Dragons Exist In Nearly Every Culture’s ...

In 533, a twenty-eight-year-old general named Belisarius sailed from Constantinople with 15,000 men to reconquer North Africa from the Vandals, a kingdom that had held it for nearly a century since the sack of Rome. The last time the Eastern Empire had attempted the crossing, the ... Show More

A coast guardsman named Earl Cunningham froze to death on Lake Michigan trying to rescue five fishermen trapped on a drifting ice sheet. His last words were "I wish I could see my wife and three children once more." That was February 1936. A few months later, the same country tha ... Show More

Humanity’s story from 10,000 BC to 3,000 BC (from the end of the ice age to the beginning of civilizations) follows this pattern: primitive hunter-gatherers slowly progressed to farmers, then to village-builders, then to city-dwellers and kings. With enough food surplus to free u ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests explore dragons, literally and symbolically potent creatures that have appeared in many different guises in countries and cultures around the world. Sometimes compared to snakes, alligators, lions and even dinosaurs, dragons have appeared on clay tablets i ... Show More

Before “Lord of the Rings” and “Game of Thrones,” dragons stalked the pages of mythology across the world. The European version became a powerful metaphor for the evils that supposedly stalked mankind. And that's where we get the most iconic European Dragon Story, featuring a man ... Show More

"When dragons flew to war… everything burned. I do not wish to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone." Dragons - the most compelling of mythical beasts - are one of the most vivid creations of all human imagination, and their enduring resonance is captivatingly displayed by their r ... Show More

<p>In this special episode brought to you by <a href="https://www.nowtv.com/ie?gclid=CjwKCAjw6raYBhB7EiwABge5Kkn65N8LeeKMlSS0ushAfEwNayZQz6euOB145PSkcVPlHMYLRKWnbBoC5skQAvD_BwE&amp;gclsrc=aw.ds" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NOW</a>, I look into why humans are fascina ... Show More

Take dinosaur bones, snake poison, volcanic lava, fear of the unknown. Mix it all together and you have a dragon!Today we're finding out about the ancient origins of dragons and why there used to be a much wider variety of dragon types than we see today. Our guide is dragon exper ... Show More

People have long been captivated by stories of dragons. Myths related to dragon slaying can be found across many civilizations around the world, even among the most ancient cultures including ancient Israel. In his book The Dragon, the Mountain, and the Nations, Robert Miller chr ... Show More

Dragons hoard treasure, deep in their lairs. They don’t show it off to their neighbors. Revisionist History applies dragon psychology to the strange world of art museums, with help from Andy Warhol, J.R.R. Tolkien, a handful of accountants and the world’s leading hoarding expert. ... Show More

Glaurung, the first of all dragons, issues forth from Angband to break the siege, but is he ready yet? Also, let's talk about the origin of Dragons in Tolkien's mythology.Join our Patreon for weekly bonus episodes, early access, and ad-free listening: https://www.patreon.com/lotr ... Show More

Can dragons be traced back to dinosaurs? Will Simon ever watch the Hobbit movie? In this episode of Decoding the Unknown, you'll find out the answers to these thrilling questions! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

From Cinderella to Beauty and the Beast, the roots of fairy tales stretch back thousands of years — to the dawn of Indo-European languages and beyond.In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by author and journalist Laura Spinney to explore the origins of mytholo ... Show More