For this episode let us join the timelord supreme, Dr. Sam Willis and the priest of the prior, Professor James Daybell as they explore unchartered realms to discover the unexpected history of the dragon. Our very own Beowulf and Tristan will slay the myths and coax the dragon from its hoard, as they take you on a journey from a fifteenth century depiction of a sea serpent to the nineteenth century explorer Matthew Flinders, from Tudor chicken dragons to the Victorian Temperance movements, and from the Oseberg, a Norwegian Viking ship ca. 800, to the fifteenth century Order of the Dragon.

Our dragon riders will follow the links to discover that this unexpected history is actually all about; inventiveness, tricks, exploration, spectacle, fear of the unknown, sin, patriotism, chivalry, terror and temptation. Want to know who would win in a fight, a European Dragon or a Chinese Dragon? And should James and Sam ever open a dragon pamper parlour my moneys on ‘Paws and Claws’ for the name.

‘My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail is a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath is death!’   (J. R. R. Tolkien, ‘The Hobbit’)