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Dragon stories and poems
A few poems and short stories about dragons have been submitted to us as part of the Norwich Dragon Festival.
The first set are written by members of the Norwich Cathedral Creative Writing Group.
The second set are by Kay Riggs, who is writing a sequence of poems about a glass vessel in the form of a dragon, which was found in the moat at Baconsthorpe Castle during archaeological excavations in 1972.
If you want to see your dragon-related poem or short story here, please email us: .
Norwich Cathedral Creative Writing Group
Here are a few enchanting and delightful dragon-related stories and poems, written by members of the Norwich Cathedral Creative Writing Group.
A unique interview by John Vaughan - a short poem about a dragon at the BBC!
Norwich: A Place for dragons by John Evans - an amusing poem about a child who comes across a dragon in Norwich
Archie and the Forgotten Dragon by Patricia Mullin - a short story about eight-year old Archie who comes across Dragon Hall's dragon
The Cathedral Creative Writing group was born out of Jill Napier's ‘Cathedral Creatives' initiative. The group formed as a beginners short story course, initially for 10 writers and quickly grew to 30, tutored by novelist Patricia Mullin. The stories produced use the Cathedral as a creative resource and it is anticipated that an anthology entitled ‘Voices from the Cathedral' will be published later in 2009.
For more information about creative opportunities at the Cathedral and other new learning opportunities atNorwich Cathedral and the its new Hostry please contact Jill Napier email communitylearning@cathedral.org.uk or telephone 01603 218321
A Visiting Dragon
In 1972 an archaeological dig took place at Baconsthorpe Castle in north Norfolk. Towards the end of the dig the moat was being dredged and in it, purely by chance, was found a glass pouring vessel, subsequently described as a dragon or a fantastic bird. It was taken to Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery for safe-keeping and spent some time on display in the castle keep, but for a long time had been out of sight. It is now on display once again at the new Arts of Living gallery at the museum. (See an image of the vessel on the left, courtesy of Norfolk Museum and Archaeology Service).
Kay Riggs has been working on a sequence of poems which attempts to describe a possible story about its origins, how it came to end up in the moat and what has happened since. At the time the dragon probably first arrived at Baconsthorpe, that castle was the sometime home of Sir Christopher Heydon II. At one time, the Heydon family, wealthy land-owners, had property in King Street, Norwich, not far from Dragon Hall.
Here are three poems from the sequence which Kay is still working on:
Resurrection resulted from recently interviewing Elaine Third, an Australian woman who was working as an archaeological assistant on the 1972 dig. She was amazed that the vessel was found in such good condition. It could easily have been damaged by the digger bucket or scooped aside with mud and silt and remained unseen.
Predestination was also written after talking to Elaine. She remembered the routine of going from her digs to the castle site every day and it was often her job to get the tea urn going to warm everyone up on chilly autumn mornings. She was asked to give the dragon vessel a preliminary wash the day after it was found to remove the worst of the mud and silt stuck inside it before it was taken to Norwich.
Mysterious Traveller was written after Kay went to the Shire Hall Study Centre in November 2007 to see the vessel when it was being prepared for re-display in the newly refurbished gallery. It was taken out of its protective plastic box so that she could get a good look at it. Kay had seen it only in photographs before and the first thing that struck her about the colour of the glass was that it reminded her of dirty ice or a grubby snowball. That is the same way that the heart of a comet is often described. The substances present in comets are also those used in making glass...
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