Friday, May 3, 2024

A Wilderness of Dragons

 


You never know what unexpected byways may lead you suddenly to the completion of a quest. I was looking for a red book about dragons that I used to own (not Dragonology; this one was full of classic art and illustrations, as much about art history as it was about dragons), when I ran across The Truth About Dragons: An Anti-Romance, by Hazard Adams. I read it one summer, from the Seguin Public Library, but could never remember the title, and have been looking to pin it down for years. It takes place in California in the early Seventies.

What's a dragon doing in the hills above Santa Barbara in the 1970's? In the prime of life at 606 years old, Firedrake is keeping the dragon faith, even as the modern world encroaches upon his lair. He's following dragon traditions of many millennia: gathering and guarding a treasure trove, having a troublesome relationship with a very pretty young woman, and of course encountering a dragon slayer or two. Firedrake's a traditionalist, sure, but not a hidebound one. When he happens on a working cassette tape recorder he's delighted, as he loves telling a tale, almost as much as he loves collecting everything from magical balms to old bottles. Thanks to modern technology (well, modern by dragon standards) a dragon has finally gotten the chance to tell the world the dragon side of things. So forget the myths and lies propounded by misguided humans You have in your hands a transcript of actual dragon diaries, full of wonderful dragon lore, that puts you front row center to a modern dragon saga, complete with heroes and damsels, treachery and honor, and of course, a little bit of enchantment. The real story only a dragon could tell.” - Amazon.

Hazard Adams was born in 1926 and is apparently still alive (at least I can find no notice of his death). An academic, literary critic, and poet, he has written many other books, especially about Blake, Yeats, and the subject of poetry.

I don’t think The Truth About Dragons is available in the library anymore, but it seems to have had a reprinting in the Twenty Teens and is obtainable on Amazon – if I should want to renew my acquaintance with it. In the meantime, I have pulled together a gathering of dragons from the Niche in celebration of finally putting that nagging memory to rest. Not including, of course, all the books that have a dragon or feature one on the cover. But a sampling.

And I still haven’t found the red book that inspired the discovery.




















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