The people of Slovenia weren’t the only ones who made up stories about dragons. People all over the world did it! People in India imagined dragons with elephant heads. In the Middle East, people thought dragons might have heads like lions or birds. In Europe, dragons were usually pictured more like lizards or serpents. In these myths, dragons came in all kinds of colors—red, black, green, yellow, blue, and white.

Some of these dragon stories are probably based on real creatures, just like Slovenian stories are based on the olm. The endangered Chinese alligator lives in the water. It may have inspired Asian dragons. In Asia, dragons were believed to guard the rain and bring floods. Other ideas of dragons are probably based on the python—a snake that squeezes its prey to death. Another likely inspiration is the pterosaur, a flying dinosaur. Pterosaurs had no feathers. But they flew on wings made of skin. The biggest ones had a 40-foot wingspan!

People probably get most of their ideas about dragons from dinosaur fossils. That explains a lot. Countries all over the world have an idea about dragons. All their stories differ a little bit. Some people imagine dragons that breathe fire. Others imagine dragons that speak. Some dragons in stories guard treasure or princesses. Some live in caves. Others live under the ocean. There is only so much people could have learned about dinosaur fossils centuries ago. They made up the rest. That’s where things got really interesting!

Did you know Christians once cared very much about dragons? They thought of dragons as symbols for Satan. During medieval times, they had a legend. In it, a saint named George slew a dragon. This battle saved a town. In the story, the people in the town became Christians.

Even the Bible talks about dragons, or at least about creatures that sound like them! You can read about them in Revelation 20 and Job 40-41.