“Watch for the red dragon. Here’s a hint: It’ll be ahead of you.” —Ariadne Gris

Definition/Summary:

The Red Dragon

• The Prophecy of Merlin which features the enduring legend of the Red Dragon
• This legend is centred on and around the land/hillfort Dinas Emrys
• It is said that two slumbering dragons lay under the place
• Red vs White dragon

Expanded info:

Arthurian legend

• Vortigern fled into Wales to escape the Anglo-Saxon invaders, he chose this lofty hillfort as the site for his royal retreat. Every day his men would work hard building the first of several towers, but the next morning they would find them all collapsed. This happen over and over for several weeks
• Vortigern sent his soldiers out across the land to find the help of a young boy not conceived by a mortal man
• They found a boy called Myrddin Emrys (Merlin Ambrosius)
• Vortigern, following the advice of his councillors, planned to kill the boy in order to appease supernatural powers that prevented him from building a fortress here
• Merlin instead convinced them the hillfort could not stand due to a hidden pool containing two (dragons)
• He explained how the White Dragon of the Saxons though winning the battle at present, would soon be defeated by the Welsh Red Dragon
• After Vortigern’s downfall, the fort was given to alias Emrys Wledig (Ambrosius Aurelianus), hence its name

Add/Misc:

The earliest sources regard the two dragons as distinctly different, and in a metaphor of the Adventus Saxonum describes one as being native to the island of Britain (it had arrived first) which was then joined by another new and alien dragon that fought it for supremacy.