dragons

Movies at the Library About Dragons!

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If you really like dragons and want to see them in action, all of these films are available through the library. You can reserve them for free on your child’s card. All you have to do is pay $0.50c to borrow them.

 

Pete’s Dragon: This is a musical dragon film! Pete befriends a dragon named Elliot who is invisible to everyone but him.

 

The Neverending Story: Fantasia is about to be overwhelmed by the Nothing. Luck dragon Falkor helps save it.

 

Mulan: In this animated movie, a young girl takes her invalid father’s place in the army. She has a small dragon as an ally.

 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Features a brief appearance by Norbert the baby dragon.

 

Shrek: Shrek rescues Princess Fiona from a tower guarded by a large purplish dragon.

 

Spirited Away: Japanese animated movie in which 10-year-old Chihiro enters a strange world. She is befriended by Haku, a dragon who shape-shifts into a boy.

 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Features Harry’s encounter with a dragon as the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.

 

Eragon: Film version of Christopher Paolini’s novel.

Dragons: Chinese Dragons

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Chinese Dragons are the friendliest kind of dragon. In China they are known as “long.”

They live in lakes, pools or rivers, where they hibernate throughout the winter. They are responsible for bringing the rain. Although they have no wings they are able fly.

They are able to change their size, from incredibly small, to incredibly large. They can also shapeshift into people, animals and objects. They have a long, slender, snake-like body, with four legs and with five claws on each paw. Chinese dragons have hairy manes, with a beard and tufts of hair on the backs of their legs. They also have a long whisker on either side of their mouth.

They come in five different colours: red, white, black, yellow and blue/green. They have five large scales under their chin which lie in the opposite direction to the other scales. Each dragon has 117 scales: 81 can be used for good and 36 for bad.

Chinese dragons have incredibly sharp eyesight, but they are hard of hearing. They are often shown grasping or reaching for a pearl, which is a symbol of wisdom, good fortune and immortality.

Find out more:

Dragons on Flags

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Three countries in the world have dragons on their national flags.

 

Wales: The dragon has been the symbol for Wales since the 800s, but the dragon was not put on the Welsh flag until 1959. The Welsh flag features a red dragon with wings, four legs and an arrow-shaped tail. The Welsh call their flag Y Draig Goch, which means “red dragon,” and the motto of Wales is “the red dragon advances.”

 

Bhutan: Bhutan is a country in the Eastern Himalayan Mountains. Bhutan means “land of the dragon.” Their flag features a white, Chinese-style dragon with a pearl clutched in each paw.

 

Malta: The Republic of Malta is a group of Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. You have to look closely at the Maltese flag to find the dragon. In the top left-hand corner is the George Cross, a medal awarded by the King of England for bravery. In the middle of the George Cross is an image of Saint George slaying his dragon. Malta was awarded the George Cross for helping the allies in World War II.

Dragons: British Dragons

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British Dragons are what we most commonly think of when we think of how dragons look. They were often four-legged and winged, though sometimes they had only two legs.

Their wings had membranes, like bats’ wings. And British Dragons had scales that were so hard that no weapon could pierce them, but their stomachs were soft and vulnerable. Sometimes they could even rejoin severed body parts!

The most common colour of the dragons was green. Their legs were muscular and they had strong claws for picking up and carrying off cows and sheep.

The British dragons were very poisonous. They spat venom at their victims rather than injecting them with their fangs. Their blood was poisonous and would kill people on contact. Even their breath was poisonous and would kill people with its fumes. They also breathed fire.

They lived in caves near water. British dragons had a nasty temperament. Each dragon picked on one small town or village. They would burn down houses and crops. They were fond of milk. They would eat cows, sheep and even people!

The library has heaps of books about dragons. Check out the kids’ catalogue for more.

Dragon names from around the world

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Have you ever wished you could say “dragon” in Estonian? Or Finnish? Or Latin? Well here’s your chance. Here’s the word dragon in a whole lot of languages. If you’re interested in dragons, check out our kids’ catalogue for heaps of books, both fiction and non-fiction (if you love stories about dragons then check out our blog post here).

 

Afrikaans: draak
Arabic: tinneen
Armenian: vishap
Cantonese: loong
Chinese: long
Croatian: zmaj
Czech: draj
Danish: drage
Dutch: draak
French: dragon
Estonian: drakon
Finnish: lohikaarme
German: drache
Greek: drakont
Hebrew: tannin
Italian: drago
Japanese: ryo
Korean: yung
Latin: draco
Lithuanian: Drakonas
Mandarin: long
Norwegian: drake
Polish: smok
Portuguese: dragao
Russian: zmey
Spanish: dragon
Swedish: drake
Turkish: ejderha
Welsh: draig

 

Read this book for more information!