What goes into inspiring a writer? Take a turn down that long, unusual road with me that begins with Uther Pendragon, the father of famed King Arthur.
Young Uther Pendragon
The best known version of Uther’s story comes from Geoffrey’s Historia Regum Britanniae (1136). Uther is the youngest son of King of Britannia, Constantine III upon whose death, Constans, his eldest son succeeds to the throne. Constans is murdered by an advisor Vortigern, who seizes the throne. Uther and his other brother, Aurelius, flee to Brittany, when they grow safety into adulthood.
Now Vortigern decides he wants to build a castle, but his choice of site seems plagued with mystical sorts of problems. So, he was advised to offer a sacrifice of a young boy. Well, that young boy turned out to be none other than Merlin himself who advises Vortigern that the troubles he’s been experiencing are because of—wait for it—two dragons sleeping in an underground lake below his chosen castle site!
The king’s men dig down and unearth the two dragons, one red and the other white (the two dragons of Welsh fame.) The two dragons fight furiously, with the red finally winning the day. Vortigern took the red dragon as his symbol but the red dragon was also considered a prophecy of the eventual coming of King Arthur..
Uther and the Dragon
Sometime later, as adults, Aurelius and Uther return to Britannia, where Aurelius kills Vortigern and becomes king. Under Aurelius’ reign, Uther helps Merlin bring the stones of Stonehenge from Ireland to Britain. Later, while Aurelius is too ill for battle, Uther leads his army against Vortigern’s son and his Saxon allies. On the way to the battle, Uther sees the dragon-shaped comet, which Merlin interprets as a sign of Aurelius’s death and Uther’s glorious future (harkening back to the red dragon). Uther wins the battle, but returns to find that Aurelius has been poisoned. Uther becomes king and adopts the use of a golden dragon as his standard.
Intrigue follows with Uther falling in love with the wife of his retainer, the Duke of Cornwall. With magical assistance from Merlin, possible shape shifting and the like, provided Uther access to the Igerna, the Duke’s wife. The stories varied, but typically ended with the death of the Duke, and the birth of Uther’s son, Arthur by Igerna some months later.
Now the fun begins~ What if?
So, what if those dragons in Vortigern’s basement were real and his intrusion kicked up an all-out dragon war—both amongst the dragons and between dragons and men?
—What if Uther was battling not just Saxons, but dragons also, but started making alliances with the dragons?
—What if it was a dragon not Merlin who helped Uther seduce Igerna? (Cue the notion of dragon persuasion…)
—And what if Uther’s final victory over the Saxons brought peace not just to men, but between men and dragons. What would be required to broker such a peace? Well, that could get complicated, depending on what the dragons were like and what they required.
Hmmm, that sounds like the inspiration for the Blue Order … and the need for more inspiration to figure out the nature of English dragons!
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