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WHAT
THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT DRAGONS?
The Bible, by far the World's oldest most accurate
history book containing the most ancient chronicles, that has time
and time again proven to be archeologically correct.
 For example:
It documented the existence of a certain "King Sargon"
in Syria, of which modernist historians used to boast that that was one
of the greatest proofs that the Bible was a myth and a legend, "as
there was no record whatsoever of a certain King Sargon!"
But sure enough in the 60-ies, archeologists discovered the ruins of a
palace in Syria with artifacts and inscriptions to the owner of it, called:
King Sargon! (see pic) Another proof of the correctness of the historicity
of the Biblical record.
There have been found historical and archeological proofs found of almost
all the famous Biblical personages, to wit, Moses, Aaron, the Pharaos,
King David, King Solomon, even the gravestone of Kajafas the Highpriest
that condemned Jesus to death, and many others.
 Now this
Bible, this historically correct chronicle of antiquity, contains many
references to and mentions of dragons, sea-dragons, and
one huge creature the Leviathan, which was ranked along with dragons and
seadragons and sea serpents. And what do we learn from this historical
report about the habitat, behavior and menu, and more things about Dragons?
Quite a few very interesting details indeed:
* They preferred to live in desolate places where there were few humans:
Isaiah 43:20 The beast of the field shall honour me,
the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness,
[and] rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Jeremiah 49:33 And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a
desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man
dwell in it.
Malachi 1:3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage
waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Job 30:29 I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
Psalm 44:19 Thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and
covered us with the shadow of death.
* And so they inhabited ruins of cities like Babylon, as wild animals
and owls did too.
Jeremiah 51:37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace
for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.
Isaiah 13:22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate
houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is
near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
Isaiah 34:13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles
in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons,
and a court for owls.
Isaiah 35:7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty
land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each
lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
Jeremiah 9:11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons;
and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
Jeremiah 10:22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion
out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a
den of dragons.
* They not only cried, but made "wailing" sounds:
Micah 1:8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go
stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and
mourning as the owls.
* They snuffed up the wind and had puffy eyes!
Jeremiah 14:6 "the wild asses did stand in the
high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes
did fail, because there was no grass." Also its eyes must have looked
puffy, described as "the eyelids of the morning"
* They could swallow up a man.
Jeremiah 51:34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath
devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he has
swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates,
he hath cast me out.
* People hunted and wounded them:
Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of
the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art
thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
* God killed Dragons as meat to tribes that lived in the "wilderness"
or desert!
Psalm 74:13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength:
thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. 14 Thou brakest the
heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people
inhabiting the wilderness.
* Some of them were posionous!
Deuteronomy 32:33 Their wine is the poison of dragons,
and the cruel venom of asps.
*Many of them inhabited the sea and had a serpentine look or image.
One Biblical monster, the "Leviathan", "piercing serpent"
or "crooked serpent" even spewed fire!
It is described as a huge beast with scales so tight, that
air could not come between the sealing of the scales which were impossible
to pry apart. "The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they
are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved. His heart is as firm as
a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone."
This type of "monster" or dragon was uncatchable, impossible
to bridle, so that "would-be" hunters of it were "cast
down" at the sight of it! No other animal was as "fierce that
no one dares to stir him up" "When he raises up himself, the
mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves. The
sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor
the habergeon. The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned
with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble: he laughs at the
shaking of a spear. "
His teeth in the "doors of his face" (super big jaws) are "terrible
round about!" When he sneezes it is as if "a light shines!"
"Out from his mouth go burning lamps and sparks of fire leap out",
"Out of his nostrils goes smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.
His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth." Thus
its mouth or nostrils seemed to have expelled some glowing, burning or
even explosive chemical reaction, that made it look like "spewing
fire", as dragons in legends the world over have been referred to
as doing.
He is described with enormous strength: "He esteems iron as straw,
and brass as rotten wood." Unaffected by anything: "Sharp stones
are under him: he spreads sharp pointed things upon the mire."
He churned up the seawater with great might and visual effects: "He
makes the deep to boil like a pot: he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
He makes a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary."
It was obviously unequalled on earth in the animal
kingdom: "Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.
He beholds all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride."
THE LEVIATHAN REPORT AS FOUND IN JOB 41:
1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?
or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with
a thorn?
3 Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words
unto thee?
4 Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant
for ever?
5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for
thy maidens?
6 Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among
the merchants?
7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish
spears?
8 Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.
9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even
at the sight of him?
10 None [is so] fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand
before me?
11 Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under
the whole heaven is mine.
12 I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.
13 Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him
with his double bridle?
14 Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round
about.
15 His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.
16 One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.
17 They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot
be sundered.
18 By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids
of the morning.
19 Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.
20 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.
21 His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.
22 In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before
him.
23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves;
they cannot be moved.
24 His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether
millstone.
25 When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings
they purify themselves.
26 The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart,
nor the habergeon.
27 He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
28 The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into
stubble.
29 Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.
30 Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon
the mire.
31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot
of ointment.
32 He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to
be hoary.
33 Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.
34 He beholds all high things: he is a king over all the children of
pride.
* "In the last days" they would be "punished"
and God would "slay the dragon that is in the sea!" ALthough
that is also symbolic of the coming One World Government and the last
Antichrist Worldruler!
Sea-dragons are virtually all gone and will become
fully extinct now, in these last days, as you saw on the seadragon picture
page.
Psalm 104:24 "O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast
thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. 25 So is this great
and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and
great beasts. 26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou
hast made to play therein. 27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest
give them their meat in due season. Isaiah 27:1 In that day the LORD with
his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing
serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon
that is in the sea.
ADDITIONAL DRAGON BIBLE REFERENCES:
Nehemiah 2:13 And
I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon
well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were
broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.
Psalm 91:13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and
the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Isaiah 27:1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword
shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked
serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that [is] in the sea.
Ezekiel 29:3 Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I [am] against
thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst
of his rivers, which hath said, My river [is] mine own, and I have made
[it] for myself.
Revelation 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold
a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns
upon his heads.
Revelation 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven,
and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman
which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it
was born.
Revelation 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called
the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out
into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Revelation 12:13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth,
he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man [child].
Revelation 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened
her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his
mouth.
Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to
make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of
God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and
his feet were as [the feet] of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a
lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Revelation 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the
beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who [is] like unto the beast?
who is able to make war with him?
Revelation 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;
and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Revelation 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs [come] out
of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out
of the mouth of the false prophet.
Revelation 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which
is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
- "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools"
The Bible.
For one more Real Dragon or Dinosaur Story,
"Terrorized by a Dinosaur"
Click
St George and the Dragon
So how about you?
Do you believe in Dragons?
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OTHER
HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS REPORTS ON LIVE DRAGONS IN THE LAST 3000 YEARS
We are taught,
that dragons don't really exist, right? They say, no one has ever really
seen one, right? And there's no scientific proof, and all that? Where
are the bodies? Well there are millions of bodies! All these "dinosaur"
skeletons are Dragon bones! Like the following historic document
recounts.
Greek
account about Dragons in Gobi Desert
Year: c. 310 Originally appeared in: Piazza Armerina, Sicily
In the seventh century B.C., ancient Greeks made contact with Saka-Scythian
nomads who prospected for gold in the Gobi Desert. One of the legends
that the Greeks gleaned from this contact was of the griffin, a
lion-sized, four-legged, winged animal with a "cruel sharp beak"
that ferociously guarded its hoard of gold. (A more cautious account suggested
that griffins didn't guard gold but simply lived near it, and carefully
protected their young from all intruders.) This Roman mosaic shows a griffin
drawn to a trap whose unfortunate bait is a man. Where did this legend
come from? Twentieth-century excavations in the Gobi have unearthed Protoceratops
and Psittacosaurus skeletons, both beaked dinosaurs, from the same
regions where the nomads prospected.
Greek
Historian Herodotus described small flying reptiles in ancient Egypt and
Arabia.
The dragon from the movie Shrek makes more sense than Hollywood wants
us to believe! |
These
animals sound amazingly like the small Ramphorhynchus (RAM-foe-RING-kus).
They had the same snake-like body and bat-like wings. Many had been killed
near the city of Buto (Arabia). He was shown a canyon with many piles
of their back-bones and ribs. Herodotus said that these animals could
sometimes be found in the spice groves. They were "small in size
and of various colors." Large numbers would sometimes gather in the
frankincense trees. When workers wanted to gather the trees' valuable
juices, they would use smelly smoke to drive the flying reptiles away.
The well-respected
Greek, Aristotle, said that in his time it was common knowledge that creatures
like this also existed in Ethiopia. Similar animals (three feet long)
were also described in India by the geographer Strabo. [Text courtesy
Christiananswers.net]
He was also told that "at the beginning of spring, winged serpents
fly from Arabia towards Egypt; but that ibises, a sort of bird, meet them
at the pass, and do not allow the serpents to go by, but kill them."
JOSEPHUS
ON FLYING SERPENTS OR DRAGONS
Josephus, the Jewish historian who wrote in the 1'st century A.D., had
access to ancient written records; before the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.
He provides the following account of Moses leading an army from ancient
Egypt against the Nubians:
...he gave a wonderful demonstration of his sagacity; for when the
ground was difficult to be passed over because of the multitude of serpents,
(which it produces in vast numbers, and indeed is singular in some of
those productions, ... such as are worse than others in power and mischief,
and an unusual fierceness of sight, some of which ascend out
of the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come
upon men at unawares and do them mischief,) ... he made baskets, like
unto arks, of sedge, and filled them with ibes [ibises], and carried them
along with them; which animal is the greatest enemy to serpents imaginable,
for they fly from them when they come near them; and as they fly they
are caught and devoured by them.
WHY VIKINGS HAD DRAGON-HEADED
BOATS
 One
Viking website wrote: "The longboat figurehead was an important
magical charm believed to frighten off predators just as defensive shields
would protect them from human foes. Voyages could be dangerous, and the
Vikings sought the guardianship of the dragon symbol for protection and
good fortune when away from the home harbour."
But why did Vikings do that and who were these predators? Fish? Did they
just think it up out of their collective genetic brainstem?
It is said that they often ran into water dragons on their far voyages,
even on the way to America! They were smart and disguised their boats
as dragons surely to scare them off! Look at the similarity with dinosaur
heads.
DRAGON SIGHTINGS
IN SWITZERLAND
A chapter on dragons
appears in the fifth Iter, which details the 1706 voyage. In writing this
chapter, Scheuchzer claims that his sole objective was to create a "historical
description of the dragons of Switzerland." He proceeds by accumulating
eye - witness accounts, which he then groups into classifications based
on canton: the dragons of Lucerne, of Zurich, of Schwytz, etc. He carefully
details the circumstances surrounding these stories: the dates and times
of the encounters as well as the names and professions of the witnesses.
The latter were for the most part common people, often farmers or woodcutters
who had come across the dragons during their work in the fields or the
forest.
Sometimes, the
monster surprised hikers, a soldier, or a traveling merchant at the entryway
of a cave or at the turn of a road. These accounts are usually confirmed
by a recognized authority, an officer for example, or the village pastor.
The ample and detailed descriptions place explicit emphasis on the feelings
of surprise, incredulity and terror experienced by the witnesses. This
is evident in the following examples taken from chapter VI of Altmann's
work, which he faithfully transcribed from Scheuchzer. The first particularly
spectacular case comes from an observation made by Christophe Scheurer,
first magistrate of the canton:
On one particular night, when I was contemplating the serenity of the
sky, I saw a brilliant dragon take to flight from a corner of the great
rock of Mont Pilate; his wings moved with great speed. His torso was long
as was his tail and neck. His head was that of a toothed serpent. As he
flew, sparks, such as those that fly from a hot iron hit against an anvil
by the blacksmith, flew from his body. At first, I believed that it was
some meteor, but after some reflection, I was persuaded that it was truly
a dragon, as much by its agitation as by the composition of its body parts.
[Read the entire story at ]
Living
Dragons in Anglo-Saxon & other Records. [Courtesy and
written by Bill Cooper. Read his extremely interesting, un-equalled academic
historical works on Irish,
Saxon & British geneaologies! Don't miss it!]
INTRODUCTION
 The
creation model of origins makes many predictions, one of them being that
evidence will be found which tells us, in the recent past dinosaurs
and man have co-existed. There is, in fact, good evidence to suggest
they still co-exist, and this is directly contrary to the evolutionary
model which teaches dinosaurs lived millions of before man came along,
and no man therefore can ever have seen a living dinosaur. For present
purposes we will ignore evidence from the fossil record on this subject
as this has been dealt with elsewhere. We will, instead examine the issue
by considering the written evidence that has survived from the
records of various ancient peoples that describes, sometimes in the most
graphic detail, human encounters with living giant reptiles we would call
dinosaurs.
There are, of course, the famous descriptions of such monsters from the
Old Testament, Behemoth and Leviathan (Job 40:15-41:34,)
Behemoth being a giant vegetarian that lived on the fens, and Leviathan
a somewhat more terrrifying armour-plated amphibian whom only children
and the most foolhardy would want as a pet. The Egyptians knew
Behemoth by the name p'ih.mw, 1 which is the same name,
of course. Leviathan was similarly known as Lotan to the men of
Ugarit. Babylonian and Sumerian literature has preserved
details of similar creatures, as has the written and unwritten folklore
of peoples around the world.
But perhaps the most remarkable descriptions of living dinosaurs are
those the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic peoples of Europe have passed down to
us.
A BRIEF SURVEY
The early
Britons, from whom the modern Welsh are descended, provide us with
our earliest surviving European accounts of reptilian monsters, one of
whom killed and devoured king Morvidus (Morydd) in about 336 BC.
We are told in the original early Welsh account (which Geoffrey of Monmouth
translated into Latin and which still survives in spite of modernist claims
to the contrary, that the monster "gulped down the body of Morvidus
as a big fish swallows a little one." Geoffrey wrote of the monster
under its Latin name, Belua.
Peredur, not
the ancient king of that name (306 - 296 BC), but a much later son of
Earl Efrawg, had better luck than Morvidus, actually managing to slay
his monster, an addanc (pronounced athanc: variant afanc,) at a
place called Llyn Llion in Wales.
At other Welsh locations the addanc is further spoken of along with another
reptilian species known as the carrog. The addanc survived until comparatively
recent times at such places as Bedd-yr-Afanc near Brynberian, at Llyn-yr-Afanc
above Bettws-y-Coed on the River Conwy (the killing of this monster was
described in the year 1693), and Llyn Barfog (see references and
Appendix in the original pages of cooper's site). A carrog is commemorated
at Carrog near Corwen, and at Dol-y-Carrog in the Vale of Conwy.
In England and Scotland, again until comparatively recent times, other
reptilian monsters were sighted and spoken of in many places. Table
1 lists 81 locations in the British Isles alone in which dinosaur activity
has been reported (there are, in fact, nearly 200 such places in Britain.)
But perhaps the most relevant aspect of this, as far as our present study,
is concerned, is the fact some of these sightings and subsequent encounters
with living dinosaurs can be dated to the very recent past. The giant
reptile at Bures in Suffolk, for example, is known to us from a chronicle
of 1405:
"Close
to the town of Bures, near Sudbury, there has lately appeared, to the
great hurt of the countryside, a dragon, vast in body, with a crested
head, teeth like a saw, and (a tail extending to an enormous
length. Having slaughtered the shepherd of a flock, it devoured many sheep..."
After an
unsuccessful attempt by local archers to kill the beast, due to its impenetrable
hide...
"in
order to destroy him, all the country people around were summoned. But
when the dragon saw that he was again to be assailed with arrows,
he fled into a marsh or mere and there hid himself among the long reeds,
and was never more seen."
Later in the fifteenth
century, according to a contemporary chronicle that still survives
in Canterbury Cathedral's library, the following incident was reported.
On the afternoon of Friday, 26th September, 1449, two reptiles were
seen fighting on the banks of the River Stour (near the village of
Little Cornard) which marked the English county borders of Suffolk and
Essex. One was black, and the other, reddish and spotted.
After an hour long struggle that took place "to the admiration of
many [of the locals] beholding them,"the black monster yielded
and returned to its lair, the scene of the conflict being known ever since
as Sharpfight Meadow."
As late as August,
1614, the following sober account was given of a strange reptile
that was encountered in St Leonard's Forest in Sussex (the sighting was
near a village that was known as Dragon's Green long before this report
was published):
"This
serpent (or dragon as some call it) is reputed to be nine feete, or rather
more, in length, and shaped almost in the form of an axletree of a cart;
a quantitie of thickness in the middest, and somewhat smaller at both
endes. The former part, which he shootes forth as a necke, is supposed
to be an elle [3ft 9 inches or 114 cms] long; with a white ring, as it
were, of scales about it. The scales along his back seem to be blackish,
and so much as is discovered under his bellie, appeareth to be red...
it is likewise discovered to have large feete, but the eye may there be
deceived, for some suppose that serpents have no feete... [The
dragon] rids
aways (as we call it) as fast as a man can run. His food [rabbits] is
thought to be for the most part, in a coniewarren, which he much frequents...
There are likewise upon either side of him discovered two great buches
so big as a large foote-ball, and (as some thinke) will in time grow to
wings, but God, I hope, will (to defend the poor people in the neighbourhood)
that he shall be destroyed before he grows to fledge."
This dragon was seen in various places within a circuit of three or four
miles, and the pamphlet named some of the still-living witnesses who had
seen him. These included John Steele, Christopher Holder and a certain
'widow woman dwelling neare Faygate.' Another witness was 'the
carrier of Horsham, who lieth at the White Horse [inn] in Southwark.'
One of the locals set his two mastiffs on to the monster, and apart from
losing his dogs he was fortunate to escape alive from the encounter' for
the dragon was already credited with the deaths of a man and woman at
whom it had spat and who consequently had been killed by its venom. When
approached unwillingly, our pamphleteer tells us' the monster was... "....of
countenance very proud and at the sight or hearing of men or cattle will
raise his neck upright and seem to listen and looke about, with great
arrogancy."...an
eyewitness account of typically reptilian behaviour.
Again, as late as 27th and 28th May 1669, which fell on a Thursday
and Friday, a large reptilian animal was sighted many times, as was reported
in the pamphlet: A True Relation of a Monstrous Serpent seen at Henham
(Essex) on the Mount in Saffron Waldon.
In 1867 was seen, for the last time, the monster that lived in
the woods around Fittleworth in Sussex. It would run up to people
hissing and spitting if they happened to stumble across it unawares, although
it never harmed anyone. Several such cases could be cited, but suffice
it to say that too many incidents like these are reported down through
the centuries and from all sorts of locations for us to say that they
are all fairytales. For example, Scotland's famous Lock Ness monster
is too often thought to be a recent product of the local Tourist Board's
efforts to bring in some trade, yet Loch Ness is by no means the only
Scottish lock where monsters have been reported. Loch Lomond, Loch
Awe, Loch Rannoch and the privately owned Loch Morar (over
l000ft or 305m deep) also have records of dinosaur activity in recent
years. Indeed, there have been over forty sightings at Loch Morar alone
since the end of the World War II, and over a thousand from Loch Ness
in the same period.
However, as far as Loch Ness itself is concerned, few realize that monstrous
reptiles, no doubt the same species, have been sighted in and around
the loch since the so-called Dark Ages, the most notable instance being
that which is described in Adamnan's famous 7th century Life of St Columba.
There we read that in the year AD 656 Columba, on yet another of
his missionary journeys in the north, needed to cross the River Ness.
As he was about to do so, he saw a burial party. On enquiry he was informed
that they were burying a man who had just been killed by a savage bite
from a monster who had snatched him while swimming. On hearing this, the
brave Columba, his curiosity aroused and with never a thought for his
own safety, immediately ordered one of his followers to jump into the
freezing water. Adamnan relates how the thrashing about of the alarmed
and unhappy swimmer (Lugne Mocumin by name) attracted the monster's attention.
Suddenly, on breaking the surface, the monster was seen to speed towards
the luckless chap with its mouth wide open and screaming like a banshee.
Columba, however, refused to panic, and from the safety of the dry land
rebuked the beast. Whether the swimmer added any rebukes of his own is
not recorded, but the monster was seen to turn away, having approached
the swimmer so closely that not the length of a puntpole lay between them.
Columba, naturally, claimed the credit for the swimmer's survival, although
the reluctance of the monster to actually harm the man is the most notable
thing in this incident. The first swimmer had been savaged and killed,
though not eaten, and the second swimmer was likewise treated to a display
of the monster's wrath, though not fatally. Most likely, the two men had
unwittingly entered the water close to where the monster kept her young,
and she was reacting in a way that is typical of most species. Gorillas,
bull elephants, ostriches, indeed all sorts of creature will charge at
a man, hissing, screaming and trumpeting alarmingly, yet will rarely kill
him so long as the man takes the hint and goes away. Our second swimmer,
utterly lacking his saintly master's fortitude, doubtless began the process
of taking the hint in plenty of time for the monster to realize that killing
him would be unnecessary.
Yet not even Lugne
Mocumin's experience is that uncommon. As recently as the 18th century,
in a lake called Lyn-y-Gader in Snowdon, Wales, a certain man went
swimming. He reached the middle of the lake and was returning to the shore
when his friends who were watching him noticed that he was being followed
by..."a
long, trailing object winding slowly behind him. They were afraid to raise
an alarm, but went forward to meet him as soon as he reached the shore
where they stood. Just as he was approaching, the trailing object raised
its head, and before anyone could render aid the man was enveloped in
the coils of the monster..."
It seems that the man's
body was never recovered.
At about the turn
of this present century, the following incident took place. It was related
by a Lady Gregory of Ireland in 1920: "old
people told me that they were swimming there (in an Irish lake called
Lough Graney,) and a man, had gone out into the middle, and they saw something
like a great big eel making for him..."
Happily, on this occasion the man made it back to the shore, but the important
thing for us to notice is that these are only a few of a great many reports
concerning the sightings in recent times of lake-dwelling monsters or
dinosaurs. Indeed, it is almost needless to point out that perfectly rational
people still report such sightings today. However, the British Isles are
not the only place where one can find such reports. They occur, quite
literally, all over the world, and space forbids further discussion of
such a general and largely undisputed observation. We will therefore concentrate
our attention entirely on the recorded and most informative evidence that
has been left us by the early Saxons and Celts.
For
more on Cooper's documented work
CLICK ON THIS LINK TO THE GRIPPING HISTORICAL
ACCOUNT
OF BEOWULF AND THE DRAGONS
SEE
ALSO MORE RECENT WITNESS REPORTS:
THE
FLYING REPTILES AND OTHER DINOSAURS OF WALES
FLYING
SERPENTS AND DRAGONS IN MANY OTHER PLACES
|
Dragon
Accounts
