Title Here There Be Dragons Series Here There Be... Author Jane Yolen Cover Art David Wilgus Publisher Harcourt Brace & Company - 1993 First Printing Harcourt Brace & Company - 1993 Category Anthology Warnings None Main Characters See below Main Elements Dragons

"Here There Be Dragons," warned the legend on the ancient sailing maps, indicating to would-be travellers that uncharted, perhaps dangerous waters lay ahead. In this fabulous collection of stories and poems about dragons, master of fantasy Jane Yolen enchants us with her own very special views of the mythical beast that gives shape to our fears of the unknown.

Here "Saint George and the Dragon" - told from the dragon's perspective; a tale of ferocious fighting pit dragons from Austar IV, an unusual story about Chinese dragons; a poetic recipe for ordering a custom-made dragon, and many other startling and original stories and poems.

Compemented by David Wilgus' detailed, moody pencil drawings, each piece is also prefaced by an author's note, giving a fascinating look into the craft of writing and a personal and intriguing view of the dragon lady herself.

Here There Be Dragons is classic Jane Yolen.

• Why Dragons?
• Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale
• The Dragon that Woke and Stretched
• "Story", the Old Man Said
• Cockfight
• Dragon Night
• Dragonfield
• The King's Dragon
• Into the Wood
• The Dragon's Boy
• The Making of Dragons
• One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King
• Here There Be Dragons

Anne McCaffrey may be called the dragon lady, but that title must be shared with Jane Yolen, both of them even taking the traditionally fantasy beast and bringing it over into the realm of science fiction, one with her Pern series, the other with her Pit Dragon trilogy. Talking of the Pit Drago trilogy, we get here Cockfight, a short story which introduced us to those famous fighting dragons, so well known that one of the books in that trilogy had been on my high school summer reading list!

I really enjoyed this collection, Yolen is an excellent writer and really loves her dragons, no matter what form they take. All the stories here are original, but of course often based on folklore and mythology but a twist added to each to make her own. Interspersed between the stories are poems some funny, some just beautiful. I loved reading the preface to each entry, finding out what inspired Yolen to write the piece and how she likes to explore the "what ifs". What if the "hero" is less than heroic? What if we see a classic tale from a different point of view?

My favorites were the long stories like Cockfight, or One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King, but I don't think there were any stories I didn't enjoy. I was a little pickier about the poems but some were excellent, like Here There Be Dragons or The Making of Dragons (very appropriate for a writers group).

I was so happy to find this book along with two others in the series (Angels, Unicorns) in a used book store, they were pricey for used books but still worth the investment. Next year I plan to do a unicorn reading theme so I'll be reading Jane Yolen's take on the mythical equine then. In the meantime I've enjoyed so many of her dragons, ever since I first encountered her on Reading Rainbow and her book Merlin and the Dragons, as an adult I had such an attachment to that story that when I finally had money of my own I had to go out and buy it, even though I was rather older than the intended audience. Yolen's writing is so magical that it appeals to all ages.