Take a look in the creature peepers…
Some people will tell you that you are looking at a dragonfly larva case and a mummified sand lizard. Others believed these were baby dragons.
These dragon’s droppings were collected from a secret location in the heart of Snowdonia by storyteller Andy Harrop-Smith, who donated it to the museum. Andy tells us his grandfather was a dragon-tamer who taught Andy all he knew. Andy says this is probably a dropping from a Snow Dragon.
We displayed Chinese Paper Dragons no doubt depictions of the dragon with the Chinese written language on his back.
This poster of the Midgard Serpent was donated to the museum by storyteller Michael Dacre. It depicts the mythical beast that features in many stories from Norse mythology.
This wooden Viking dragon hung from the ceiling in the hall at Mythstories museum at The Morgan Library, Wem above the rather fine pastel illustration of a dragon by Museum Friend Sue Jones.
All these dragon artefacts were used to instigate the telling of dragon stories in the museum.
And then there was a ‘bona fide’ Dragon’s Egg donated by the late Anne Oakes-Jones.
And nothing is ever simple when dealing with museum classifications. Is the Chinese Lion a dragon or maybe just a close relative? We thought it deserved a place in the dragons exhibit.
The Chinese Lion and the famous Chinese Lion Dance are featured in the story of Nian.
Nian, a ghastly creature, visited a village every new year and would wreak havoc and spread misery. Then a Buddhist monk came to the village and told the villagers that they needed to arrange a welcoming committee. “Build yourselves a bigger monster that can be carried by your best martial artists. Wear red, decorate the village in red and arm yourselves with firecrackers and be ready to make a din banging on your pots and pans.”
And on New Year’s Day they were ready, they greeted Nian and welcomed him in to an almost entirely red village filled with red people making a fearful noise and throwing explosives. And at the heart of it all there was a Horrific Lion Beast dancing snakily around as if he owned the place, and Nian quickly realised that this creature was bigger than him!
Nian didn’t stay for a closer examination he was off never to return, but the villagers left nothing to luck and they welcomed in every New Year in exactly that same way.
