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June 3, 2014 by tomdalzell

Dragons

1Being of a certain age, there is only one possible song for me to use as my dragon theme song.  Puff. More on Puff here.  If you care.  Actually, it is there if you care or not.  You click if you care and you go there.

And without further ado, the dragons of Berkeley.  For me, there is a two-way tie for best dragon.  What do you think?

1240 Parker

1240 Parker

2660 Eunice

2660 Eunice

Those are great, aren’t they?  The others aren’t shabby at all either.

641 The Alameda

641 The Alameda

1015 Channing

1015 Channing

 

931 Hearst

931 Hearst

 

2573 Buena Vista

2573 Buena Vista

2417 Prince2417 Prince

1103-1105 Bret Harte

1103-1105 Bret Harte

1103-1105 Bret Harte

1103-1105 Bret Harte

1103-1105 Bret Harte

1103-1105 Bret Harte

 

1220 Oxford

1220 Oxford

1889 channing

1889 Channing

This one is, of course, the Oroboros, an ancient image of dragon or snake eating its own tail.  It symbolizes self-flexivity and cyclicality.  It is found in the art of ancient Egypt and Greece, and is often seen in works of Gnosticism and Hermeticism.

Serpiente_alquimica

I pass it often.  Who knew?

1647 9th

1647 9th

1707 Allston

1707 Channing Way

Elizabeth White wrote me about this photo of the beast named Griselda on Channing.  She firmly but kindly corrected me.  This is a griffon, not a dragon.  Lion body, eagle head and wings.  She knows this because it was the symbol of her class at Mount Holyoke.

Blue lion, green griffon, yellow sphinx, red pegasus

Blue lion, green griffon, yellow sphinx, red pegasus

She adds: “I probably wouldn’t have recognized a basilisk or manticore.”  I wouldn’t either.

I stand corrected.  But will still keep the photo here because I don’t have a better place for it.  I thank her.

1722 Beverly

1722 Beverly

2390 Eunice

2390 Eunice

671 Cragmont

671 Cragmont

Normandy Village

Normandy Village

When I showed the photos to my friend, he launched into a lecture about maps of the Middle Ages and how cartographers labeled unknown seas and lands with “Here There Be Dragons” –  the 15th century version of Ptolemy’s Atlas, the medieval copy of Tabula Peutingeriana, the Psalter map (1250 A.D.), the Ebstorf map (13th century), the Borgia Map (1430 A.D.),  Giovanni Leardo’s Map (1442), Waldseemüller’s Carta marina navigatoria (1516), and Bishop Olaus Magnus’s ‘Carta Marina’ map of Scandinavia (1539).  He had his slide projector set up in an instant and showed me slides:

CartaMarinaDetail here-there-be-dragons HTBD images-1 images map

It had been a while since I had seen an honest-to-God old-fashioned slide show.  Our neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Schick invited the neighborhood kids to their home a few times for slide shows, cookies, and ice cream.  Circa 1961.  Pretty cool!

But, though – did he have an opinion about the dragons of Berkeley?  Yes, indeed, he did:

IMG_3677

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