Uke It From Orbit

I play the ukulele. I'm a geek and bookworm. She/Her.

[codenamemaximus]

If this gets 50 notes I’ll tell you guys how I ran an underground sex ed class and helped put a pedophile in jail during second grade

[codenamemaximus]

Okay, so my mom has always been super open about health stuff and when I was just starting elementary school she got me a bunch of those American Girl books about your body and your feelings and they were really informative and truthful and I really liked them. One day I was talking to a friend about one of them and we started reading it and she was asking a ton if questions and seemed really excited and interested by it and I answered questions and explained stuff. We talked about the books during recess and eventually more girls joined in until we were a group of about 10-15 seven year-olds talking about puberty and sex and a lot of things that most adults don’t The thing about those books is that they look really innocent with cute drawings and there are chapters about brushing your teeth and stuff; but what most people don’t expect is that there’s a lot of health stuff about puberty and mental illness and drugs and a lot of really important stuff that everyone should know. The teachers didn’t care because the books looked super innocent and they thought were talking about proper brushing habits or something. We’d go sit down and read a chapter and I’d add some other stuff that my mom had told me and then we’d just talk and ask questions. It was kind of like group therapy but with sex ed. This was all okay until one of the boys saw a page with a ton of boobs on it (the page was demonstrating a breast exam) and he told the teacher. So they found and I got suspended and I wasn’t allowed to bring any more of those books into school. 

Closer to the end of the year, one of the second grade teachers was revealed to be a pedophile when one of his students said that he tried to touch her inappropriately and then three other girls came forward with the same story. After he was arrested, the girl told me that she said what he did because we had talked about what to do in that exact situation. Because of our group she knew that she probably wasn’t the only one and she knew that it was wrong for him to do that and that she wouldn’t get in trouble if she told someone and that she probably wouldn’t have said anything if she hadn’t read those books.

I started doing it again the next year. No one stopped me. 

[maya-tl]

Bless.

[muslima-nadjoua]

Reblogging again in hope someone could give me those books’ names

[ariverofmilk-deactivated2019041]

https://www.amazon.com/Care-Keeping-You-Younger-Revised/dp/1609580834#immersive-view_1495174594789

The Care and Keeping of You.

I believe it’s this one! Fits the description and the back cover even has the brushing girl.

There’s a series of books! ^^

[ginkasei]

The American Girl books are really, really good. They talk about things honestly but simply, and cover a lot of important stuff. 11/10 for those books.

[gracy]

These books were the only sex ed I had as a young girl. These were a door to reading bigger, badder texts and getting involved in activism…

100% recommend you buy these for sisters, daughters, nieces. 110%

[helloagainsarahjane]

I loved The Care and Keeping of You! Same as above, the only sex ed I got until Wikipedia.

[ritalara]

I remember these books and I remember preaching the good word of them to so many of my elementary & middle school girlfriends!

[ramirezbundydahmer]

When the Nazi concentration camps were liberated by the Allies, it was a time of great jubilation for the tens of thousands of people incarcerated in them. But an often forgotten fact of this time is that prisoners who happened to be wearing the pink triangle (the Nazis’ way of marking and identifying homosexuals) were forced to serve out the rest of their sentence. This was due to a part of German law simply known as “Paragraph 175” which criminalized homosexuality. The law wasn’t repealed until 1969.

[crypto-keynesian]

This should be required learning, internationally. 

[stripedsilverfeline]

You need to know this. You need to remember this. This is not something to swept under the carpet nor be forgotten. 

Never. Too many have died for the way they have loved. That needs stop now. 

Make it stop? 

[hollowoutmybody]

I did a report on this in my World History class my sophomore year of high school. It was incredibly unsettling.

[pearlclam]

My teacher shown the class this. Mostly everyone in the class felt uncomfortable. 

[sashadechagny]

I have reblogged this in the past, but it is so ironic that it comes across my dash right now. I a currently working as a docent at my city’s Holocaust Education Center (( I say currently because I’ve also done research and translation for them )) and out current exhibit is one on loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ((USHMM)). This is a little known historical fact that Paragraph 175 was not repealed after the war and those convicted under Nazi laws as a danger to society because they were gay were not released because they had be convicted in a court of law. There was no liberation or justice for them as they weren’t considered criminals, or even victims for that matter. They were criminals who remained persecuted and ostracized and kept on the fringes of society for decades after the war had been won. Paragraph175 wasn’t actually repealed until 1994. And it was only in May 2002, that the German parliament completed legislation to pardon all homosexuals convicted under Paragraph175 during the Nazi era. History has forgotten about these men and women — please educate yourselves so this does not happen again. Remember this history. Remember them.

[jehovahhthickness]

@mindlesshumor ok how the fuck did I miss this when I’ve studied The Holocaust like nobody’s business??? wtf

[thereadersmuse]

Because the history we have left regarding it is literally the contents of this first hand account.

It is a thin little book.

When I first opened it, I wondered why it was so thin.

Why there wasn’t other books like it.

Other first hand accounts.

By the time I finished it, I didn’t wonder anymore.

[jeaniefranklins]

Further reading:

I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror by Pierre Seel

An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin by Gad Beck

The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals by Richard Plant

Branded By The Pink Triangle by Ken Setterington

Bent by Martin Sherman (fiction; however, it’s often credited with bringing attention to gay Holocaust victims for the first time since the war ended)

[gemfyre]

This is one of the memorial sculptures in Dachau.  It was erected in the early 60s and is missing the pink triangles.  Because in the early 60s, homosexuality was still a crime in most of the world. Our tour guide explained why the pink triangles have not been added later - if they were, then folks would assume that they had always been there.  This way people ask “why aren’t there pink triangles?” and somebody can explain why - because in some ways, the rest of the world was as bass-ackwards as Nazi Germany.

[nonbinarysapphic]

can i just say i was literately in a genocide and holocaust class and i didnt even learn this

[fanonical]

i think the thing that sticks out to me about cats in hogwarts is that we have no idea where they go when their owners are studying. there’s an owlry, but no cattery. 

do they just wander the corridors? do they disrupt lessons? are there always at least six sitting in front of the fireplace in the great hall?

[kremblor]

They have daily cat meetings in secret parts of the castle and all are loyal to Professor McGonagall.

[lexlokiy]

We know that Crookshanks, Hermione’s kneazle/cat, aids a wanted felon in his spare time, if that helps.

[harrypotterhousequotes]

HUFFLEPUFF: “Truth! Justice! Freedom! Reasonably priced Love! And a Hard-Boiled Egg!” –Terry Pratchett (Night Watch)

[uterusperson]

Things I’ve learned being homeless for three months

· things like salt and butter become luxuries

· without an adress, it’s very hard to get your life in order

· toilet paper $6, bread $2, canned beans $2. $10 is one week of living off of bread with beans and being able to go to the bathroom.

· just to apply for unemployment and/or disability is an entire day job.

· the system is set up against you

· you suddenly understand all the hobos on the streets, and you would give them money if you had any

· people will humiliate you, look down on you, hurt you and offend you, just because of your living situation.

· you realize that a lot more people than you think are homeless

· homeless does not mean uneducated

· homeless does not mean dysfunctional, sick, or incapable

· There are homeless people everywhere. You can’t see on someone that they’re homeless; they can still attend college, drive a car and dress nice. Most of us look like you, and many of us have degrees and jobs.

[deadcatwithaflamethrower]

Always remember.

[ithelpstodream]

[melonmemes]

[grandmasickomode]

sexhaver:

melonmemes:

How the 3D printer economy toppled. Follow melonmemes on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/realmelonmemes

people joke about this but this is literally how you build 3d printers other than buying them. buy the microcontroller, spools, metal framing, LCD screen(s), and print bed, 3d print the chassis of the thing, and then wrestle with firmware on the microprocessor for a few days and hey presto a new 3d printer. i know at least 4 people who have built their own like this

3D printers are the only known species of printer to reproduce asexually

[u-nope-ia]

you wouldn’t download a printer

[jillianleedy]

[geekgirlintraining]

This is an important message.

[kittensjonsa]

One of those mandatory reblog. Because, Leslie Jones. Enuf said

[kitsuneluvuh]

Leslie Jones is the BEST

[sirfrogsworth]

Fun Facts

In German, the translation for birth control pill is antibabypille.

In Switzerland there is a pregnancy test called Maybe Baby available in vending machines.

And some Welsh folks call their microwave a Poppity-Ping… which has nothing to do with pregnancy products, but it was also in the reddit thread I was researching and too adorable not to include here. 

[kajedheat]

You’re about to have a whole bunch of Welsh people in your inbox, my dude.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

I swear to fucking god, it is bad enough having that stupid fucking “popty ping” lie around, but now apparently people aren’t even spelling the only correct and accurate Welsh word in it right. I can 100% assure you that literally no person on this entire planet has ever referred to a microwave as a ‘poppity-ping’.

Can people please stop being condescending fucks towards an endangered language and culture, thanks

[sirfrogsworth]

Sorry about that. The person in the thread claimed to be Welsh and the first few google entries seemed to confirm it. Looking again, I think I might have mistaken urban dictionary for an actual dictionary. So that’s my bad. The third entry was from a Welsh website but it looks like it was actually just a clickbait post. I was tired and had taken a lunesta to help me sleep. It really did seem legit at the time when I was chasing that magic sleep butterfly.

It looks like popty microdon might be a thing, but not ping. I can assure you that I had no intention of being condescending or insulting. I thought it was a funny language thing. Like how in America some folks call a turtle a cooter. And that we have an actual cooter festival. Which some people get disappointed about when they realize it is about turtles. Though I’m not sure why, cuz turtles are pretty cool. Okay, I am digressing big time here. 

Again, I am sorry. Joking aside, I really am. I had no idea. I love the Welsh. You made my favorite dog. I’d ask that you forgive my error, but if you want to yell at me some more, that’s fine too. I’ve let the internet trick me twice in the past few weeks and I am usually not easily duped. I’m not sure what is going on with me. Hopefully I can do better in the future. 

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Sigh. I was actually just coming back to this to apologise to you - that one hit a nerve today, but that’s not your fault, and given how widespread the whole popty ping myth is, I’m not surprised you were taken in.

So, to clarify: the word “popty” is real, but it means ‘oven’. Literally, it means ‘baking house’ (from pob + tŷ), because something that is true of Welsh is that we think any building is a house, apparently, even if it’s a three-foot square box. The actually word for ‘microwave’, which real Welsh speakers will actually use, is “meicrodon”, which is roughly pronounced Make-roh-don with a rolled r, and sounds like a dinosaur.

‘Popty ping’ means ‘ping oven’, and is used as often - and in the same context - as an English speaker would use the phrase ‘ping oven’, i.e. it’s not unless someone might decide with a child to use a funny name. A quick analogy I can think of, actually, might be ‘moo cow’ instead of ‘bull’. You might use it with a child if you were being saccharine and overly cutsie, but you wouldn’t say that the English word for a bull was a ‘moo cow’.

And the problem that comes in is that there is a whoooooolle country of people next door to us (hi, England) full of avowed monoglots who variously either view Welsh-speakers in patronising, head-patting terms OR as a hated reminder that they didn’t, in fact, manage to conquer us completely, and both groups are, for whatever reason, very invested in spreading the idea that the Welsh language is a thing of ridicule with its fake, childish words. The idea that Welsh doesn’t have any words for modern things (as popularised by Decaying Harridan Janet Street Porter, who told the world that we don’t have a word for ‘television’ and trades off having a Welsh mam for validity in her crusade) is actively dangerous to us, because it encourages the idea that Welsh is not endangered, but dying, and a millstone holding us back.

It’s also, by this point, so pervasive that non-Welsh speaking Welsh people have absorbed it and will happily spread it, which seems to be what you fell prey to here. It’s really not your fault, so I am sorry I snapped. Bad day, but that’s not on you.

To make amends, here is a picture I drew of a corgi made into a Pokemon (I’m guessing that’s your favourite dog)

[sirfrogsworth]

No amends necessary, but I do appreciate it nonetheless. And I appreciate you being understanding of my mistake. So, it’s all good. No worries. 

Also I am grateful for the detailed information about the Welsh language. Before this all I really knew about was a lengthy road sign. This put things in a much better perspective and I actually learned a lot. Thanks for that. 

And, yes, the corgi is my favorite dog. That is an awesome pokecorg drawing. I’m not sure you realize how much of a peace offering that actually is for me.  

You see, I love corgis so much that I decided to raise my very own stumpy mischief maker from a tiny pup.

Meet Otis the Corgi! 

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

I LOVE HIM TELL HIM I LOVE HIM

Hey, you probably already know this, but did you know that in Welsh folklore corgis (or corgwn, to use the Welsh plural) were the chosen steeds of fairy warriors? 

[sirfrogsworth]

I will relay the message of love to Otis.

And I actually did know about the fairy warriors and their stumpy steeds. In fact, when I helped a kickstarter for an art book get funded, they drew me as an honorary fairy warrior complete with corgwn mount.

[ms-demeanor]

Hey in case anyone missed it this is a great thread.

[blamebrampton]

This is one of the greatest threads: humour, misunderstanding, conflict, reaching out, rapprochement AND CORGIS! Applause for all involved. And ruff scruffs for Otis, who is beautiful.

[charminglyantiquated]

hey guys can you help me find that old portrait of a girl holding a little painting of a naked dude and cracking up about it?? I want to say it’s by Rembrandt but that’s probably not right

[runwildwithme]

It’s “Smiling Girl, a Courtesan, Holding an Obscene Image” by Gerard van Honthorst!!

[charminglyantiquated]

It’s the best painting that exists

[albertothechihuahua]

this is the money dog, repost in the next 24 hours and money will come your way!!

[jaxblade]

ehh what the hell

[jaxblade]

OH MY GOD SO NO FUCKIN BULLSHIT I SWEAR To GOD. I reblogged this an hour ago and IM NOT Lying My Tax Refund which I did in late march popped into my Bank Account, and it was a Decent sized amount……

WHAT THE FUCK Is THIS MAGIC!??!?!?! Im trying this again IM NOT BSing hahahaha thats actually pretty cool xD

[jaxblade]

yooooo

yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

FUCKIN YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

no BULLSHIT I KID YOU NOT! Look what I found while walking Home…..

OH MY GOD

OH MY F*CKIN GOD

THIS POST FUCKIN WORKS?!?!?! THIS IS PAST A COINCIDENCE NO WAY!??! NO FRIGGIN WAY!!! 

Im Going to reblog this every day to test this, its MAGIC ITS FRIGGIN MAGIC 

[que-pasadena]

I need to believe in the heart of the post…

[perlexnoire-deactivated20150716]

Oh? Well… *reblag*

[zer0will2live]

i reblogged this and now my uncle is giving me 250 to dye my hair nani the fucko

[qslay]

I have nothing to lose

[stoicdaydreamer]

my palm was itchin today not riskin it

[astripperstory]

I always reblog the money posts cause I can’t afford not too lol

[brownsugarempress]

It works. I just got $300 for no reason.

[thecrybabbles-deactivated201605]

Money dog is my friend

[yeaimcoollikethat-deactivated20]

Money dog is the shit

[anttom2016-blog]

I believe in the money dog😀

[princedhunglow-deactivated20181]

I believe in the money 🐶

[cosmic-noir]

Bless me pls money pup 🙏🐕

[ukeitfromorbit]

I don't normally do these but this was amusing. Also, am broke :)

[microcroft]

things i never expected to learn through a tedtalk but now am glad to know:

the founder of Sirius XM radio is a sapphic trans woman and is currently trying to preserve her wife’s consciousness in a digital file so her wife can be immortal in the body of a robot.

[microcroft]

heres the tedtalk if you dont believe because everyone deserves to know this reality of the amazing world in which we live 

[enyafan]

Holy shit you neglected to mention that when her daughter got a terminal disease with no cure or treatment possible she literally went to the library got some medical textbooks and taught herself enough biochemistry to actually begin developing a drug that halted the disease good god why have we never heard of this absolute genius

[kaylapocalypse-deactivated20201]

YOU KNOW WHY  YOU K N O W   W  H Y

[sovietshopaholic]

Real life tony stark is a gay trans woman

[cuetheviolins]

Her name is Martine Rothblatt. She also founded United Therapeutics, which is a company that works to find cures for “””small””” diseases that don’t necessarily affect a lot of people. 

oh, yes–and she’s Jewish.

Here is a picture of Martine and her wife, Bina Aspen:

[blurchur]

MY FAVORITE POST ON THIS WHOLE DAMM SITE

[obsessioninc]

Just gonna say: There is literally no romance in Thor: Ragnarok. No romance subplots, no kissing. The closest thing to it is when Hulk sees part of a video of Black Widow and it turns him back into Bruce Banner. Besides that? Nothing. It was awesome.

[tini-ballerini]

False there is a clearly defined 3 seconds where its implied that Loki went down on Jeff Goldblum.

[obsessioninc]

This is the only argument to this post that I will accept

[wondyrwoman-deactivated20160623]

your husband seems like a dick kill him. also does ghosts still exist?

he is a dick and killing him is on my list, but he’s attractive so i’m going to get one more kid out of him

i’m not sure on the ghost front, i guess we’ll find out after i kill my husband and put his gravestone in my backyard 

[itseasytoremember]

YOU NEED TO MAKE IT MORE OBVIOUS THAT THIS IS ABOUT THE SIMS

[bemusedlybespectacled]

fucking christ I am sobbing

“If the men find out we can shapeshift, they’re going to tell the church!“

[pyreo]

i didnt learn anything about contouring but that’s okay

[robotlyra]

Her fuckin Katherine Hepburn Done With Everything accent is killing me

[breelandwalker]

-PTERODACTYL SCREECH-

[itsclydebitches]

AU where Dumbledore’s Army uses the Chamber of Secrets instead of the Room of Requirement

Ultimate security as Harry is the only one capable of opening it. 

Myrtle proudly spending her time acting as a guard/lookout. 

Later, Harry diligently teaching Ron, Hermione, and a few choice others, like Neville, how to mimic parseltongue so that they can open it too. 

Muggleborns experiencing vicious satisfaction that they’re using this chamber as a place of education and defense, reclaiming the very space Slytherin built to rid the school of their presence. 

Hermione methodically dismantling the basilisk’s corpse, covertly selling the priceless ingredients to potion masters, using the funds to continue their work - buying books and battle robes and new wands for those who can’t afford it. 

(Hermione saving a portion of those ingredients for her own research, straightening in triumph when she learns what basilisk venom does to horcruxes, knowing she has vials of it hidden up in her room). 

Harry reverently adding the Chamber of Secrets to the Marauder’s Map, proudly continuing his family’s work and reveling in the difference they’re making. 

These students - these kids - choosing to train in a dark, horrifying place that was never meant for them. Learning spells amongst shadows, growing stronger in inches of murky water, the smell of a decomposing corpse in their noses, memories of all that had happened here haunting them. They know this is what war is really like and it helps to push them forward.  

[itsclydebitches]

Updating this because people have brought up some REALLY GREAT plot-holes and I like trying to flesh out my AUs soooooooo…

Ginny is the one who suggests using the Chamber. Of course she is. Harry isn’t the type to think of that, but for Ginny… for Ginny the Chamber still haunts her dreams, too often, and she’s furious that a part of the castle is restricted to her - a part of her home that she wants to avoid. She suggests the Chamber, partly for the DA’s benefit, mostly for her own. 

Visibility is a concern - what if someone sees them going into the girl’s restroom? They think it’s a serious issue until Ron starts laughing. No one comes near that bathroom anymore, he says. Not ever. It was barely an issue while brewing a month long polyjuice potion, Ron and Harry popping in and out to add ingredients or to stir. Now though? Now that Myrtle has stepped up her game (shrieking, flooding the room if someone unwanted comes near), now that Hogwarts is infused with rumors that Harry fought a basilisk right in there, now that the nearby corridor still has a bloody, horrifying message that even the professors haven’t been able to erase*… well, students avoid the area like the plague. 

Even if they didn’t, the House Elves help them out. Dobby did, after all, suggest the Room of Requirement before Ginny brought up the Chamber. Who better than the workers who see but are not seen to help the DA keep watch? 

The castle helps too. By now it knows Harry and desperately wants to protect its students. More than once Umbridge follows a DA member, only to find the staircase moving unexpectedly, taking her in another direction entirely. Sometimes there’s even a door directly beside the lavatory - appearing out of nowhere - that students can slip inside if they feel the need… 

Getting out is the other concern. At first they think to bring brooms or levitate one another out… but that’s just not practical. Then, one of the Hufflepuffs asks the obvious and yet oddly illusive question: how did Salazar get out? They start a search and by the end of the day they’ve found at least four hidden exits. 

One exit leads out into the Forbidden Forest, a space that’s not nearly as terrifying as it once was. Harry speaks quietly to Firenze and secures the help of the centaurs for when they need safe passage late at night. One day they encounter a group of acromantulas… and Harry learns of Hagrid’s strict new rule - friends of Hagrid are never food, no matter how easy the prey. The students don’t realize it, but they’re slowly gaining allies. Those in the forest begin to take notice of the children who walk both bravely and respectfully through their trees. 

(And one day when they’re too tired to walk back, a familiar blue car pulls up and throws open its doors. Ron cheers like a maniac. Ginny laughs and threatens to tell their dad). 

Though the exists are great, it’s Hermione who realizes the Chamber’s true benefit - it lies outside of Hogwart’s apparition zone. How can it not? Godric, Helga, and Rowena didn’t know of its existence when they first made the wards. So now the DA can go with ease, they just can’t pop in from anywhere else in the castle. Which is, admittedly, perfect. Apparition lessons begin in earnest. 

(And during the Battle of Hogwarts, DA members take Slytherin students by the hand - those who wouldn’t, couldn’t, fight their own families. They take them down to the Chamber and tell them to apparate out. Leave while you still can. Keep safe). 

 Harry realizing that parseltongue is easily imitated and coming up with an actual password that has to be spoken, one linked to a spell too. It helps that the snakes around the entrance are semi-sentient and are loyal to their new master. They know who’s meant to go down there and who’s not. 

Neville joking one day that they should be learning how to use swords, considering that’s how the original battle down here was won. Harry takes it seriously. Not the swords bit, but using physical/muggle fighting techniques on wizards who are too reliant on their magic. They begin reading up on hand-to-hand combat and knives. 

Harry needing to test their progress and getting a really stupid idea… but honestly, those often work out in his favor. So one sunny, Saturday morning - when everyone else is lounging outside - Harry sneaks the DA into the third floor corridor. Fluffy is gone, as is the mirror, but the rest remains, no doubt left in case Dumbledore ever had to guard something else precious. Hermione, Ron, and Harry spend the day supervising, teaching their peers how to react under pressure, think through situations, and rely on one another’s skills. 

And then one day things get weird (because they always do with Harry) when he realizes that the miniature chamber the basilisk was kept in is the only part of their hideout they’d yet to explore. See, given their rarity, it’s unsurprising that wizardkind knows so little about basilisks - not that they reproduce asexually or that only a parseltongue can hatch the egg. So when Harry crawls into the chamber, and finds a strange egg-like object nestled there, that begins pulsing a soft green color in his presence, and when he basically says, “What the hell…?” out loud, and when it comes out in parseltongue because he is surrounded by snake things…well, let’s just say a few minutes later Harry crawls back out, very sheepish, a baby basilisk cooing around his neck. He laughs pretty shakily and mutters something about finding their mascot. 

(And they name the beast - because of course they do - and Hermione invents a soft device to cover its eyes and feeding it is an absolute horror… but they do grow to love their ‘mascot.’ And during the Battle - when Harry is off in the forest and Hogwarts is losing badly - no one is more surprised than the Death Eaters when Ron and Hermione come tearing out of the school riding a goddamn fully grown basilisk. Hermione rips off the cover on its eyes and sets to work). 

* “In the book, it says that Filch could not get the messages written by Ginny off of the wall. It is unknown if he ever did, and it has not been mentioned since.”

[reallifepadfoot-deactivated2018]

Fucking love this

[isinfactgod-deactivated20200304]

READ IT

[earendil-was-a-mariner]

George R.R. Martin: dragons are huge ferocious beasts who answer to a master  

Tolkien: dragons are annoying, talking assholes

[jenniferrpovey]

One interesting thought on this:

Fairy tale dragons? They’re like Smaug. They’re arrogant, talkative, they hoard treasure, they eat virgins. They’re amoral rather than evil, but they are intelligent monsters.

The dragon in Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, the one indirectly responsible for Eustace’s draconic curse is along the same lines.

At that time that is what a dragon was. There was a general consensus in western literature that dragons were, well, that.

In Medieval stories, dragons are to be killed by brave men. Gawain fights “wyrms” - a kind of wingless dragon. St. George slays a dragon. So does Beowulf. So does King Arthur. To be a worthwhile myth hero you have, at some point, to slay a dragon.

Early modern and nineteenth century dragons - we see one counter example - Faustus chariot is drawn by dragons in “Doctor Faustus.” The first really solid “friendly dragon” story is The Reluctant Dragon, which became a 1941 Disney film. That is the first story I can find about a dragon that befriends a human - but it’s friendship, not “human masters dragon.”

The second friendly dragon is E. Nesbit’s “The Last of the Dragons” who decides he’d rather hang out with the princess than fight the prince (the first example of subversion of the dragons eat maidens trope that I can find).

But they’re the minority.

In the 1930s, when Lewis and Tolkien were writing, dragons were the bad guys. The rare exceptions were dragons deciding not to act like dragons.

Then something happened.

That something probably started with a 1948 children’s book called “My Father’s Dragon - about a kid who runs away to Wild Island and rescues a baby dragon. Heard of it? If you’ve studied kid lit, sure, it won a ton of awards. Otherwise…nope, and certainly in Dawn Treader, written in 1950, dragons were still bad.

In the 1960s we start to see a couple more “good” dragons. But it’s almost always the same thing. Dragons are bad, except this one. This is a special dragon.

Then in 1967 John Campbell ran a story in Analog named Weyr Search. Heard of that one? Yup.

It was part of a novel called Dragonsflight, written by Grand Master Anne McCaffrey.

And she completely changed what dragons were.

Anne’s dragons were gentle, genetically engineered protectors who bonded to a human rider at birth and were “mastered” by that rider - the dragons offered instinct, but the reason came from the humans.

Anne McCaffrey was one of the first female authors to write science fiction by women about women - and while she had a number of flaws and was honestly a better worldbuilder than writer she inspired a lot of people.

And changed our view of dragons as a fantasy trope.

Since then most fantasy writers that include dragons have them as friendly and willing to be ridden by humans. Even the “good” dragons in the DragonLance novels.

In other words: In the space between Tolkein and Martin, who’s first short story collection was published in 1976, almost a decade after Weyr Search Anne McCaffrey turned dragons on their head.

Daenerys’ dragons owe more in their lineage to Ramoth than they do to Grendel, the dragon slain by Beowulf.

(In other words, literary evolution is fascinating).

[medeasfleece]

Grendel wasn’t a dragon, though. The dragon was a completely different part of the poem, lol. But this is a really interesting analysis, all the same!

[al-capwned-deactivated20210405]

grendel was actually similar to the dragon slain by St. George, in that they both represented the pagan god or gods worshiped with human sacrifice before the arrival of christian missionaries (Beowulf and St. George) who “killed” the monsters and freed the people from the practices of human sacrifice.

furthermore with this, the tale of Grendel’s mother was also a representation of the fall of pagan beliefs and the rise of christianity, in that Grendel’s mother was representative of the pagan priestesses who would often make the male sacrifices through a very sexual process, at times raping the men if they were not participating willingly, and then killing them in the process.  the dragon of beowulf i’m pretty sure wasn’t part of the original poem, but was added on later to give beowulf a warrior’s death

So i think a significant change was that the dragons and monsters in old fairy tales at times represented pagan deities and those who practiced the pagans beliefs, and the “brave knights and warriors” who slew the monsters were representing christianity becoming dominant in europe, and tolkien and lewis knew that, and kept them to those themes