.

In the tale of Jason, we are told that, having slain the dragon which kept watch over the golden fleece, he sowed its teeth in the ground, and armed men sprang up. Jason cast a stone into the midst of them; whereupon, the men attacked each other, and were all slain.

Dragons.

Ahriman, the dragon slain by Mithra.—Persian Mythology.

Colein. (See p. 225.)

Dahak, the three-headed dragon slain by Thraetana-Yaçna.—Persian.

Fafnis, the dragon slain by Sigurd.

Grendel, the dragon slain by Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon hero.