Dragon Alert

July 27th 2017

Finally a dragon to report. This, thanks to the annual SCBWI conference in LA, though in a convoluted way. As usual the conference was an exciting event chockfull of information and experiences to be crammed into one’s consciousness.

The dragon discovery was not part of the program but made possible via new contacts from Indonesia I met at the conference. They had come representing their regional connections to SCBWI. We didn’t have much time to socialize but they wanted to see the Getty Museum so that’s where we went to “socialize”.

And wouldn’t you know that’s where the dragon was, or at least part of one, depicted with Saint Margaret, though no paper dragon this one; he was part of a leaded glass presentation of the exhibit on Illuminating Women of the Medieval World. The Getty on-line pages I’ve seen since then, offered various other images of Margaret with and without the dragon.

For me the connection between Margaret and the dragon was a complete surprise or perhaps I just don’t know much about saints and their bestial connections. Also it wasn’t even a real dragon that I discovered, but rather a disguise, a way for the devil to deceive Margaret and swallow her whole as a punishment for being a devoted Christian, according to the legend. However, the story goes, she caused the dragon/devil indigestion with the cross she was carrying and so was thrown up/out, thwarting the devil’s intentions to do her harm.

The search for dragons continues.

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