When I was in Wales in September, I loved seeing dragon symbols everywhere — so much so that I bought a dragon Christmas ornament as souvenir. I don’t recall thinking that what the country really needed was an gigantic, red-tinted bronze dragon statue. But now that the announcement has been made that they’re building Waking the Dragon in Wrexham, it seems so obvious that one was missing all along!
These photos come from the Waking the Dragon project, and they’re only renderings. They hope to have the dragon finished by August 2011, which sounds overly optimistic to me. But then, I’ve never even built a small dragon… Let alone a glass cultural tower beneath it.
This statue is being compared to the Statue of Liberty in terms of size, although it will be a little smaller. But unlike our Lady Liberty, which has a lit flame on her torch, there will be no fire component on Waking the Dragon. This sounds like a real missed opportunity because a fire-breathing dragon would be awesome.
Dragons are everywhere in Wales — mostly in two-dimensional picture form but there are some smaller statues too. The red dragon is on the flag, and the Welsh are very proud so they’ll display the symbol wherever they can. Dragons feature prominently in Welsh legend, like prophecy of Merlin about a the long fight between a red dragon (Welsh) and a white dragon (Saxons) that the red dragon would eventually win. I loved seeing dragons everywhere because it really sparked my imagination and made me think back to mythical times when you just might have to slay a dragon that got in your way.
I hope no one succeeds in slaying this £6 million project because it seems like a great tourist attraction for Northeast Wales.
What do you think?
I think it’s an excellent idea for tourism – it’s amazing how these monuments can have people travelling for miles to take a look although I think a bit of fire would bring even more people!
i think they should make it so that at 12 mid day everyday, the dragon spat out fire to signify the middle of the day. that way it wont kill the gass bill and will bring people in at a certain time for optimum sales of tourist stuff. (tourist thing was bonus, i just wanna see this beast spout fire)
I think its fantastic! I do hope they complete it, I can’t wait to see it! Shame about the fire, that would be amazing if it flamed randomly, especially at night.
I think it is awesome! It would be amazing to have it breath fire, though. I will be definitely be making a trip across the pond to see it. I think it perfectly fits the Welsh pride!
Best idea ever….
Being a proud Welshman, i can’t think of anything more stirring….apart from maybe a statue of Owain Glyndwr riding on the back of said Dragon
Not sure about the tower design but love the dragon. Maybe only occasional flame so the dragon’s carbon footprint stays small
The more dragons the better, but then I would say that.
http://jackiemorris.co.uk/tellmeadragon.htm
Excellent idea, only problem i see is, why Wrexham? It’s practically England, lets build it down South, where the Welsh actually have a Welsh accent.
I love Wales! I bought a coffee cup with a dragon on it years ago. It’s since been broken, unfortunately.