Dragons

"The princess painting dragons on the plates."  From The Book of Knight and Barbara by David Starr Jordan, 1899. 

The dragon-slayer's handbook fails to mention dragons with more than one head.  From Punch, 1910.

The dragons of bread and pride.  From Starting Points in Language Arts, Level 6, Teacher's Guide, 1978.

"Dragons as brain food."  From the Bombay Sunday Chronicle, 1937.

"Dragons lack healthy rooster."  From the Didsbury Review, 2015.

May masters of dragons be within yelling distance should your day prove incendiary.  From Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna Handbook.

May you not encounter any uninvited komodo dragons.  From Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna Handbook.

There's a sea monster headed toward Florida.  Here's why sea serpents and dragons should never be missing from a map.  From the United States Naval Academy's 1930 yearbook.

From The Lighted Pathway, 1982.

We almost missed it, but there's a sea monster headed toward Norfolk.  Here's why sea serpents and dragons should never be missing from a map.  From the United States Naval Academy's 1930 yearbook.

Thanks to R.H., who commented on this video, "How many YouTube channels can be this surreal, humorous, thoughtful and inspiring? Perhaps only one. Long live & stream, Penetralia!"

May black dragons reach new heights.  From Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna Handbook.

May you hereby be unpestered by brass dragons.  From Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna Handbook.

May gas dragons spare you on this day.  From Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna Handbook.

Ever wonder why we don't see magicians' trained dragons on stage anymore?  We have the smoking ordinances and fire codes to thank for that.

"The dragon had been trained to do a lot of showy tricks."  From The Youth's Realm, 1906.

Using toothy shoes to stomp dragons is no longer considered humane.  From Nebelspalter, 1910.

It's as true today as it was then -- when you eat dragons or other endangered creatures, the eyes of a higher power are watchful and judging.  From Fliegende Blätter, 1924.

Ursula K. Le Guin on why books about unicorns are true:

For fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that its truth challenges, even threatens, all that is false, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life they have let themselves be forced into living. They are afraid of dragons, because they are afraid of freedom.

So I believe that we should trust our children. Normal children do not confuse reality and fantasy - they confuse them much less often than we adults do (as a certain great fantasist pointed out in a story called “The Emperor’s New Clothes”). Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books. All too often, that’s more than Mummy and Daddy know; for, in denying their childhood, the adults have denied half their knowledge, and are left with the sad, sterile little fact: “Unicorns aren’t real.” And that fact is one that never got anybody anywhere… It is by such statements as, “Once upon a time there was a dragon,” or “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” - it is by such beautiful non-facts that we fantastic human beings may arrive, in our peculiar fashion, at the truth.

—"Why are Americans Afraid of Dragons?", The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction

Crinita draconibus: having dragons for hair; haired with dragons.  From Four Books of the Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidius Naso, Expurgated and Freed From Everything Objectionable by Nathan Covington Brooks, 1890.