{"version":"1.0.0","segments":[{"startTime":5.165,"endTime":11.476,"body":"I will start with the proposition that across most of the world, most peoples have"},{"startTime":11.476,"endTime":16.525,"body":"traditions of monsters similar to those who are called dragons in English."},{"startTime":17.065,"endTime":25.033,"body":"In other words, giants, winged land, reptiles of lizard or snake kind, or giant water"},{"startTime":25.033,"endTime":25.565,"body":"serpents."},{"startTime":26.105,"endTime":32.405,"body":"It may be that there is a genuinely ancient collective human memory at work here."},{"startTime":33.655,"endTime":37.797,"body":"The Gresham College lecture that you're listening to right now is giving you knowledge and"},{"startTime":37.797,"endTime":38.073,"body":"insight from one of the world's leading academic experts making it takes a lot of"},{"startTime":38.073,"endTime":38.349,"body":"time, but because we want to encourage a love of learning, we think it's well"},{"startTime":38.349,"endTime":46.635,"body":"worth it."},{"startTime":47.575,"endTime":51.725,"body":"We never make you pay for lectures, although donations are needed, all we ask in"},{"startTime":51.725,"endTime":52.555,"body":"return is this."},{"startTime":52.985,"endTime":55.355,"body":"Send a link to this lecture to someone you think would benefit."},{"startTime":55.735,"endTime":59.685,"body":"And if you haven't already, click the follow or subscribe button from wherever you are"},{"startTime":59.685,"endTime":60.475,"body":"listening right now."},{"startTime":61.535,"endTime":63.155,"body":"Now, let's get back to the lecture."},{"startTime":66.665,"endTime":74.66,"body":"Our ancestors in Africa long ago would've had to deal with big poisonous snakes, big"},{"startTime":74.66,"endTime":78.925,"body":"constricting snakes, large birds of prey and crocodiles."},{"startTime":79.525,"endTime":87.725,"body":"Moreover, venomous or crushing snakes are the only dangerous animal that every single inhabited continent"},{"startTime":87.725,"endTime":89.365,"body":"has in common."},{"startTime":90.265,"endTime":97.588,"body":"So monsters of the sort I've just described are a compound of all those primordial"},{"startTime":97.588,"endTime":98.565,"body":"natural hazards."},{"startTime":99.315,"endTime":106.707,"body":"However, two areas in the world have made such creatures, especially prominent in art and"},{"startTime":106.707,"endTime":107.2,"body":"story, and their Europe and the far East is especially China, but the nature of"},{"startTime":107.2,"endTime":116.565,"body":"the dragon is very different."},{"startTime":117.185,"endTime":125.244,"body":"In each European dragons are super predators who take up residents near a human community"},{"startTime":125.244,"endTime":129.005,"body":"and eat the people and their livestock."},{"startTime":129.294,"endTime":133.925,"body":"Their functional role is then to get killed by heroes."},{"startTime":135.115,"endTime":142.258,"body":"Chinese dragons look like elongated versions of European dragons with lizard bodies, four legs, clawed"},{"startTime":142.258,"endTime":148.925,"body":"feet and wings and fangs, but otherwise they have nothing in common with them."},{"startTime":149.595,"endTime":156.125,"body":"Chinese dragons are friendly and beneficial to humans if treated with respect."},{"startTime":156.635,"endTime":161.365,"body":"They don't breathe fire and they inhabit water of all kinds."},{"startTime":161.995,"endTime":168.549,"body":"They exist in harmony with the natural magnetic energies of the earth as reflected in"},{"startTime":168.549,"endTime":172.045,"body":"the Chinese art of Feng shui or Feng."},{"startTime":173.845,"endTime":177.965,"body":"I therefore have two questions to answer in this talk."},{"startTime":178.745,"endTime":187.332,"body":"Why did Europeans believe in dragons so much and why are European dragons so nasty"},{"startTime":187.332,"endTime":187.905,"body":"and Chinese dragons so nice to go to Europe first, there are two main kinds"},{"startTime":187.905,"endTime":201.645,"body":"of European dragon in popular folk law and medieval literature."},{"startTime":202.385,"endTime":209.39,"body":"One is the fire Drake, a reptile with wings, a horn or crested head, a"},{"startTime":209.39,"endTime":211.725,"body":"spine tail and fiery breath."},{"startTime":212.265,"endTime":220.627,"body":"The fire Drake is the classic dragon of medieval heraldry Chronicles and romances, but also"},{"startTime":220.627,"endTime":225.645,"body":"of JR R Tolkien, CS Lewis and JK Rowling."},{"startTime":226.865,"endTime":232.565,"body":"The other traditional European dragon is the worm or cold Drake A."},{"startTime":232.955,"endTime":240.731,"body":"That is a huge snake which spits venom or breeds poisonous gas and can sometimes"},{"startTime":240.731,"endTime":242.805,"body":"crush with its coils."},{"startTime":243.735,"endTime":250.325,"body":"There are however many other kinds of dragon that appear in European folklore, literature and"},{"startTime":250.325,"endTime":250.765,"body":"heraldry."},{"startTime":251.225,"endTime":255.325,"body":"The one that I'll mention here is the basals or cock."},{"startTime":256.435,"endTime":262.833,"body":"There's a thoroughly glorious but misleading description of one in Harry Potter and the chamber"},{"startTime":262.833,"endTime":267.525,"body":"of secrets where it takes the form of a gigantic serpent."},{"startTime":268.185,"endTime":275.579,"body":"The classic medieval basals was a winged snake or a scaly cocker only a few"},{"startTime":275.579,"endTime":276.565,"body":"feet long."},{"startTime":277.345,"endTime":280.965,"body":"It was formed from an egg hatched by a toad."},{"startTime":281.515,"endTime":289.606,"body":"What JK Row got absolutely right was its most famous characteristic that it kills with"},{"startTime":289.606,"endTime":290.685,"body":"its stare."},{"startTime":292.355,"endTime":300.615,"body":"England has the largest number of dragon legends for a country its size anywhere in"},{"startTime":300.615,"endTime":308.325,"body":"the world, 68 in all Somerset, my local county has most followed by Yorkshire."},{"startTime":309.145,"endTime":315.825,"body":"The chief narrative function of English dragons is to get killed, and the whole point"},{"startTime":315.825,"endTime":320.725,"body":"of the typical dragon story is that slaying one is difficult."},{"startTime":321.215,"endTime":325.405,"body":"There are no specialists and no kit Dragon slaying."},{"startTime":326.075,"endTime":331.525,"body":"Dracony is a one off ad hoc business with no prose."},{"startTime":332.715,"endTime":339.49,"body":"English dragon slayers include five saints ranging from the local to the truly international, such"},{"startTime":339.49,"endTime":340.845,"body":"as Saint George."},{"startTime":341.745,"endTime":349.07,"body":"George was probably a real Roman soldier who got martyred during the great persecution of"},{"startTime":349.07,"endTime":349.559,"body":"Christians under the emperor Diocletian, but he's not actually mentioned by anybody until the sixth"},{"startTime":349.559,"endTime":356.885,"body":"century."},{"startTime":357.885,"endTime":362.845,"body":"A couple of hundred years later, he's first mixed up with a dragon."},{"startTime":363.155,"endTime":371.628,"body":"However, 600 years later in the time of the Crusades, this is almost certainly because"},{"startTime":371.628,"endTime":372.193,"body":"Jaffa in Palestine, which became part of the crusader kingdom, was both one of George's"},{"startTime":372.193,"endTime":387.445,"body":"cult centers and the setting for the ancient legend of Perseus and Andromeda."},{"startTime":388.035,"endTime":394.722,"body":"Perseus rescued Andromeda from a sea monster and his legend got built into George's with"},{"startTime":394.722,"endTime":400.965,"body":"the sea beast turned into the more familiar European monster by the Middle Ages."},{"startTime":401.265,"endTime":406.325,"body":"The dragon and the crusaders then brought the story home to Europe."},{"startTime":408.625,"endTime":414.325,"body":"In modern memory, the classic dragon slayer is a noble knight and there are 24"},{"startTime":414.325,"endTime":415.845,"body":"of those in England."},{"startTime":416.375,"endTime":423.477,"body":"There are, however, also 26 stories in which the slayer is a young artisan, like"},{"startTime":423.477,"endTime":425.845,"body":"a tailor or a cobbler."},{"startTime":426.225,"endTime":432.753,"body":"Now those trades rely on skill and independence, so the majority of English dragon slayers"},{"startTime":432.753,"endTime":435.365,"body":"are working class lads made good."},{"startTime":437.435,"endTime":444.396,"body":"Both traits are needed for the job because a dragon always has a hide too"},{"startTime":444.396,"endTime":447.645,"body":"tough to be pierced by conventional weapons."},{"startTime":448.665,"endTime":453.729,"body":"One solution is to get the dragon to swallow you and then pierce it from"},{"startTime":453.729,"endTime":454.405,"body":"the inside."},{"startTime":456.195,"endTime":460.605,"body":"This is clearly risky \u003claugh\u003e, but it's still a trick."},{"startTime":460.715,"endTime":467.006,"body":"Obvious enough to be found worldwide as a way for really hard heroes to kill"},{"startTime":467.006,"endTime":467.845,"body":"huge monsters."},{"startTime":468.425,"endTime":474.445,"body":"The ancient Gods Indra in India and Marduk in Babylon both used it."},{"startTime":475.035,"endTime":477.845,"body":"Another node is to stab the dragon through the mouth."},{"startTime":477.905,"endTime":481.685,"body":"As it's opens its jaws to swallow you Also tricky."},{"startTime":482.845,"endTime":486.565,"body":"A third, which is the cowardly way, is to poison the beast."},{"startTime":487.305,"endTime":493.04,"body":"The least obvious is to put on spiked armor or get into a barrel studded"},{"startTime":493.04,"endTime":493.805,"body":"with spikes."},{"startTime":494.305,"endTime":500.383,"body":"The dragon then, if it's stupid enough, charges you and impales itself on the spikes"},{"startTime":500.383,"endTime":502.005,"body":"if they're long enough."},{"startTime":502.755,"endTime":510.465,"body":"This idea actually came from watching hedgehogs deal with vipers by rolling into a spiked"},{"startTime":510.465,"endTime":515.605,"body":"ball against which the striking serpent got injured or killed."},{"startTime":517.005,"endTime":522.125,"body":"Whatever the method employed, dragon slaying served two different purposes."},{"startTime":522.745,"endTime":528.595,"body":"One is a monster killing, which is one of the oldest and most timeless forms"},{"startTime":528.595,"endTime":529.765,"body":"of human narrative."},{"startTime":530.465,"endTime":536.193,"body":"The other is a heroic how done it in which the good characters are pitted"},{"startTime":536.193,"endTime":538.485,"body":"against much more powerful and evil."},{"startTime":538.955,"endTime":544.872,"body":"Foes good is expected to win, but until the end, it seems impossible to see"},{"startTime":544.872,"endTime":546.845,"body":"how it can just think."},{"startTime":547.015,"endTime":550.565,"body":"James Bond, star Wars or the Lord of the Rings."},{"startTime":555.105,"endTime":561.325,"body":"It is clear there's a particular boom period in the creation of English dragon legends."},{"startTime":561.915,"endTime":568.606,"body":"This was between 1350 and 1550 when they had got attached to a range of"},{"startTime":568.606,"endTime":574.405,"body":"families and communities got carved in churches and appeared in games and processions."},{"startTime":575.665,"endTime":581.74,"body":"The reason for this is simply that the period followed the adoption of George as"},{"startTime":581.74,"endTime":583.765,"body":"the English national patron saint."},{"startTime":584.345,"endTime":591.445,"body":"His legend then got spread across the country and started the huge popularity of dragon"},{"startTime":591.445,"endTime":594.285,"body":"slaying as an English folk motif."},{"startTime":595.185,"endTime":601.869,"body":"But the basic point of the dragon remains that dragons are there to eat people"},{"startTime":601.869,"endTime":606.325,"body":"and their livestock and then come to a sticky end."},{"startTime":606.325,"endTime":611.314,"body":"In Europe, what they almost never do is guard treasure as they do in a"},{"startTime":611.314,"endTime":612.645,"body":"lot of modern fiction."},{"startTime":613.275,"endTime":620.181,"body":"This is simply because they do guard treasure in a narrow range of Germanic medieval"},{"startTime":620.181,"endTime":620.641,"body":"tales and the most famous a Beowulf and the Volson ga saga where Beowulf and"},{"startTime":620.641,"endTime":621.102,"body":"Siegfried become the dragon killers and two Oxford Dawns who had to teach Beowulf and"},{"startTime":621.102,"endTime":621.562,"body":"the Volson ga saga every week where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, and that's why"},{"startTime":621.562,"endTime":645.045,"body":"treasure guarding dragons are so big in modern fiction."},{"startTime":646.625,"endTime":651.845,"body":"But behind all these traditions lay much older precursors."},{"startTime":652.785,"endTime":660.165,"body":"The ancient Greek heroes killed giant snakes, which English translators of the stories called dragons."},{"startTime":660.585,"endTime":666.032,"body":"The Greeks, however called them pythons, a term employed in the modern world for a"},{"startTime":666.032,"endTime":667.485,"body":"class of real snakes."},{"startTime":667.825,"endTime":674.293,"body":"Of course, the Romans use the term Draco for a mythical kind of winged snake,"},{"startTime":674.293,"endTime":678.605,"body":"and this is the root of the English word dragon."},{"startTime":679.135,"endTime":684.765,"body":"These beasts do things like pulling the chariot of the sorceress Madea."},{"startTime":685.715,"endTime":692.005,"body":"There's also a distinctively Norse version of the dragon, the lindworm."},{"startTime":693.155,"endTime":700.097,"body":"This is a giant snake like the English and Germanic worm, but after it grows"},{"startTime":700.097,"endTime":700.56,"body":"to a certain size it takes to water there it becomes the sea serpent or"},{"startTime":700.56,"endTime":707.965,"body":"lake monster."},{"startTime":708.625,"endTime":714.485,"body":"The greatest in Norse legend was the mid guard serpent, which encircled the whole earth."},{"startTime":716.065,"endTime":722.571,"body":"Unlike dragons in general, Norse Lind worms continued to be cited right up to the"},{"startTime":722.571,"endTime":723.005,"body":"present."},{"startTime":723.905,"endTime":725.445,"body":"In 1894."},{"startTime":726.025,"endTime":732.038,"body":"Two of them were reported in a newspaper as blocking the entrance to the harbor"},{"startTime":732.038,"endTime":734.845,"body":"of the north fishing village of Ervin."},{"startTime":735.785,"endTime":742.594,"body":"The nearest one was dark yellow and 180 feet long, a whaling ship set out"},{"startTime":742.594,"endTime":743.048,"body":"from the nearest big port, very bravely to fight the snakes, but both sensibly vanished"},{"startTime":743.048,"endTime":750.765,"body":"as it approached."},{"startTime":751.545,"endTime":757.774,"body":"Now all this sounds amazingly real, but if it is, then Norse Lind worms are"},{"startTime":757.774,"endTime":758.605,"body":"scrupulously nationalist."},{"startTime":759.395,"endTime":762.365,"body":"Once you cross into Finland, they're absent."},{"startTime":763.315,"endTime":770.497,"body":"Even though Finland has lots of lakes and an enormous seacoast finished dragons live on"},{"startTime":770.497,"endTime":775.285,"body":"hills and only eat fat people and hate eggs \u003claugh\u003e."},{"startTime":775.465,"endTime":780.525,"body":"So children, if you eat up your eggs and stay slim, you are safe."},{"startTime":781.305,"endTime":787.042,"body":"In other words, a creature that on one side of the border can block a"},{"startTime":787.042,"endTime":787.425,"body":"modern fishing port on the other is equivalent to AA mill's bears who only eats"},{"startTime":787.425,"endTime":796.605,"body":"children who tread on the lines between paving stones, \u003claugh\u003e."},{"startTime":797.665,"endTime":804.06,"body":"So what were dragons, I'm going to start with some fun answers, really attractive answers,"},{"startTime":804.06,"endTime":807.045,"body":"but also I think are wrong answers."},{"startTime":807.945,"endTime":816.382,"body":"And the first issue to settle when dealing with these is whether dragons actually existed"},{"startTime":816.382,"endTime":816.945,"body":"as portrayed zoologists were long confident that fire Drakes were physically impossible, but in 1979,"},{"startTime":816.945,"endTime":830.445,"body":"a cryptozoologist called Peter Dickinson showed that they were not."},{"startTime":831.265,"endTime":838.93,"body":"He suggested that they produced hydrogen gas from hydrochloric acid in their stomachs, which was"},{"startTime":838.93,"endTime":841.485,"body":"burned off through their mouths."},{"startTime":841.995,"endTime":848.543,"body":"This enabled them to descend in flight like balloons burning off gas, and of course,"},{"startTime":848.543,"endTime":848.98,"body":"the acid completely consumed their bodies after death, which is why we never find their"},{"startTime":848.98,"endTime":855.965,"body":"remains \u003claugh\u003e."},{"startTime":856.665,"endTime":858.805,"body":"The theory is wonderful."},{"startTime":859.625,"endTime":865.553,"body":"It is also however incapable of proof, and it's hard to see how stomach acid"},{"startTime":865.553,"endTime":867.925,"body":"could consume an entire huge body."},{"startTime":868.605,"endTime":874.445,"body":"Moreover, no dragon legend describes a fire Drake imploding after death."},{"startTime":875.515,"endTime":881.245,"body":"Instead, were often told how parts of the body were preserved as trophies."},{"startTime":882.395,"endTime":889.722,"body":"Another theory was popularized by John Michel in 1969, which imposed the Chinese view of"},{"startTime":889.722,"endTime":892.165,"body":"dragons on the entire world."},{"startTime":892.945,"endTime":898.708,"body":"It picked up on the Chinese idea that dragons moved along currents of natural energy"},{"startTime":898.708,"endTime":900.245,"body":"that crossed the earth."},{"startTime":901.235,"endTime":906.816,"body":"John gave these currents the English name of Lays, lay lines and declared that the"},{"startTime":906.816,"endTime":910.165,"body":"Chinese belief had been held across the whole planet."},{"startTime":911.185,"endTime":919.791,"body":"He declared that also the European hostility towards dragons have been imposed by repressive medieval"},{"startTime":919.791,"endTime":920.365,"body":"Christianity."},{"startTime":921.195,"endTime":925.525,"body":"This turned benevolent earth energies into satanic monsters."},{"startTime":926.545,"endTime":933.49,"body":"His book was the main force in catalyzing the whole late 20th century enthusiasm for"},{"startTime":933.49,"endTime":935.805,"body":"mapping and dowsing lay lines."},{"startTime":936.565,"endTime":942.805,"body":"I acknowledge readily that this has given great pleasure and re enchanted the landscape for"},{"startTime":942.805,"endTime":944.885,"body":"many people in dragon law."},{"startTime":944.885,"endTime":947.765,"body":"However, John got things the wrong way round."},{"startTime":948.475,"endTime":954.971,"body":"It's the Chinese belief in benevolent dragon light creatures, which is anomalous in a world"},{"startTime":954.971,"endTime":955.405,"body":"context."},{"startTime":956.275,"endTime":964.109,"body":"Most peoples have treated giants, reptilian beasts as monsters, and the European antipathy towards them"},{"startTime":964.109,"endTime":967.765,"body":"goes as indicated way back before Christianity."},{"startTime":969.155,"endTime":976.61,"body":"There's also a psychological explanation for dragon stories that they are simply metaphors for predatory"},{"startTime":976.61,"endTime":977.605,"body":"human beings."},{"startTime":977.995,"endTime":979.845,"body":"They're certainly used as such."},{"startTime":980.305,"endTime":987.91,"body":"In history, the Romans had dragon standards like wind socks on poles, which made a"},{"startTime":987.91,"endTime":990.445,"body":"roaring sound as cavalry charged."},{"startTime":991.155,"endTime":997.9,"body":"This is incidentally the only historical detail which Jerry Bruckheimer filmed about King Arthur got"},{"startTime":997.9,"endTime":998.35,"body":"right, but we were treated to Keira Knightly in a leather bikini to console those"},{"startTime":998.35,"endTime":1006.445,"body":"looking for historical accuracy."},{"startTime":1006.765,"endTime":1012.405,"body":"\u003claugh\u003e the Vikings famously had dragon figureheads on the ships."},{"startTime":1013.035,"endTime":1015.925,"body":"Both groups ravaged lands and demanded tribute."},{"startTime":1016.665,"endTime":1022.651,"body":"The trouble here is that Romans and Vikings used the dragon for as a symbol"},{"startTime":1022.651,"endTime":1026.243,"body":"for ferocity because the concept of it already existed."},{"startTime":1027.115,"endTime":1032.598,"body":"It's also not obvious that dragons function well as a metaphor for armed bands of"},{"startTime":1032.598,"endTime":1032.964,"body":"humans."},{"startTime":1033.515,"endTime":1036.005,"body":"They seem to be much more like animal predators."},{"startTime":1037.025,"endTime":1044.483,"body":"So we now come to explanations, which I think to be credible, but marginal."},{"startTime":1047.145,"endTime":1051.045,"body":"One is that dragons are the result of freak meteorology."},{"startTime":1052.245,"endTime":1059.62,"body":"Medieval chronicles are bound in references to fiery dragons seen high in the air and"},{"startTime":1059.62,"endTime":1064.045,"body":"meteors and comets could account for all of these."},{"startTime":1064.925,"endTime":1070.475,"body":"Medieval and early modern night skies were very bright as there was though little human"},{"startTime":1070.475,"endTime":1070.845,"body":"lighting."},{"startTime":1071.955,"endTime":1076.245,"body":"Some dragons could also have been misidentified real animals."},{"startTime":1077.105,"endTime":1083.805,"body":"The closest real beast to dragons are crocodiles, which can grow up to 30 feet"},{"startTime":1083.805,"endTime":1086.485,"body":"in length and way three tons."},{"startTime":1087.235,"endTime":1089.645,"body":"They're also highly predatory."},{"startTime":1090.155,"endTime":1096.728,"body":"Even today, they kill an average 5,000 people a year more than any other species"},{"startTime":1096.728,"endTime":1097.605,"body":"except humans."},{"startTime":1098.885,"endTime":1107.375,"body":"A so-called dragon exhibited Durham in 1569 was a crocodile and escaped crocodilians would explain"},{"startTime":1107.375,"endTime":1110.205,"body":"some local medieval dragon legends."},{"startTime":1110.945,"endTime":1111.925,"body":"The dragon of St."},{"startTime":1111.955,"endTime":1117.325,"body":"Leonard's Forest described in a pamphlet of 1614."},{"startTime":1117.985,"endTime":1125.173,"body":"The foresters in Sussex was a giant snake which reared up and approached, killed people"},{"startTime":1125.173,"endTime":1130.925,"body":"and dogs with its bite ate rabbits and vanished when winter came."},{"startTime":1131.625,"endTime":1137.28,"body":"Now, this would fit an escaped king cobra or mamba in all those details, including"},{"startTime":1137.28,"endTime":1139.165,"body":"not being able to survive."},{"startTime":1139.255,"endTime":1147.365,"body":"Frost accidents of natural history can also plausibly explain bits of dragon law."},{"startTime":1148.235,"endTime":1155.885,"body":"Hems are sometimes born with insufficient estrogen and develop the physical characteristics of Cox."},{"startTime":1156.755,"endTime":1164.903,"body":"Sometimes the hormonal balance is rectified and they lay eggs in pre-Modern societies also hens"},{"startTime":1164.903,"endTime":1171.965,"body":"often suffered from roundworms, which could get from the animal into its eggs."},{"startTime":1172.715,"endTime":1176.605,"body":"When such an egg was cracked, the riving worm was revealed."},{"startTime":1177.165,"endTime":1183.405,"body":"A newborn basal lisc, which you may remember, was supposed to be hatched from an"},{"startTime":1183.405,"endTime":1185.485,"body":"egg laid by a cock."},{"startTime":1186.585,"endTime":1193.358,"body":"All these factors, in my opinion, do indeed credibly explain certain dragon legends or classes"},{"startTime":1193.358,"endTime":1195.165,"body":"of reference to dragons."},{"startTime":1195.575,"endTime":1201.717,"body":"There is, however, an obvious problem with them as a general source of explanation, even"},{"startTime":1201.717,"endTime":1203.765,"body":"when they're all rolled together."},{"startTime":1204.915,"endTime":1213.099,"body":"That is all the comets, meteors, crocodilians, cobras, and worm infested eggs presuppose an existing"},{"startTime":1213.099,"endTime":1213.645,"body":"idea."},{"startTime":1214.435,"endTime":1220.89,"body":"When you look up into a medieval sky and see a meteor, you don't think"},{"startTime":1220.89,"endTime":1226.485,"body":"it's a flying fire, breathing reptile unless you already believe in such beasts."},{"startTime":1228.345,"endTime":1233.548,"body":"To get to the real roots of the belief in dragons, we're going to have"},{"startTime":1233.548,"endTime":1238.405,"body":"to dig deeper, but first I need to do two bits of tidying up."},{"startTime":1239.105,"endTime":1245.69,"body":"The first is to suggest an origin for the most distinctive and classic form of"},{"startTime":1245.69,"endTime":1247.885,"body":"European dragon, the fire Drake."},{"startTime":1248.665,"endTime":1256.485,"body":"No other culture and time has produced a predatory big reptilian monster that breathes fire."},{"startTime":1257.625,"endTime":1263.966,"body":"I'd suggest it comes from just one source, and that happens to be the book"},{"startTime":1263.966,"endTime":1269.885,"body":"that medieval and early modern Europeans read, respected and believed more than any other."},{"startTime":1270.385,"endTime":1270.885,"body":"The Bible."},{"startTime":1272.145,"endTime":1278.651,"body":"The relevant passage isn't the Book of Job chapter 41, and it's spoken by God"},{"startTime":1278.651,"endTime":1279.085,"body":"himself."},{"startTime":1279.195,"endTime":1280.805,"body":"This is actually very rare."},{"startTime":1281.845,"endTime":1289.549,"body":"Jehovah almost never speaks in the first person in the Bible, and it begins Leviathan"},{"startTime":1289.549,"endTime":1294.685,"body":"and it then goes on to say, have you draw?"},{"startTime":1294.825,"endTime":1298.565,"body":"Can you draw out to Leviathan with a hook or his tongue with a cord?"},{"startTime":1298.825,"endTime":1305.267,"body":"And it then goes on for a number of verses to portray a gigantic monster"},{"startTime":1305.267,"endTime":1305.696,"body":"with terrible, sharp teeth scales so close together that no weapon can possibly pierce them"},{"startTime":1305.696,"endTime":1306.126,"body":"and out of his mouth go burning lamps and sparks of fire, leap out out"},{"startTime":1306.126,"endTime":1324.165,"body":"of his nostrils, go with smoke as out of a seething pot or cauldron."},{"startTime":1325.675,"endTime":1330.698,"body":"And it then goes on to say about, uh, his heart being like a stone,"},{"startTime":1330.698,"endTime":1331.032,"body":"about how swords and spears are useless against him and how he makes the deep"},{"startTime":1331.032,"endTime":1338.735,"body":"boil like a pot, the deep being the sea."},{"startTime":1339.155,"endTime":1341.295,"body":"He makes the sea like a pot of ointment."},{"startTime":1341.955,"endTime":1344.255,"body":"He makes a path to shine after him."},{"startTime":1344.755,"endTime":1347.015,"body":"He is a king over the kingdom of pride."},{"startTime":1348.875,"endTime":1355.288,"body":"By the 17th century when Christians were starting to understand the natural world better, it"},{"startTime":1355.288,"endTime":1355.716,"body":"became generally concluded that the leviathan as a sperm whale, this is probably correct if"},{"startTime":1355.716,"endTime":1356.143,"body":"a plume of water from its blowhole was mistaken for smoke and that therefore it"},{"startTime":1356.143,"endTime":1356.571,"body":"was concluded that an animal blowing smoke out of its head must have a fire"},{"startTime":1356.571,"endTime":1377.095,"body":"in its mouth to medieval readers."},{"startTime":1377.565,"endTime":1384.436,"body":"Therefore, what you have here is a huge scaly fire breathing monster with terrible teeth"},{"startTime":1384.436,"endTime":1384.894,"body":"apparently found in both land and sea with a hide impervious to conventional weapons apart"},{"startTime":1384.894,"endTime":1385.352,"body":"from the wings, which could be added to account for the way in which it"},{"startTime":1385.352,"endTime":1399.095,"body":"spans environments."},{"startTime":1399.605,"endTime":1400.895,"body":"This is a blueprint."},{"startTime":1401.405,"endTime":1408.809,"body":"Fire drag leviathans are mentioned briefly elsewhere in the Old Testament, such as an Isaiah,"},{"startTime":1408.809,"endTime":1409.303,"body":"and always with the reputation of being the most terrifying of animals, more powerful and"},{"startTime":1409.303,"endTime":1417.695,"body":"deadly than lions."},{"startTime":1418.395,"endTime":1424.046,"body":"To those who regarded the Bible as the literal word of God, which is most"},{"startTime":1424.046,"endTime":1424.423,"body":"Christians till the 19th century, something that he speaks in the first person is going"},{"startTime":1424.423,"endTime":1431.205,"body":"to carry particular weight."},{"startTime":1431.865,"endTime":1438.148,"body":"No wonder the fire Drake became the classic monster of the Christian world from the"},{"startTime":1438.148,"endTime":1439.405,"body":"Anglo-Saxon Times onwards."},{"startTime":1439.915,"endTime":1445.89,"body":"This isn't a theory of mine, it's uh, shared widely among crypto zoologists and I'm"},{"startTime":1445.89,"endTime":1447.085,"body":"simply endorsing it."},{"startTime":1447.915,"endTime":1454.549,"body":"There's a final loose end to be tied that dragons are now once again really"},{"startTime":1454.549,"endTime":1457.645,"body":"big business in fantasy literature and screenplays."},{"startTime":1458.495,"endTime":1465.015,"body":"There have been dozens of fantasy novels with Dragon or Dragons in the title published"},{"startTime":1465.015,"endTime":1465.885,"body":"since 1970."},{"startTime":1466.635,"endTime":1473.425,"body":"What is striking about them is that most regard dragons as a good thing as"},{"startTime":1473.425,"endTime":1478.405,"body":"essentially intelligent and sensitive beasts that can be allies of humans."},{"startTime":1479.565,"endTime":1483.405,"body":"I am your dragon Aragon, in particular."},{"startTime":1483.465,"endTime":1490.391,"body":"The 1970s threw up a new sort of hero or heroine, the dragon rider who"},{"startTime":1490.391,"endTime":1494.085,"body":"treats the beasts both as steeds and companions."},{"startTime":1494.575,"endTime":1500.377,"body":"These were the work of Anne McCaffery, an Irish woman who moved to America and"},{"startTime":1500.377,"endTime":1501.925,"body":"who really loved horses."},{"startTime":1502.585,"endTime":1509.98,"body":"And so her flying dragons are actually horses that breathe fire and look like dragons"},{"startTime":1509.98,"endTime":1512.445,"body":"and have horse like characteristics."},{"startTime":1512.915,"endTime":1518.944,"body":"What has happened is that the physical form of the classic European dragon, the fire"},{"startTime":1518.944,"endTime":1519.346,"body":"Drake, has been combined with the spiritual form of the classic Chinese dragon in a"},{"startTime":1519.346,"endTime":1519.748,"body":"western world that is kinder and greener and doesn't have to worry any longer about"},{"startTime":1519.748,"endTime":1531.405,"body":"predators."},{"startTime":1532.275,"endTime":1538.458,"body":"This combination has taken place logically enough in the nation, which is both the current"},{"startTime":1538.458,"endTime":1543.405,"body":"leader of the globe and lies midway between Europe and China America."},{"startTime":1544.505,"endTime":1550.685,"body":"Now it's time to discuss the most fundamental aspects of the concept of the dragon."},{"startTime":1552.525,"endTime":1558.685,"body":"European dragons occupy a very specific animal relationship with humanity."},{"startTime":1559.435,"endTime":1566.165,"body":"They're what the American eco journalists David Kwaman has named the Alpha Predator."},{"startTime":1567.215,"endTime":1574.335,"body":"Great and terrible flesh eating beasts were part of the ecological matrix within which our"},{"startTime":1574.335,"endTime":1575.285,"body":"species evolved."},{"startTime":1575.995,"endTime":1581.605,"body":"They were part of the psychological context within which we formed our identity."},{"startTime":1582.355,"endTime":1587.485,"body":"They were part of the spiritual systems that we developed for coping with the cosmos."},{"startTime":1587.815,"endTime":1596.781,"body":"Their ferocity and hunger and complete violation of our sense of self and of self-worth"},{"startTime":1596.781,"endTime":1597.379,"body":"were grim realities that could be alluded but not forgotten to nearly all early humanity"},{"startTime":1597.379,"endTime":1611.725,"body":"and to traditional peoples right up until almost the present."},{"startTime":1612.315,"endTime":1615.365,"body":"They were a familiar kind of capricious misfortune."},{"startTime":1616.655,"endTime":1623.598,"body":"Among the earliest forms of human self-awareness must have been the awareness of being prey,"},{"startTime":1623.598,"endTime":1627.765,"body":"even in the most modernized and well-protected modern societies."},{"startTime":1628.885,"endTime":1636.395,"body":"Zoological, mellow drama Aja described by detractors as predator porn, whether it be Jaws alien,"},{"startTime":1636.395,"endTime":1643.405,"body":"deep Blue Sea, lake Placid, or Jurassic Park is a well-established form of entertainment."},{"startTime":1644.985,"endTime":1649.525,"body":"An alpha predator, however, is not just any animal that eats humans."},{"startTime":1650.195,"endTime":1655.165,"body":"It's a solitary hunter, which makes a one-to-one relationship with its prey."},{"startTime":1656.325,"endTime":1663.41,"body":"Predators that hunt in packs like cowards, however dangerous to humans such as hyenas, wild"},{"startTime":1663.41,"endTime":1666.245,"body":"dogs and wolves do not qualify."},{"startTime":1667.385,"endTime":1672.895,"body":"On the other hand, a lone big rogue wolf does in a region which has"},{"startTime":1672.895,"endTime":1674.365,"body":"no more frightening wildlife."},{"startTime":1675.645,"endTime":1681.465,"body":"Elephants kill more people every year than any other mammal, but they don't count because"},{"startTime":1681.465,"endTime":1683.405,"body":"they don't eat their victims."},{"startTime":1683.955,"endTime":1685.165,"body":"They have never been made."},{"startTime":1685.665,"endTime":1687.445,"body":"The mythological alpha predator."},{"startTime":1688.385,"endTime":1694.085,"body":"The very real human fear of predators means that a good Lord or chief in"},{"startTime":1694.085,"endTime":1694.465,"body":"a traditional human society is at least in theory, in the position of a shepherd"},{"startTime":1694.465,"endTime":1700.925,"body":"to his flock."},{"startTime":1701.625,"endTime":1707.165,"body":"He is there to guard its members against both human and animal foes."},{"startTime":1707.665,"endTime":1713.879,"body":"And the greater the hero, the more spectacular is the predator against which he has"},{"startTime":1713.879,"endTime":1714.293,"body":"matched the oldest surviving piece of literature, the epic of Gilgamesh has a battle between"},{"startTime":1714.293,"endTime":1722.165,"body":"a king and a monster."},{"startTime":1722.865,"endTime":1731.165,"body":"At the center of the story, the greatest heroes of their respective peoples Hercules, alias,"},{"startTime":1731.165,"endTime":1737.805,"body":"Hercules, and Beowulf were serious killers of pre serial killers of predators."},{"startTime":1739.345,"endTime":1746.971,"body":"It also matters that human societies tend to have room for only one alpha predator"},{"startTime":1746.971,"endTime":1749.005,"body":"in their imaginative space."},{"startTime":1749.785,"endTime":1758.005,"body":"Across most of the old world, the predator of human symbolic choice is the lion."},{"startTime":1758.945,"endTime":1766.885,"body":"It features as such in both Greek myth, hence Heracles and the Bible, hence Samson."},{"startTime":1767.465,"endTime":1774.539,"body":"And one of the chief duties of an ancient near Eastern king was to kill"},{"startTime":1774.539,"endTime":1775.01,"body":"lions personally as a sign of royal prowess, and so an ability to defend his"},{"startTime":1775.01,"endTime":1782.085,"body":"people."},{"startTime":1782.895,"endTime":1789.618,"body":"Lions always stood in for foreign foes when none of the latter are currently available"},{"startTime":1789.618,"endTime":1793.205,"body":"in ancient India and Persia and tribal Africa."},{"startTime":1793.745,"endTime":1797.125,"body":"To be a ruler, likewise meant being a lion killer."},{"startTime":1797.935,"endTime":1801.925,"body":"Other predators took over only where lions didn't exist."},{"startTime":1802.665,"endTime":1808.565,"body":"For example, in India, outside Lion country where the tiger stood in across most of"},{"startTime":1808.565,"endTime":1813.285,"body":"the rest of East Asia and eastern Siberia where there were tigers."},{"startTime":1813.625,"endTime":1819.155,"body":"And in West Africa where the next cat down the pecking or biting order was"},{"startTime":1819.155,"endTime":1824.685,"body":"the leopard, you can go on down the scale it lands with no big cats."},{"startTime":1825.305,"endTime":1831.651,"body":"The bear is the alpha predator and where there are no big land animals at"},{"startTime":1831.651,"endTime":1832.075,"body":"all, the crocodile or the shark takes over In medieval Europe, however, the alpha predator"},{"startTime":1832.075,"endTime":1838.845,"body":"was missing."},{"startTime":1839.975,"endTime":1844.765,"body":"Lions disappeared from almost all of Europe at the end of the ice age."},{"startTime":1845.305,"endTime":1852.514,"body":"The European brown bear is much less dangerous than other species, and very rarely do"},{"startTime":1852.514,"endTime":1852.994,"body":"European wolves produce the giant lone serial killer of humans that is needed to qualify"},{"startTime":1852.994,"endTime":1861.165,"body":"as a mythological."},{"startTime":1861.615,"endTime":1864.445,"body":"Alpha predator lions stayed pretty close."},{"startTime":1865.195,"endTime":1871.68,"body":"They survived in Turkey until the 1870s and an Algerian Morocco till the 1920s, but"},{"startTime":1871.68,"endTime":1878.165,"body":"they were never even by the new stone age, an actual menace to most Europeans."},{"startTime":1878.995,"endTime":1886.32,"body":"Instead, the lion's reputation as the nce of great kings and the lordly appearance and"},{"startTime":1886.32,"endTime":1893.645,"body":"flamboyant behavior of the male lion made it the royal beast par excellence to Europeans."},{"startTime":1894.385,"endTime":1898.805,"body":"In the medieval besties, it stood for courage and regality."},{"startTime":1899.425,"endTime":1906.381,"body":"It became the most common symbol of West European rulers, especially in Britain, Spain and"},{"startTime":1906.381,"endTime":1906.845,"body":"Germany."},{"startTime":1907.425,"endTime":1910.845,"body":"The British lions still roars for us today."},{"startTime":1912.165,"endTime":1917.925,"body":"Europeans therefore had an imaginative need for an alpha predator that was even more powerful"},{"startTime":1917.925,"endTime":1918.309,"body":"and terrifying than the lion, and which could be treated as an emblem of evil"},{"startTime":1918.309,"endTime":1925.605,"body":"as well as a ferocity."},{"startTime":1926.065,"endTime":1929.485,"body":"The dragon filled that conceptual gap."},{"startTime":1930.475,"endTime":1936.403,"body":"This does, however, invite the question of why medieval Europeans would've thought that the dragon"},{"startTime":1936.403,"endTime":1936.799,"body":"was more native to their lambs than the lion, so it could be appropriated for"},{"startTime":1936.799,"endTime":1946.285,"body":"the job and why they thought it was so real."},{"startTime":1948.455,"endTime":1956.446,"body":"There is absolutely no evidence for dragon like creatures actually surviving on land in Europe"},{"startTime":1956.446,"endTime":1958.045,"body":"during historic times."},{"startTime":1958.705,"endTime":1965.805,"body":"Things get a lot trickier and more interesting, however, as soon as we hit deep"},{"startTime":1965.805,"endTime":1966.278,"body":"water, whereas nobody nowadays claims to see fire, Drakes worms or Basalis lake and sea"},{"startTime":1966.278,"endTime":1977.165,"body":"monsters are regularly reported across the world, including Britain."},{"startTime":1977.575,"endTime":1980.005,"body":"Hence Lochness zoological."},{"startTime":1980.555,"endTime":1984.685,"body":"There's still a lot of mileage and a lindworm or a sea serpent."},{"startTime":1986.385,"endTime":1989.805,"body":"We do have some good candidates for these among real creatures."},{"startTime":1990.465,"endTime":1995.997,"body":"One is the ribbon fish, which is the fish on the screen, which is a"},{"startTime":1995.997,"endTime":1996.366,"body":"rare species of eel that often grows to more than 20 feet and has red"},{"startTime":1996.366,"endTime":2006.325,"body":"spines running down its back, which rise to a crest on its head."},{"startTime":2007.625,"endTime":2016.61,"body":"In addition, the natural decomposition of carcasses can turn even well-known marine species studied at"},{"startTime":2016.61,"endTime":2019.605,"body":"close quarters into fabulous beasts."},{"startTime":2020.345,"endTime":2028.472,"body":"In 1977, the Japanese National Museum of Natural Science identified photographs of a huge corpse"},{"startTime":2028.472,"endTime":2029.014,"body":"trawled up by fishermen off New Zealand as showing a prehistoric CIA saw only when"},{"startTime":2029.014,"endTime":2043.645,"body":"tissues saved from the body and its merciful tissues were saved, were examined."},{"startTime":2043.985,"endTime":2049.25,"body":"Did it turn out to be a badly rotted blue shark whom decomposition had turned"},{"startTime":2049.25,"endTime":2051.005,"body":"into the shape of aple?"},{"startTime":2051.425,"endTime":2058.316,"body":"Saw many reports of sea serpents are now attributed by marine biologists to sightings of"},{"startTime":2058.316,"endTime":2058.775,"body":"the giant squid, the long tentacles of which can easily be taken for the body"},{"startTime":2058.775,"endTime":2067.045,"body":"of a huge serpent."},{"startTime":2067.695,"endTime":2073.434,"body":"Giant squids can grow to more than a hundred feet in length, over half of"},{"startTime":2073.434,"endTime":2074.965,"body":"which are the tentacles."},{"startTime":2075.905,"endTime":2082.342,"body":"And mistaking a giant squid for a sea serpent is even easier if the squid"},{"startTime":2082.342,"endTime":2082.771,"body":"concerned is dead and dismembered and the tentacles appear to form one continuous creature on"},{"startTime":2082.771,"endTime":2090.925,"body":"the surface of the sea."},{"startTime":2092.025,"endTime":2095.605,"body":"Having said that, however, we still face two puzzles."},{"startTime":2096.344,"endTime":2102.805,"body":"One is that there are simply no known animals that correspond to some of the"},{"startTime":2102.805,"endTime":2108.405,"body":"detailed descriptions of sea and lake monsters provided by observers over the centuries."},{"startTime":2108.835,"endTime":2110.325,"body":"There's still a mystery here."},{"startTime":2111.285,"endTime":2117.922,"body":"Remember that 180 foot yellow serpent just off the harbor of air vCAN and its"},{"startTime":2117.922,"endTime":2118.365,"body":"mate."},{"startTime":2119.905,"endTime":2129.075,"body":"The other is that we're still no nearer finding real animals which correspond to the"},{"startTime":2129.075,"endTime":2129.686,"body":"European land dragons so prominent in tradition, I'd suggest they were indeed prehistoric monsters, but"},{"startTime":2129.686,"endTime":2142.525,"body":"safely dead, not living fossils, just fossils."},{"startTime":2143.415,"endTime":2150.844,"body":"Since Homosapiens first acquired its capacity for reasoning, humans will have noted that huge bones"},{"startTime":2150.844,"endTime":2151.339,"body":"weather out of the rocks offered of creatures with teeth like steak knives in powerful"},{"startTime":2151.339,"endTime":2161.245,"body":"jaws plus grasping claws and horns."},{"startTime":2162.195,"endTime":2168.852,"body":"It's would have been obvious to the observers that such beasts no longer lived in"},{"startTime":2168.852,"endTime":2169.296,"body":"the lands, concerned to humans before the sciences of geology and paleontology and the concept"},{"startTime":2169.296,"endTime":2177.285,"body":"of evolution had appeared."},{"startTime":2178.105,"endTime":2184.205,"body":"The obvious explanation was they'd been exterminated, given their size and ferocity."},{"startTime":2184.665,"endTime":2189.165,"body":"It had to have been heroes who did it at times."},{"startTime":2189.425,"endTime":2195.015,"body":"In the case of dragons, we can be much more specific Every time that a"},{"startTime":2195.015,"endTime":2195.388,"body":"relic of a historic dragon has actually been preserved, it turns out to be a"},{"startTime":2195.388,"endTime":2201.725,"body":"long extinct animal."},{"startTime":2202.625,"endTime":2208.41,"body":"One of the most famous European dragons was that of klar and foot in Austria,"},{"startTime":2208.41,"endTime":2210.725,"body":"slain by a duke of Austria."},{"startTime":2211.705,"endTime":2216.573,"body":"Its skull was displayed in the town hall until the 19th century when it was"},{"startTime":2216.573,"endTime":2218.845,"body":"identified as that of a woolly rhinoceros."},{"startTime":2219.715,"endTime":2226.845,"body":"Another Austrian, the paleontologist EO arbel studied dragon legends in 1914."},{"startTime":2227.865,"endTime":2235.187,"body":"He realized that the cave systems traditionally identifies the layers of the beasts, often contain"},{"startTime":2235.187,"endTime":2241.045,"body":"the bones of cave bears, massive ice age predators with sharp teeth."},{"startTime":2241.945,"endTime":2248.749,"body":"The head of the dragon of kil Somerset was preserved and as that of one"},{"startTime":2248.749,"endTime":2251.925,"body":"of the Jurassic marine reptiles called IAOs."},{"startTime":2252.865,"endTime":2260.073,"body":"The reason why Somerset is richer in dragon legends than any other county may simply"},{"startTime":2260.073,"endTime":2260.553,"body":"be that its limestone rocks preserve fossil remains is especially those of IAOs police souls"},{"startTime":2260.553,"endTime":2270.165,"body":"and ply saws with great clarity."},{"startTime":2271.145,"endTime":2279.084,"body":"And ply saws, just for the record, are the biggest carnivorous animals that the planet"},{"startTime":2279.084,"endTime":2285.965,"body":"has ever produced, truly terrifying beasts, and they look at in their skeletons."},{"startTime":2286.945,"endTime":2293.395,"body":"We can be a lot more sure of this now because of the work of"},{"startTime":2293.395,"endTime":2298.125,"body":"Adrian Maya, a classicist who also understands paleontology, a rare combination."},{"startTime":2298.905,"endTime":2305.767,"body":"She points out that ancient literature is full of references to giant bones where skeletons"},{"startTime":2305.767,"endTime":2309.885,"body":"are found in fossil beds superimposed on each other."},{"startTime":2310.665,"endTime":2316.302,"body":"It would be easy to see how these could reasonably give rise to tales of"},{"startTime":2316.302,"endTime":2319.685,"body":"hybrid beefs, such as cental and the chime era."},{"startTime":2320.945,"endTime":2329.545,"body":"She has also pointed to two specific sources of dragon legends."},{"startTime":2332.165,"endTime":2339.185,"body":"One is that of the griffin, the half lion, half eagle beast of European legend."},{"startTime":2340.045,"endTime":2345.688,"body":"The ancient Greeks invented the idea of griffins and they placed their homeland in central"},{"startTime":2345.688,"endTime":2346.065,"body":"Asia."},{"startTime":2346.685,"endTime":2351.848,"body":"Now that region is full of fossils of beaked dinosaurs, which look very much like"},{"startTime":2351.848,"endTime":2353.225,"body":"the griffins of myth."},{"startTime":2354.085,"endTime":2361.11,"body":"The other is much more particular to dragons and consists of one of the most"},{"startTime":2361.11,"endTime":2361.578,"body":"influential sources of dragon law, the biography of the philosopher Apollonius of Tiana, written by"},{"startTime":2361.578,"endTime":2370.945,"body":"Philosophists in the imperial Roman period."},{"startTime":2371.645,"endTime":2378.957,"body":"It included a description of a journey that Apollonius had made to northern India, in"},{"startTime":2378.957,"endTime":2379.445,"body":"which he described huge scaly serpentine monsters in two main species, one smooth headed and"},{"startTime":2379.445,"endTime":2379.932,"body":"the other larger and crested this account, the result of one Greek taking the hippie"},{"startTime":2379.932,"endTime":2380.42,"body":"trail across Persia to India in the first centuries of the common era became the"},{"startTime":2380.42,"endTime":2406.745,"body":"basis of a considerable amount of medieval and early modern dragon law."},{"startTime":2406.805,"endTime":2412.585,"body":"His account repeated wholesale and works on dragons right up to the 17th century."},{"startTime":2413.925,"endTime":2420.657,"body":"Adrian and Mayer pointed out that apollonius route into India along the old Persian royal"},{"startTime":2420.657,"endTime":2421.106,"body":"road would've taken him under the SWA hills, which are full of bones of huge"},{"startTime":2421.106,"endTime":2429.185,"body":"extinct crocodiles and mammals."},{"startTime":2429.805,"endTime":2436.385,"body":"One vivid detail in Apollonius story has a direct parallel in the swale."},{"startTime":2436.895,"endTime":2442.65,"body":"This is the information that one kind of Indian dragon had a jewel in the"},{"startTime":2442.65,"endTime":2444.185,"body":"center of its skull."},{"startTime":2444.755,"endTime":2448.025,"body":"Again, a motif that passed into European dragon law."},{"startTime":2448.725,"endTime":2454.929,"body":"As it happens, the rocks of the swale form crystals and these often grow inside"},{"startTime":2454.929,"endTime":2457.825,"body":"the larger fossil skulls in the hills."},{"startTime":2459.285,"endTime":2467.066,"body":"Adrian Mayer picked up and other certain or probable connections between ancient myths and fossil"},{"startTime":2467.066,"endTime":2467.585,"body":"remains."},{"startTime":2468.405,"endTime":2475.388,"body":"She noted that the Greek historian Herodotus had said that great flying serpents lived in"},{"startTime":2475.388,"endTime":2476.785,"body":"the Egyptian desert."},{"startTime":2477.815,"endTime":2486.33,"body":"This may have been inspired by the sight of the bones of the enormous sail"},{"startTime":2486.33,"endTime":2494.845,"body":"backed predatory dinosaur spinosaurus, which is the super nasty of Steven Spielberg's film, Jurassic Park."},{"startTime":2494.935,"endTime":2501.999,"body":"Three more certain is the alleged discovery of the skeleton of the monster slain by"},{"startTime":2501.999,"endTime":2502.47,"body":"Perseus to rescue Andromeda, which was dug up in imperial Roman times at the traditional"},{"startTime":2502.47,"endTime":2514.245,"body":"setting of the tale at dropper, the modern Jaffa in Palestine."},{"startTime":2514.865,"endTime":2518.445,"body":"It was brought to Rome and had a 40 foot backbone."},{"startTime":2518.795,"endTime":2521.925,"body":"Clearly this was some kind of prehistoric beast."},{"startTime":2523.235,"endTime":2531.351,"body":"It's notable that China and Europe lands of dragon law par excellence, a both exceptionally"},{"startTime":2531.351,"endTime":2537.845,"body":"rich in fossil bearing rocks that produce big ferocious looking extinct beasts."},{"startTime":2538.315,"endTime":2545.945,"body":"Chinese fossils have been called dragons bones since records begin, but China didn't make the"},{"startTime":2545.945,"endTime":2546.453,"body":"dragon the alpha predator of its myths because it had enormous striped alpha predators on"},{"startTime":2546.453,"endTime":2561.205,"body":"its premises already, the tigers that ate the Chinese in large numbers until the 1930s."},{"startTime":2561.905,"endTime":2568.245,"body":"And so the tiger hunter became the classic hero of China's."},{"startTime":2568.355,"endTime":2575.04,"body":"China's mythology and legend, and these harmless, enormous bony beasts weathering outta the rock became"},{"startTime":2575.04,"endTime":2581.725,"body":"associated with the energies of the earth from which they came and regarded as benevolent."},{"startTime":2582.545,"endTime":2584.765,"body":"It is time to conclude."},{"startTime":2586.325,"endTime":2591.645,"body":"I would suggest three stages of creation of dragon myth."},{"startTime":2592.305,"endTime":2599.18,"body":"The first is the general human need for stories about alpha predators and the ancestral"},{"startTime":2599.18,"endTime":2599.638,"body":"fear of great reptilian beasts, crocodiles and snakes from our emost human past in the"},{"startTime":2599.638,"endTime":2608.805,"body":"Africa from which our species came."},{"startTime":2609.665,"endTime":2617.496,"body":"The second is the discovery of giant fossils and the sighting of mysterious sea beasts"},{"startTime":2617.496,"endTime":2624.805,"body":"supplying the apparent objective evidence that these things had been and still were around."},{"startTime":2625.865,"endTime":2632.307,"body":"And the third is that regional traditions then form Europe gets dragons as alpha predators"},{"startTime":2632.307,"endTime":2634.885,"body":"because it lacks them in reality."},{"startTime":2635.825,"endTime":2642.35,"body":"And then the Christian fire Drake, out of the Book of Job China got benevolent"},{"startTime":2642.35,"endTime":2644.525,"body":"dragons moving along energy lines."},{"startTime":2645.945,"endTime":2652.057,"body":"So I think I've answered my last two questions, and I think that if you"},{"startTime":2652.057,"endTime":2652.465,"body":"want to go dragon hunting or communing with dragons, all you need to do is"},{"startTime":2652.465,"endTime":2662.245,"body":"go fossil hunting, but just stay out of the water."},{"startTime":2663.045,"endTime":2663.125,"body":"\u003claugh\u003e,"},{"startTime":2673.225,"endTime":2675.685,"body":"Do you have a favorite dragon \u003claugh\u003e?"},{"startTime":2677.065,"endTime":2680.845,"body":"Yes, it's, uh, I, I am a great west country patriot."},{"startTime":2681.325,"endTime":2687.132,"body":"I spent so many years living and working there and loving the land, and I"},{"startTime":2687.132,"endTime":2692.165,"body":"like a humdrum local Somerset dragon \u003claugh\u003e, uh, the dragon of chill compton."},{"startTime":2692.985,"endTime":2697.05,"body":"And, uh, it was a dozy dragon and the hero who went to kill it"},{"startTime":2697.05,"endTime":2697.321,"body":"didn't actually realize it was a dragon until he'd been sitting on it for about"},{"startTime":2697.321,"endTime":2703.285,"body":"half an hour thinking it was a log."},{"startTime":2704.065,"endTime":2708.43,"body":"Uh, and eventually and some versions of the story, they felt they had to come"},{"startTime":2708.43,"endTime":2709.885,"body":"to terms and they did."},{"startTime":2710.225,"endTime":2712.565,"body":"So there's a happy ending possible to the storm"},{"startTime":2712.925,"endTime":2717.925,"body":"\u003claugh\u003e."},{"startTime":2714.085,"endTime":2714.325,"body":"Excellent."},{"startTime":2715.225,"endTime":2718.498,"body":"The gentleman just, just say, if you wait for the microphone to get to you,"},{"startTime":2718.498,"endTime":2720.245,"body":"then the people online can hear as well."},{"startTime":2720.515,"endTime":2720.805,"body":"Fine."},{"startTime":2720.905,"endTime":2721.805,"body":"Uh, thank you for that."},{"startTime":2721.805,"endTime":2722.445,"body":"That was amazing."},{"startTime":2722.785,"endTime":2727.525,"body":"Um, I noticed at the beginning you were talking about English dragons."},{"startTime":2727.915,"endTime":2728.205,"body":"Yeah."},{"startTime":2728.345,"endTime":2732.885,"body":"And I noticed that whales and Scotland were absent in that."},{"startTime":2733.105,"endTime":2736.285,"body":"And yet whales is very well known for a dragon."},{"startTime":2736.675,"endTime":2736.965,"body":"Yeah."},{"startTime":2738.105,"endTime":2739.685,"body":"Is there any more to do with whales?"},{"startTime":2739.685,"endTime":2739.925,"body":"Happy"},{"startTime":2739.925,"endTime":2745.78,"body":"To answer Scotland that there are Scottish dragons, but many fewer than in England because"},{"startTime":2745.78,"endTime":2751.245,"body":"the lack of a catalyzing national saint, uh, Wales, uh, is a different matter."},{"startTime":2751.695,"endTime":2758.501,"body":"Wales actually has fewer local dragon legends by far than England, although there are some"},{"startTime":2758.501,"endTime":2758.955,"body":"cute examples, my favorites, the Ber, which is a small dragon England Morgan that eats"},{"startTime":2758.955,"endTime":2768.485,"body":"chickens and is in traditional folk law."},{"startTime":2768.745,"endTime":2775.011,"body":"Uh, the reason why dragons became central to Welsh identity and heraldry is because of"},{"startTime":2775.011,"endTime":2775.428,"body":"one story, which is in the British history, published in 8 29, uh, in which"},{"startTime":2775.428,"endTime":2775.846,"body":"the boy who's called Ambrosius, who is later going to become Merlin, explains the subsidence"},{"startTime":2775.846,"endTime":2776.264,"body":"of a tower built by a tyrant because there are two dragons, white and red"},{"startTime":2776.264,"endTime":2794.645,"body":"fighting underneath."},{"startTime":2794.905,"endTime":2799.645,"body":"And the red one stands for whales, and the white ones stands for the English."},{"startTime":2800.025,"endTime":2804.698,"body":"And so naturally the red one's gonna win eventually, but they keep fighting for the"},{"startTime":2804.698,"endTime":2808.125,"body":"time being, and the Welsh likes that, and we all do."},{"startTime":2808.665,"endTime":2814.47,"body":"But the lion was the symbol used by Welsh medieval princes on their coats of"},{"startTime":2814.47,"endTime":2816.405,"body":"arms, their banners, their heraldry."},{"startTime":2817.855,"endTime":2824.223,"body":"Until that splendid Welshman, Henry Tudor killed Richard II at the Battle of Bosworth with"},{"startTime":2824.223,"endTime":2824.648,"body":"a largely Welsh and French army, and conquered England, thereby fulfilling the Welsh prophecy that"},{"startTime":2824.648,"endTime":2833.565,"body":"a, a Welsh prince would do this."},{"startTime":2834.065,"endTime":2840.655,"body":"It actually happened the moment they'd been waiting for, since 8 29, but there's now"},{"startTime":2840.655,"endTime":2841.095,"body":"a heraldic problem because Henry's beast should be the lion, but it's already the royal"},{"startTime":2841.095,"endTime":2848.565,"body":"beast of England."},{"startTime":2848.705,"endTime":2850.165,"body":"So what are the Welsh gonna get?"},{"startTime":2850.585,"endTime":2856.162,"body":"And so overnight the Tudors decided the dragon should be the symbol of Wales because"},{"startTime":2856.162,"endTime":2858.765,"body":"of the story and the British history."},{"startTime":2859.225,"endTime":2862.405,"body":"Um, the Red Dragon has been the symbol of Wales ever since."},{"startTime":2863.265,"endTime":2866.285,"body":"I'm, I'm a member of the, the Learned Society of Wales."},{"startTime":2866.685,"endTime":2868.685,"body":"I have a patriarchic investment in that"},{"startTime":2869.405,"endTime":2874.405,"body":"\u003claugh\u003e,"},{"startTime":2871.665,"endTime":2871.885,"body":"The"},{"startTime":2871.885,"endTime":2872.765,"body":"Gentleman at the back."},{"startTime":2874.785,"endTime":2875.485,"body":"Um, thank you."},{"startTime":2875.485,"endTime":2876.445,"body":"It was very interesting."},{"startTime":2876.585,"endTime":2882.567,"body":"Um, out of curiosity, like when we have a broader viewpoint as to beasts in"},{"startTime":2882.567,"endTime":2883.365,"body":"general Yes."},{"startTime":2883.545,"endTime":2888.005,"body":"Uh, in, uh, let's say just specifically in this context, let's say European versus Chinese."},{"startTime":2888.865,"endTime":2894.885,"body":"Uh, do we know the distribution of say, the nasty beasts versus nice beasts?"},{"startTime":2895.105,"endTime":2896.565,"body":"And do they overlap?"},{"startTime":2896.705,"endTime":2897.325,"body":"Are they similar?"},{"startTime":2897.505,"endTime":2901.045,"body":"Are they very different across European and, uh, Chinese landscape?"},{"startTime":2902.915,"endTime":2911.622,"body":"Most human societies have nasty beasts in mythology, and that's because most human societies have"},{"startTime":2911.622,"endTime":2914.525,"body":"had nasty beasts in reality."},{"startTime":2915.665,"endTime":2921.65,"body":"So it's a trans position, very easy to make, but they're also good beasts in"},{"startTime":2921.65,"endTime":2923.645,"body":"the mythology of most nations."},{"startTime":2924.425,"endTime":2930.693,"body":"Uh, the affection given to the raven by the northwestern Pacific peoples, or the coyote"},{"startTime":2930.693,"endTime":2931.111,"body":"by the peoples, the American southwest, the reverence for the bear all the way across"},{"startTime":2931.111,"endTime":2931.529,"body":"the circumpolar region from, uh, the saami lands, the lap lands right through to the"},{"startTime":2931.529,"endTime":2948.245,"body":"northern most island of Japan is, uh, again, an example of this."},{"startTime":2948.865,"endTime":2954.675,"body":"So there's a tendency among humans to regard animals as in a constant relationship with"},{"startTime":2954.675,"endTime":2960.485,"body":"us, which they were and are, and to pick out friends and foes among them."},{"startTime":2960.485,"endTime":2963.805,"body":"They then get frozen in mythology for all time."},{"startTime":2964.825,"endTime":2970.778,"body":"I'm just curious if any other country pursues its myths in the way that we"},{"startTime":2970.778,"endTime":2971.175,"body":"pursue lochness, and are people going around actual with scientific, uh, processes trying to discover"},{"startTime":2971.175,"endTime":2977.525,"body":"a myth?"},{"startTime":2977.835,"endTime":2981.085,"body":"Yeah, there are lake monsters all over the globe."},{"startTime":2981.905,"endTime":2988.29,"body":"Uh, notable examples in the North American continent, and there's a favorite lake monster in"},{"startTime":2988.29,"endTime":2990.845,"body":"the Congo, uh, which was Zaire."},{"startTime":2990.985,"endTime":2998.685,"body":"Now the Democratic republic, uh, sometimes it's possible to identify sources for these."},{"startTime":2999.305,"endTime":3004.618,"body":"Uh, in the case of the Congolese Lake monster, which got a lot of, uh,"},{"startTime":3004.618,"endTime":3004.972,"body":"attention from scholars in the eighties and nineties, it was realized that it's actually the"},{"startTime":3004.972,"endTime":3015.245,"body":"now almost extinct northern white rhinoceros, which had lived in the land and become extinct."},{"startTime":3015.785,"endTime":3020.201,"body":"And in mythology, it had got it transferred to water to explain why you no"},{"startTime":3020.201,"endTime":3021.085,"body":"longer saw it."},{"startTime":3021.085,"endTime":3024.508,"body":"So it must have come out of the lake and go back in at a"},{"startTime":3024.508,"endTime":3024.965,"body":"particular lake."},{"startTime":3025.505,"endTime":3031.107,"body":"Uh, and there at least we can pin down the origins of a, a lake"},{"startTime":3031.107,"endTime":3031.481,"body":"monster legend, but they're found all over the globe, including Polynesia like New Zealand and"},{"startTime":3031.481,"endTime":3038.205,"body":"every inhabited continent high."},{"startTime":3038.505,"endTime":3044.336,"body":"Are there any differences in the personalities of different colored dragons, like red versus green"},{"startTime":3044.336,"endTime":3044.725,"body":"versus"},{"startTime":3045.415,"endTime":3045.765,"body":"Black?"},{"startTime":3046.065,"endTime":3046.845,"body":"Not, not really."},{"startTime":3047.425,"endTime":3049.885,"body":"Uh, dragons are lots of different colors."},{"startTime":3050.705,"endTime":3056.685,"body":"That's a point on which the imagination of the individual storyteller is given free reign."},{"startTime":3056.835,"endTime":3062.78,"body":"There's nothing canonical about dragons colors, and there are no moral qualities, no local loyalties"},{"startTime":3062.78,"endTime":3068.725,"body":"attached to them except for the famous case of Wales, because of that one tail."},{"startTime":3069.895,"endTime":3071.285,"body":"Thank you so much for this lecture."},{"startTime":3071.545,"endTime":3073.765,"body":"Um, if I may, two very quick questions."},{"startTime":3073.985,"endTime":3078.327,"body":"One, uh, I noticed when you were talking about Bazel Lisk that the look that"},{"startTime":3078.327,"endTime":3079.485,"body":"kills not very typical."},{"startTime":3080.705,"endTime":3084.565,"body":"And the only one other one that comes to my mind is Medusa."},{"startTime":3084.785,"endTime":3085.005,"body":"Yes."},{"startTime":3085.615,"endTime":3087.485,"body":"Where does the look that kills come from?"},{"startTime":3087.515,"endTime":3091.856,"body":"It's obvious for the jaws and the teeth and the claws, but where does the"},{"startTime":3091.856,"endTime":3092.725,"body":"look that kills"},{"startTime":3092.955,"endTime":3093.445,"body":"Come from?"},{"startTime":3093.465,"endTime":3096.525,"body":"Uh, the answer is we haven't The faintest idea, somebody fought it up."},{"startTime":3096.805,"endTime":3102.719,"body":"I mean, there, there's, there's actually much crazier stuff about the basal than I had"},{"startTime":3102.719,"endTime":3105.085,"body":"time to describe in the lecture."},{"startTime":3105.705,"endTime":3110.773,"body":"For example, not only were medieval people convinced that it existed and came outta this"},{"startTime":3110.773,"endTime":3111.111,"body":"egg laid by a cock hatch by a toad, but that the only animal, which"},{"startTime":3111.111,"endTime":3111.449,"body":"it really feared was the weasel, which is why there's a weasel in the picture"},{"startTime":3111.449,"endTime":3124.965,"body":"that I flashed up there with a, a basalis looking distinctly wary."},{"startTime":3125.985,"endTime":3131.445,"body":"And nobody knows why weasels should be picked, but it became canonical."},{"startTime":3131.445,"endTime":3134.965,"body":"Everybody knew that if you kept a weasel around, you'd be safe from a basalis."},{"startTime":3137.065,"endTime":3143.575,"body":"So, but there, there is, uh, a, an absolutely glorious, uh, cultural fertility in all"},{"startTime":3143.575,"endTime":3150.085,"body":"this, which sometimes borders on the absolutely crazy and, and therefore all the more wonderful."},{"startTime":3150.785,"endTime":3152.525,"body":"So if you will allow me that second question."},{"startTime":3152.525,"endTime":3152.805,"body":"Yeah."},{"startTime":3152.805,"endTime":3154.765,"body":"I think it kind of ties nicely into what you just said."},{"startTime":3155.105,"endTime":3161.765,"body":"Do you notice any differences in dragon myths across the European tribes tribe?"},{"startTime":3161.765,"endTime":3162.405,"body":"Tribal lines?"},{"startTime":3162.405,"endTime":3162.765,"body":"No, absolutely."},{"startTime":3163.225,"endTime":3164.605,"body":"Versus Germanic versus,"},{"startTime":3165.025,"endTime":3165.245,"body":"No."},{"startTime":3165.465,"endTime":3167.365,"body":"Uh, it's amazingly standard."},{"startTime":3168.305,"endTime":3174.125,"body":"Uh, every European people by the beginning of history had picked up on the idea"},{"startTime":3174.125,"endTime":3178.005,"body":"of dragon light creatures and embedded them in their mythology."},{"startTime":3178.825,"endTime":3182.821,"body":"And, uh, we, we were kind of baffled as to why this should be, which"},{"startTime":3182.821,"endTime":3183.088,"body":"is why I, this is actually one of my ideas, I can take credit for"},{"startTime":3183.088,"endTime":3187.085,"body":"it."},{"startTime":3187.115,"endTime":3193.312,"body":"Good or bad, is, uh, the idea of the absence of alpha predator in historic"},{"startTime":3193.312,"endTime":3194.965,"body":"Europe and late prehistory."},{"startTime":3195.465,"endTime":3199.744,"body":"You really have to go back as far as, uh, the paleolithic the ice age"},{"startTime":3199.744,"endTime":3200.029,"body":"before you live in a world which has credible alpha predators of the kind farm"},{"startTime":3200.029,"endTime":3205.165,"body":"pretty well everywhere else."},{"startTime":3206.495,"endTime":3207.245,"body":"Thank you so much."},{"startTime":3207.695,"endTime":3208.165,"body":"Thank you."},{"startTime":3208.265,"endTime":3211.605,"body":"Um, let, let's take a couple from Slido, which I've been silently neglecting."},{"startTime":3211.745,"endTime":3216.582,"body":"Um, a couple of people have asked, uh, similar questions about how did the city"},{"startTime":3216.582,"endTime":3219.485,"body":"of London end up with dragons as its crest"},{"startTime":3220.275,"endTime":3222.845,"body":"That I don't actually know."},{"startTime":3223.545,"endTime":3227.374,"body":"Uh, I've never found a book that could tell me, although I'm certain there must"},{"startTime":3227.374,"endTime":3227.885,"body":"be one."},{"startTime":3228.625,"endTime":3236.881,"body":"Uh, certainly the incredible popularity of dragon legends in the late middle Ages, we're talking"},{"startTime":3236.881,"endTime":3241.285,"body":"1350 to 1500 produces dragons across the landscape."},{"startTime":3241.315,"endTime":3245.525,"body":"They appear everywhere, and that's when they appear as, um, a symbol of London."},{"startTime":3246.425,"endTime":3252.222,"body":"So perhaps the corny explanation, which may actually be right, is at a time when"},{"startTime":3252.222,"endTime":3252.608,"body":"the country was going Dragon Mad London had to have one too \u003claugh\u003e or perhaps"},{"startTime":3252.608,"endTime":3260.725,"body":"one in every post, uh, leading in."},{"startTime":3261.305,"endTime":3265.91,"body":"And of course, the, the locals here were just outside Gresham, just opposite the city"},{"startTime":3265.91,"endTime":3266.525,"body":"of York."},{"startTime":3266.665,"endTime":3266.885,"body":"Pub"},{"startTime":3267.565,"endTime":3270.125,"body":"\u003claugh\u003e Everywhere needs a dragon."},{"startTime":3270.345,"endTime":3274.361,"body":"Um, a couple of people have asked questions about how sort of popular imagination kicks"},{"startTime":3274.361,"endTime":3275.165,"body":"from a dragon."},{"startTime":3275.345,"endTime":3281.691,"body":"So the combination of whether it's artists, creative people, or just people in the pub"},{"startTime":3281.691,"endTime":3282.115,"body":"exaggerating what's, what's the role of, um, of, of culture in creating what we've ended"},{"startTime":3282.115,"endTime":3288.885,"body":"up with"},{"startTime":3289.345,"endTime":3291.405,"body":"The role of culture and creating everything else."},{"startTime":3291.505,"endTime":3298.63,"body":"We end up with \u003claugh\u003e, uh, which is that we have this stock of primeval"},{"startTime":3298.63,"endTime":3304.805,"body":"loves and fears that focus on certain symbolic shapes and forms and traditions."},{"startTime":3305.385,"endTime":3311.793,"body":"And then this gets reworked millennium after millennium and century after century, and adapted to"},{"startTime":3311.793,"endTime":3312.22,"body":"modern needs, uh, which is why in Hollywood, uh, within, uh, within about 10 years,"},{"startTime":3312.22,"endTime":3312.648,"body":"dragons turned from being things that even in Walt Disney had to be killed to"},{"startTime":3312.648,"endTime":3330.165,"body":"being things, uh, whom you love feed domesticate and ride around the sky."},{"startTime":3330.765,"endTime":3335.765,"body":"\u003claugh\u003e,"},{"startTime":3333.015,"endTime":3338.165,"body":"Thank you so much for another brilliant, and, and very, yeah, interested lecture."},{"startTime":3338.675,"endTime":3344.225,"body":"What just came to my mind, the dragon maybe seen as the Wild Nature force,"},{"startTime":3344.225,"endTime":3347.925,"body":"and in China, they have Feng Shu of fng shui."},{"startTime":3347.945,"endTime":3351.965,"body":"So they learn to live with the nature force as they build their buildings."},{"startTime":3352.025,"endTime":3357.228,"body":"So the nature spirits aren't disturbed, so they, they build buildings so the dragon can,"},{"startTime":3357.228,"endTime":3362.085,"body":"can go from the mountains to the, to the lake and and drink also."},{"startTime":3362.785,"endTime":3370.206,"body":"And maybe Europeans, especially in the Middle Ages, have seen nature as a forces that"},{"startTime":3370.206,"endTime":3374.165,"body":"have to be overcome because they are threatening."},{"startTime":3374.555,"endTime":3376.765,"body":"Just, just my idea, I just don't know."},{"startTime":3376.905,"endTime":3377.685,"body":"So question,"},{"startTime":3378.685,"endTime":3385.708,"body":"I, I don't think that the Chinese traditional relationship with nature was that different from"},{"startTime":3385.708,"endTime":3386.645,"body":"the European."},{"startTime":3387.185,"endTime":3394.535,"body":"Uh, because the same Chinese who are, uh, celebrating dragons as wonderful forces, the earth"},{"startTime":3394.535,"endTime":3395.025,"body":"are exterminating tigers as fast as they can, uh, and usually not very successfully until"},{"startTime":3395.025,"endTime":3405.805,"body":"the 19th, 20th century as mortal predator enemies."},{"startTime":3406.425,"endTime":3412.414,"body":"And in the same way in Europe, uh, you can have the ancient Greeks and"},{"startTime":3412.414,"endTime":3417.605,"body":"Romans having dracos and pythons as symbols of, uh, the terror of nature."},{"startTime":3417.945,"endTime":3423.565,"body":"And, uh, hees bumping off the maayan lion and other natural monsters."},{"startTime":3424.105,"endTime":3431.463,"body":"But venerating rocks, trees, and water as the home of nymphs and of, uh, rather"},{"startTime":3431.463,"endTime":3432.445,"body":"beautiful spirits."},{"startTime":3432.905,"endTime":3438.989,"body":"So the human relationship with nature is very complex and deeply ambivalent right across the"},{"startTime":3438.989,"endTime":3443.045,"body":"grove, but the world, the, well, the, uh, the globe."},{"startTime":3443.465,"endTime":3449.856,"body":"But the, the fun thing here is it manifests in such different ways that it"},{"startTime":3449.856,"endTime":3450.282,"body":"provides something really creative, fascinating, and it's wonderful seeing the different way the kaleidoscope re"},{"startTime":3450.282,"endTime":3458.805,"body":"patterns itself in culture after culture."},{"startTime":3461.705,"endTime":3466.073,"body":"Um, I'm afraid I have to break the news, uh, that, that we're out of"},{"startTime":3466.073,"endTime":3466.365,"body":"time."},{"startTime":3467.465,"endTime":3472.485,"body":"Um, uh, the, uh, uh, ladies and gentlemen, we have had a absolute tour divorce,"},{"startTime":3472.485,"endTime":3472.82,"body":"as said, uh, earlier, we, we have been informed, we've been entertained, and we have"},{"startTime":3472.82,"endTime":3473.155,"body":"had a series of important life lessons about how to kill a dragon and the"},{"startTime":3473.155,"endTime":3485.205,"body":"importance of retaining a weasel at all times."},{"startTime":3485.645,"endTime":3491.468,"body":"\u003claugh\u003e, uh, would you please join me in thanking the Gresham College Professor of Divinity,"},{"startTime":3491.468,"endTime":3492.245,"body":"professor Rob."}]}