Aurora's Cavern

Come on in, don't be scared of old Gorban over there, his roar is worse than his flame. Welcome to my cavern. This is where I get to have my say.

I've been living with this human since she read her first Anne McAffrey book about 15 years ago which I guess is quite a long time for a human but it seems very insignificant to me! Merely a weekend break you might say.

It's not too bad here. She reads a lot of fantasy you know so her head is often full of other dragons for me to talk to, Anne sees to that on her own!

Other favourite authors include Melanie Rawn, Meredith Ann Pierce, Janny Wurts, Elizabeth Scarborough, Robert Holdstock, Barry Hughart, Piers Anthony, R A Macavoy, Guy Gavriel Kay, Mary Stewart, Sherri Tepper, Brian Aldiss, Tanith Lee - the list goes on and on .....

This room was going to be purple you know (her favourite colour) and dreamy and relaxing but when we started constructing it, it ended up as a cave?? Maybe that's the Welsh Dragon blood in us??

Would you like to see a picture of me? I find humans set such store by what a person looks like. Us Dragons are quite happy to sit in dark caverns seeing only the outline of those we converse dragon3m.gif (13425 bytes)

with. We do like to talk a LOT though - another thing she and I have in common. Well, this is me. What do you think? Of course it's not a photograph, I hate the flash but it is a very good likeness rendered by young master Iestyn. I'm quite a colourful thing aren't I? I was quite a dragon catcher in my youth I can tell you but when you get past the 4000 year mark your scales just don't get the same luster.

There are lots of us dragons on the internet you know but then there are lots of us all over the world if you know how and where to look. If you'd like to link to some other dragon sites, skip to the bottom of the page but if you'd like to hang around here, I'd like to tell you a story.

Dinas Emrys

There was once a king, a worthless man who betrayed his own people and fled from their enemies. His name was Gwrtheyrn (known to the English as Vortigern).

After the betrayal, he fled to the stark, harsh heights of Snowdonia in North Wales and tried to reassert his power. He began building on a high mound - a castle he thought, to protect himself from his angry countrymen. Each day the builders worked as hard as they could to construct his fort but their efforts were in vain, for each night every stone was mysteriously removed.

Gwrtheyrn became both angry and frightened, he knew of the mysterious powers of the land that existed in those days. His magicians inspected the site and confidently announced that a sacrifice was called for. While they were mulling this conclusion over, a local boy was brought to the king. He was a young lad, known locally for his strange visions. The king asked him his thoughts on the matter and Emrys - for that was his name - answered that the mound was bewitched.

He told the king that a lake lay beneath the mound and by the lake two dragons lay sleeping, the huge, white Saxon dragon and the firey, red Welsh dragon.

Gwrtheyrn looked at the mound - his mound he thought and, like the fool that he was, he gave orders for the lake to be found and drained. He was sure the lake was causing an instability of the ground which was surely the real reason that his building work had failed.

They drained the lake and as they did so, two massive dragons burst forth from the mound and took to the air on their powerful wings. It was a magnificent sight. The creatures turned to face each other and paused. For one pure second they were frozen in the awed silence of the watchers below. Then, with screams fit to shatter the very earth, the two dragons resumed their ancient battle.

Those below hid in fear of what they could not understand. Fire spewed forth from the dragons' mouths, claws raked the mountains and the earth shook.

After many hours a victory cry was heard and the red dragon circled once, triuphantly, then plunged below the earth's surface back into the cavern from which it had risen.

Gwrtheyrn was forced to leave. He fled to Nant Gwrtheyrn where, it is safe to say, he did not prosper. Young Emrys built himself a small fort near the sleeping dragon and the dragon's mound itself still has the local name of Dinas Emrys meaning "the fort of Emrys". I have been there and you can just make out the outline of the dragon, asleep under the earth. We were very quiet just in case we woke him!

The Red Dragon has been a symbol for Wales since at least the fifteenth century but it was only officially recognised by Queen Elizabeth II in 1959 when the Welsh motto was added -

Look what they've done to me now! Baby dragons to look after! Thank goodness for this delightful sweet child Ariannwen - without her I think all my scales would have dropped out. If you wish to see the little horrors (actually they're rather cute) click here

Don't forget to check out the other rooms in our home. I have no idea how this page will develop yet but us Dragons don't like to sit around doing nothing you know.

Dragon Links Webrings
Here be Dragons - a great Graphic site.		Adopt a Dragon foundation
Purple Dragon friendship campaign		Dragon Images
The Friendly Cornish Dragons at the Dragon's Lair!		.Lady Leighs Fantasy Pages
.Dragon Lair		.Sabrefire Dragons
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