Re: USAGE: Dinos and dragons

--- John Cowan <jcowan@...> wrote:
> There is something very cool about the fact that the -saur in the
> English
> names of dinosaurs is translated into Chinese by long2, dragon.
Japanese too.  In the SNES version of the RPG game Final Fantasy III
(actually VI), two of the baddest monsters in the game are dinosaurs (a
T. Rex and a Brachisaurus), but one of the incidental characters speaks
of "terrible dragons in a northern forest" or something like that.  He
was talking about the dinosaurs, as the Japanese term for the great
reptiles of ages past translates literally to "fearsome dragons".

And that makes me wonder if the dragons of world mythologies (and
similar beasts such as Quetzalcoatl or Leviathan) aren't actually
expressions of a knowledge of the dinosaurs...

(great item for discussion on conculture!)

=====
Daniel A. Wier
Computer Geek Extraordinaire
Lufkin, Texas USA
ICQ#: 1651462
IRC Nick: LudwigVan on EFNet

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