material girls

[raptor]

stories like a loathesome dragon, the cuelebre, the bride of the lindworm king, the serpent of the sea(zuni indians) all so common they should write a book about all of them. why are these tales so common? i think that dragons use some illusion to make themselves look human, but it wears off causing them to turn into their forms. the people who see this don't know how to explain it, so they see they were turn that way by a witch or goddress or some other form of socrecery. tell me what you think.

[vampirehunter42]

That is true, in fact Joseph Campbell has tried to answer that question. In one of his works The Hero with A Thousand Faces, he writes about how many of the world cultures somehow have the same theme in many of their myths. Sadly I have yet to read the book myself, not easy to get and costs more than I would like for just a quick reference book.

[Falconer]

I have a sequel that covers much of it... the guy has a point, I just hate how most stories follow the same pattern when you examine them.

Two explanations:

#1: NATURAL PHENOMENON, i.e. a common trait that dragons share and is interpreted in the same way by humans;

#2 COMMON GROUND, i.e. one single event or tale that has been adapted by many cultures.