Have you ever imagined a world where dragons soar above medieval towns, their scales shimmering with the promise of legend? Let's journey to a time of myth and courage in the eerie tale of the Golden Dragon—a creature whose fearsome beauty and ravenous hunger for young maidens became the dark canvas for a story of valiant heroism.
The music in this episode is Dragons by Artur Sokolovskyi.
BetterHelp Visit our sponsor at BetterHelp.com/dreamful for 10% off your first month.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Have you ever imagined a world where dragons soar above medieval towns, their scales shimmering with the promise of legend? Let's journey to a time of myth and courage in the eerie tale of the Golden Dragon—a creature whose fearsome beauty and ravenous hunger for young maidens became the dark canvas for a story of valiant heroism.
The music in this episode is Dragons by Artur Sokolovskyi.
BetterHelp Visit our sponsor at BetterHelp.com/dreamful for 10% off your first month.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Welcome to Dreamful Podcast Bedtime stories for slumber. I would like to start off this episode by thanking our newest supporters, Denise Garrison and Angela Lambert. Thank you both so much and I hope you have the sweetest of dreams. If you would like to support the show and gain access to the subscriber only episodes while receiving a shout out, visit dreamfullstoriescom and, on the support page, find a link to become a Buzzsprout supporter or subscribe via Supercast if you listen on Spotify. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
Jordan:
Relationships can influence how we interact with others in the world around us, whether it's a relationship you have with yourself, a significant other, friends or coworkers, for example. If you don't have a good relationship with yourself, it could be hard to create deep connections with a partner. Therapy can be a place to work through the challenges you face in all your relationships. If you're thinking of starting therapy, I recommend giving BetterHelp a try. It's convenient and entirely online, so it's much easier to squeeze a therapy session into your busy schedule. Become your own soulmate, whether you're looking for one or not. Visit betterhelpcom slash dreamfulltoday to get 10% off your first month. That's better help H-E-L-P. com slash dreamfull.
Jordan:
In this episode, I will be reading a Belgian fairy tale called the Golden Dragon. So snuggle up in your blankets and have sweet dreams. In one part of Belgium, they have bored into the earth so often and so deep to get the coal that this region is called the Boringue. The city of Mons is the center of the coal mining region, and here they still celebrate the victory of a brave knight over a mighty dragon. This dragon was quite an unusual monster, for his skin was all of shining gold, with scales like plate armor. He was as big as a battering ram and his strength was like that of a catapult which could hurl big stones into a city of the enemy's camp. More wonderful yet, this dragon of the Boring had a flashing jewel in his forehead that was worth all the diamonds, rubies and emeralds in the whole world. He was shown like a lamp in the darkest nights and guided his path for him as he moved down from the hills to devour maidens.
Jordan:
This monster was a conglomeration of all things terrible. He had every one of the powers which any and all beasts, birds, fishes or reptiles possessed were there on the earth, in the air or under the waters. He had a roar like a lion, the wings of an eagle, the claws of a condor and the power to glide like a snake or crawl like an alligator. He could fly like a falcon, burrow like a rat, swim like a shark, crush with his coils like an anaconda and had a keen scent like a hound. He had eyes like a tiger, teeth like a wolf in tusks sharper than a boar's, the horns of an anacaris, the antlers of a stag, the tossing horns of a bull, the double mustaches of a catfish and the shell of a tortoise. He could breathe fire out of his nostrils and burn up the grass With a nail in his tail. He could scratch a furrow like a plow. When he thrashed around in anger, he could deliver a blow like a battering ram. At the tips of his wings were hooks as hard as steel. In short, he was like an encyclopedia of everything that was strong, vicious and dreadful. It seemed as if all the might and force of the old creatures that had lived and died in the ancient forests before the ocean rolled in and before the ages of coal had risen to resurrection and him to make a monster combining all the powers of every living creature. The worst of the matter was that the Romans, coming into the land, soon found that none of their daughters would be left alive if that monster kept roaring and rambling about. In addition to his terror, no one could sleep at night, for the noises that he made, his howling, bellowing, hissing, barking and rumbling, were kept up till sunrise. Yet when he was quiet it was still more dangerous, for then he was looking for his prey. No parents could trust their lovely daughters outdoors by night or day, for any girl who was plump or pretty was sure to be gulped down alive or carried off to the dragon's lair in the hills.
Jordan:
For this dragon, while always hungry, was very particular in his diet. He would never make a dinner on a man or boy or horse or pig unless he had fasted a long while and was nearly starving. He thought they tasted too salty. He was always on the lookout for young and tender maidens, or those well-favoured or fat who might be out picking flowers or strolling along the road. These he would seize and then run away swiftly to his lair. He could easily outstrip any man on foot and the flitest runner If men mounted on horseback to pursue him, he would spread his wide wings, give a flap or two and then rise up into the air, almost darkening the sun and casting an awful shadow on the earth. It always smelled like burning brimstone, where the dragon had been Disappearing among the hills. He would enjoy a feast at his leisure Soon. The cavern in which he slept was covered with maidens' bones. Not far away was a pit into which he threw what was left of the few men and boys, or pigs or ponies he'd eaten up.
Jordan:
While the dragon was coming down from the hills to make his evening meal of a pretty girl or to swish her off to his cave, he was careful to sniff the air on every side lest some brave men in hiding should rush out at him and put his eye out with an arrow or push a spear down his throat or throw fire or poison into his mouth. The dragon could easily swallow up a man, but he feared missile shot or sung at him, whether arrows, sling stones or catapult balls. There were certain parts of his body, such as his eyes or throat, where the soft places under his front and hind legs and in the joints between the scales where barbed arrow or sword blow or spear thrust might penetrate. The Roman general promised that any man who would capture or slay this frightful monster had combined a home in Ashrine himself should marry his daughter. In addition, he should be owner of all the gold scales which anyone could, with hammer and chisel, wrench off from the dragon. But the forehead jewel, after donning the bride's cornet at her wedding, must be handed over to the Roman emperor for a crown possession.
Jordan:
Now there was a brave soldier in Brufeness who was in love with one of the Roman general's daughters and had expected to marry her when May and the flowers should come. He had gone to the great city of Rome to buy gold ring for his sweetheart, besides jewels and pretty woven stuff for no clothes. But alas, in the week before he returned, the dragon had seized and carried her off to his lair to eat her up on the very day she was to be a bride. There was mourning in the father's home. The mother wept all day and the old general was constantly asking who will fight the dragon and rescue my daughter?
Jordan:
When Brufeness was on his way back home, he was met by a man, a native Belgian, famous for his skills and archer. He too was in grief because his only daughter had been grabbed by the dragon when out walking with the general's daughter, and he knew not whether she were yet alive. This man offered to go with Brufeness and helped to say the dragon, hoping that neither of the maidens had yet entered the monster's maw. Without waiting to see anyone, not even the general, brufeness, sharpened his sword and spear. He prepared to grout at once on his swiftest horse to fight the monster. He took with him the Belgian archer who knew all the paths and hiding places. Then they waited until the wind was favourable so that the dragon would not get their scent and go off in another direction. Then they got windward of the monster and hid behind rocks in a thicket not far from the roadside.
Jordan:
Toward evening, as the twilight deepened into dusk, brufeness looked up toward the hilltops. He saw two round spots like globes of fire, with something also which was glistening and sending out rays from the centre of his forehead. These were the eyes of the dragon, with the flashing jewel in between. Soon he saw the beams of the rising moon reflected from the golden scales as the terrible creature moved slowly down the mountainside. His monstrous nose was bigger than above Lowe's. He was sniffing the air to the right and to the left to catch sight either of a man in hiding or a maid walking. His long, thick mustaches like whip cords, thrashed about at everything within reach. Now, when the dragon moves along over the ground with folded wings, he never keeps his head quiet or straight for one moment, but sways it from side to side and up and down, as if to see everything and to catch the scent of any creature near, whether man or beast. So when Rufanus looked up, he saw this monstrous head high in the air, with open jaws, working and breathing out fire which crackled like mimic lightning flashes. His long body, half hidden, trailed along in and out among the rocks and trees, the wind blowing toward them or the odor of burning sulfur which at times nearly suffocated them. Yet they dared not cough lest the monster should hear them.
Jordan:
Both men, rufanus on horseback and the Belgian on foot, felt their hearts beating fast as the latter waited for the monster to get within arrow range. While Rufanus poised his spear and got ready to spur his horse forward. The Belgian trusted to speed his shaft into the monster's eye and blinded him, while Rufanus hoped for a thrust of his weapon down into the red cavern into which so many maidens had slipped as food. Both brave fellows thought not only of the glory that they should win for killing the dragon and delivering the land from a curse, but of the joy and gratitude which the rescued maidens would feel toward them as their deliverers. They would fight, even if they should be eaten up.
Jordan:
When, within a hundred yards of the two men, the monster paused to look around as if he suspected danger, then he reared up on his hind legs and tail. At this moment, the temptation to the Belgian archer to shoot was great, for he was then sure of hitting the dragon in the heart or stomach. But he kept his arrow on the string and waited. They could hear the rattling of the golden scales one upon the other, while the roar that issued from the monster's throat, by which he expected to scare away any living enemies, reminded them of thunder echoing among the high mountains. Shall I shoot? Whispered the Belgian excitedly to Rufanus. Yes, but be cool, take your time and aim for the left eye, the one nearest to us, answer the Roman.
Jordan:
The Belgian drew the arrow clear up to his ear and let fly. The dragon's cry of pain was so horrible as almost to freeze the blood in the men's veins. His howls showed that the shaft had hit his mark. Then Rufanus, clapping spurs to his horse, dashed out into the path. The monster, half-blinded, flapped his wings arched his back, rose up on his hind feet and claws and opened his terrible jaws to dart at and swallow up the daring Roman. To the horse and rider there seemed to yawn a deep red cavern down which both might in a moment slide. The two men trembled for a moment but they did not flinch. Before Claw could touch Rufanus, he had run his long steel-headed spear deep down into the monster's throat. Then he drove his rearing horse steel forward and pushed the weapon further down and clear into the monster's heart, with a bellow that seemed to shake and rend the hills, making echoes even in the distant mountains. The writhing mass of force and flesh fell over the vicious brute that one moment before seemed to be a combination of all brutes and able to face an army, was now a lifeless mass, dead as a doornail.
Jordan:
Rufanus, drawing his dork, began digging out the dragon's forehead, the flaming jewel, washing it off in the brook. He reveled in its splendor and wished it could be for his bride. The Belgian hacked off four or five of the golden scales to show to the Roman general a specimens and approve his prowess, put them in his pocket. The two men now gave their attention to rescuing their loved ones. Neither the father nor the lover was by any means sure of finding the objects of their quest, the daughter and the betrothed. But after climbing up the path, a shout of recognition in the distance was heard. It was from both the maidens, who lifted up their voices together. For an hour or more they were both laughing and crying. In the cavern lair they found four other girls a tour to make meals for the dragon. He usually kept a supply on hand.
Jordan:
The wedding of Rufanus in his promised bride took place the following week, and the Belgian's daughter, her former companion in fear and misery, was one of the bride's maids. All this time the mechanics and goldsmiths, under command of an inspector, were busy in wrenching off the golden scales to make a dowry for the bride of Rufanus. One of the most skillful craftsmen said the dragon jewel in the coronet. This shone like a radiant star on the forehead of the lovely bride. She looked very sweet as she walked to church while all the maidens in the town scattered flowers before her path. The four girls they'd been rescued from the monster's lair led the van, and ever after that the people of Mons have celebrated the festival of the victory of Rufanus over the Golden Dragon. You, you.
