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Main => The Round Table => Topic started by: Sir Edward on 2011-03-23, 19:34:23

Title: Extinctor Draconis
Post by: Sir Edward on 2011-03-23, 19:34:23

"Dieudonné de Gozon was the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes (1346-1353). He was born to a noble family in Languedoc, France. He carried the nickname Extinctor Draconis which means "The Dragon Slayer" in Latin.

It is so told that there was a dragon in the island of Rhodes, Greece, hiding in the local swamp, and killing the cattle of the local farmers. Despite the orders of the previous Grand Master to not disturb the beast, Gozon slew the dragon, and hung the head on one of the seven gates of the medieval town of Rhodes. The head was on display until a hundred years ago, when a biologist pointed out it was the skull of a large crocodile.

In 1347 and 1348 the Grand Master proved his gallantry when the Order marched to the help of King Constantine IV of Armenia, threatened by the army of the Sultan of Egypt."

(From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieudonn%C3%A9_de_Gozon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieudonn%C3%A9_de_Gozon))

Extinctor Draconis. How cool.

Title: Re: Extinctor Draconis
Post by: Sir William on 2011-03-24, 14:10:12

That IS cool; in that day and age a crocodile (thanks Sir Wolf for the reminder lol) would've been mistaken for a worm, especially a really large one, a la Lake Placid.  Very cool, thanks for sharing, Sir Edward.

Title: Re: Extinctor Draconis
Post by: Sir Wolf on 2011-03-25, 01:37:59

ya just how large was it and who see's a croc in france? man way cool@

Title: Re: Extinctor Draconis
Post by: Sir James A on 2011-03-25, 19:07:08

I definitely wouldn't want to tangle with a dragon, but I can't imagine hand to hand combat with an alligator either. I wonder how big it was too. They can get pretty large. On a semi-related side note, I saw Monster Hunters earlier and they said that the Komodo Dragon, the largest (known) living lizard, wasn't discovered until about 100 years ago - so we never know what's out there, or what was out there and died off that we just haven't found evidence of yet.

Title: Re: Extinctor Draconis
Post by: Sir Brian on 2011-03-25, 19:40:19

I watched an interesting documentary off Netflix a couple of weeks ago call:
"Dragons or Dinosaurs"

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/documentary-dragons-or-dinosaurs-claims-man-dinos-lived-together (http://www.opposingviews.com/i/documentary-dragons-or-dinosaurs-claims-man-dinos-lived-together)

It certainly adds a very intriguing perspective to the status quo in scientific circles.  ;)