You might have guessed that we love dragons here at Dragonspace. Perhaps our name gave it away? We're fascinated by these enigmatic beasts and the stories they inspire. Guardians, protectors, sages, monsters, villains, friends and companions - dragons have appeared in lore and legend as all these things and more.

Though long associated with tales of old, dragons are still going strong in popular culture, becoming icons in some of our favourite contemporary fantasy stories. Let's take a look at a few of our favourites:

Puff

Are you already starting to sing the song? Puff was immortalised by the '60s pop-folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, though the lyrics to the famous tune are actually based on a poem by a university student named Leonard Lipton. In the song, Puff the dragon lives in a magical land called Honahlee, where he gets up to all kinds of adventures with his friend Jackie Paper. Puff is undoubtedly a docile friendly dragon, though his story isn't all sunshine and rainbows. At the end of the song, Jackie Paper stops coming to visit Puff, causing the dragon to "sadly slip into his cave." The tale is said to be about growing up and the loss of innocence - Puff represents the magic of childhood, when the imagination roamed free. Maybe that's why dragons continue to hold a mystical grip on us.

Smaug

Fearsome Smaug is the antagonist in Tolkien's The Hobbit tales. Like a traditional dragon of Western lore, Smaug greedily guards the treasure in the Dwarf kingdom of Erebor and launches a fiery attack on the village of Laketown. Some scholars theorise that Tolkien was inspired by the 'old night-scather' from the epic poem Beowulf when creating Smaug, as Tolkien was a Beowulf expert. Vengeful, treasure-hungry and aggressive, Smaug embodies the villainous dragon archetype. Tolkien interestingly chose to give Smaug the ability to talk, making him a little more humanoid than monstrous.

Falkor

Falkor the luckdragon is the faithful companion of heroes Bastian and Atreyu in the Germany fantasy novel The Neverending Story. In appearance, Falkor takes elements from a traditional Oriental dragon as well as a domestic dog, specifically a Golden Retriever or a Labrador...notoriously faithful animals! Falkor is optimistic, wise and friendly, and possesses extraordinary luck even in impossible circumstances. He's the type of dragon we'd definitely want as a pet, though he'd need a bigger backyard than your standard dog.

Mushu

Witty firecracker Mushu often steals the scene in the 1998 Disney animated film Mulan. In many ways, Mushu is a traditional Chinese dragon, with his blue horns, gold mustache and lack of wings, more resembling a lizard or serpent than a Western dragon.  Once a guardian spirit of the Fa ancestors, Mushu was demoted after failing to protect a family member and is desperate to regain his prior position throughout the film. While Mushu is comedic and sometimes buffoon-like, he is ultimately a guardian and protector to Mulan. In Chinese mythology, dragons represent luck, fortune and protection, so Mushu fits the bill.

Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion

Game of Thrones has recently catapulted dragons back into pop culture fame. Even since Daenerys Targaryen stepped out of the fire holding her babies, these dragons have created some of the television show's most stunning scenes. While Daenerys's dragons are ultimately faithful to her - their mother - they're also wild and unpredictable, causing her to have to lock them up when she realises she can't completely control them. Fierce and impressive, everyone's looking forward to seeing what role these beasts will play in books and episodes to come. But no spoilers...

Norbert

Not a lot of people would use the word 'adorable' to describe a dragon, unless you're Rubeus Hagrid, of course. In the first of the Harry Potter books, we get to meet Norbert, the Norwegian Ridgeback baby dragon that animal-loving Hagrid hatches from an egg in his hut. In appearance, Norbert is a traditional Western dragon that looks like a 'crumpled black umbrella' with large spiny wings, stubby horns and orange eyes. Sadly, Hagrid has to give Norbert up to a dragon reserve in Romania after the dragon develops a reputation for biting. Norbert is just one of the dragons that feature in the series, from fierce Hungarian Horntails to Common Welsh Greens and Swedish Short-Snouts. We'd love to meet all the dragons of J.K Rowling's imagination (from a safe distance, of course).

From cuddly companions to wicked villains, dragons certainly add conflict and colour to some of our favourite stories! Who's your top dragon? Let us know in the comments below.

OUR FAVOURITE DRAGON PRODUCTS:

See our full dragon collection here!

The only thing more special than finding your own magical self is finding a community of other magically minded people to be a part of. Dragonspace is a place where dragon-lovers, Wiccans, occultists, artists, clairvoyants and more meet and collide, but there are communities all over the world that come together to celebrate, bond and believe in the unbelievable.

One of our Dragonspace staff members had the chance to visit one such place over in England last weekend. Nestled amongst the trees of the New Forest in southern England (home to over 3000 gorgeous wild ponies) was the annual New Forest Fairy Festival, a celebration of all things fairy.

From market stalls selling Dragonspace-esque goods (wands, incense, jewelry, altar supplies) to live music and healing workshops, the Fairy Festival was a place where magic really came alive. Here are some of the highlights:

Meeting Josephine Wall herself

In our last post, we wrote about some of our favourite fantasy artists, of which the whimsical Josephine Wall was one. What a delight it was to meet Josephine at her stall at the festival, looking stunning in a long green gown with threads of gold woven through her hair. We told Josephine that her artworks are loved all the way over in Vancouver, and she was pleased to hear! She was selling prints, notebooks, calendars, oracle decks and gift cards, and we got some merchandise personalised signed. A spell-binding experience!

Learning lesser known facts about Tarot and Runes

The festival workshops were held in a cosy colourful tent, featuring interactive talks by practitioners in various mystical arts. The tarot workshop, run by Rudi, cut through a lot of the noise about tarot and really got stuck into the history and the symbolism. Rudi explained how the cards of the Major Arcana beautifully articulate the human experience - from The Fool staggering naively through the world as a child, to the turmoil of The Lovers, and the cyclical nature of Death. Even those sceptical about divination would have enjoyed Rudi’s explanations.

The Runes workshop was run by Glenn, who took us on a journey through the runes, not only explaining their history and symbolism, but how runes appear in everyday life. For example, you’ve probably seen the Gebo rune ('X') meaning “gift” at the bottom of greeting cards, letters or emails from loved ones, likely in the form of “xoxo”. And we’ve actually got a rune on our cell phones - a bind rune, in fact! Take a look at your Bluetooth symbol now. That symbol is actually two runes - the one for ‘H’ and the one for ‘B’ - bound, or merged, together. It was the signature of Harald Bluetooth, a 10th-century king who united Denmark under his rule, and so the Bluetooth function is named for him as it unites two electronic devices together. The more you know!

We couldn’t help but notice that the Fairy Festival wasn’t the only magical thing about Burley, the charming village in the middle of the New Forest where the festival was held. The village itself was full of shops selling magical goods, including the iconic Coven of Witches. Apparently, during the 1950s a famous white witch lived in Burley named Sybil Leek, who had a pet jackdaw and would walk the village in a long black cloak. It’s no wonder magical folk flock to the New Forest - with its ancient woodland, open moors and wild ponies that wander the land freely. We highly recommend a visit if you’re in England!

It’s just not a festival without music. From Celtic jigs to medieval marketplace music, Irish folk ballads to Enya, you’re always surrounded by music in Dragonspace, and the Fairy Festival was no different! The main stage saw an eclectic mix of live bands set the scene - country rock, dreamy folk, New Age and more - always with a crowd of little fairies dancing in the front row. The cosy Acoustic Tent was a great place to sit and take a breather for a few moments, serenaded by acoustic sets. There were also belly dancing and drumming workshops, and a wonderful Elemental Dance tent which invited festival-goers to just let it all go and dance...sometimes the best form of healing.

We have to mention the abundance of fairy dogs walking around the festival. These furry friends seemed to love sporting glittery fairy wings or tutus, enjoying the magical atmosphere (or maybe the scraps of food dropped under picnic tables). And of course, we can’t forget the famous New Forest wild ponies! While they didn’t make it into the festival grounds, these majestic free-roaming creatures are found all over the New Forest - they can cause quite the traffic jam on the winding roads! If you’re lucky enough to pay a visit to the Forest, appreciate these beautiful beasts, but keep your distance - while gentle, they are wild and shouldn’t be petted or fed. Just like a unicorn, of course.

And there you have all the ingredients for a truly spell-binding weekend! It was also lovely to see all the parallels between our Dragonspace community and a community all the way across the ocean. Britain and its European neighbours are the original home of much of the myth and magic we trade in at the store - Celtic wisdom, Irish fairy stories, Viking lore, medieval dragon tales. We love that the magic lives on at the New Forest Fairy Festival and we can't wait until next year!

Some of our favourite fairy forest treasures here at Dragonspace:

Stepping into Dragonspace is a sensory experience, with visuals, scent and sound all coming together to create our little fantasy world. A lot of the visual wonder is thanks to the talented fantasy artists whose works line our shelves, adorning gift cards, art books, t-shirts, tarot decks, statuettes and more. These artists bring our imaginations to visual life, from the Gothic realms of Anne Stokes to the vivid wonderlands of Josephine Wall.

Here’s a bit more about the artists you’ll find as you roam the store:

 Amy Brown

American artist Amy Brown is known for her fairies, which she’s been painting since 1992. Amy predominantly uses watercolours in subdued hues that remind us of the changing seasons. We particularly love the eclectic fashions on Amy’s fairies, which are clearly inspired by fashions throughout history - Victorian corsets, striped stockings, medieval gowns, white furs and Steampunk goggles. There's a real sense of story to Amy's often wistful fairies, and you can't help but want to know more about them as you peek inside their worlds.

Amy is also the artist behind our fantastic fairy teacup collection (which sold out quickly - but let us know if you want us to notify you when we get more in!)

Browse our full collection of Amy Brown products here.

Anne Stokes 

Anne Stokes is a well-known British fantasy artist with a penchant for the Gothic. Her work is easily identified by its striking subjects and moody aesthetic, from fallen angels and vampire queens to dragons with their princesses. Her art also litters the world of pop culture - her illustrations have been featured in the Dungeons & Dragons books, and in the early days of her career, she designed tour merchandise for bands like Queen and the Rolling Stones, and fashioned jewelry lines for Discword and Harry Potter brands (what an enviable resume!) We love the boldness of Anne’s art, and the way she shows the shadowy side of the fantasy world without being sinister.

 Browse our full collection of Anne Stokes products here.

Josephine Wall

Who doesn’t love visiting the surreal rainbow landscapes of Josephine Wall’s imagination? Josephine’s art is a dream come to life, recognisable for its gorgeous use of light and colour, with a heavy focus on purples, pinks, bright blues and yellows. You have to stare at Josephine's pieces for a while to truly appreciate them, as they’re often a collection of images that blend into one another to form a larger whole. British-born Josephine is heavily inspired by nature, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a piece of her art that doesn’t have some kind of natural element in it - curved shells, bright flowers, shimmering moons, dancing butterflies, sprawling trees, the list goes on and on.

If you’re in England, you might actually get a chance to visit Josephine. Her magical gallery is in Dorset and she welcomes visitors by booking.

Browse our full collection of Josephine Wall products here.

Nene Thomas

American artist Nene Thomas’s art is Romantic and intriguingly realistic, even if the content is mythical. Her fairies have a real human quality and intricate fashions that you can admire for ages. Like Anne Stokes, Nene Thomas has also contributed art to fantasy role-playing games, working with Magic: The Gathering at the start of her career. While early on she favoured watercolours, Nene now creates all her art digitally - adding a  modern aesthetic to traditional fantasy. Nene’s work spans the dark and light ends of the magical world, featuring Gothic fairies, whimsical forest scenes, romantic embraces, snowscapes, oceanscapes, beauties and beasts of all kinds.

 Browse our full collection of Nene Thomas products here.

Brian Froud

While all our featured artists have large followings, Brian Froud's work has probably had the biggest influence on popular culture. If you've seen cult fantasy films The Dark Crystal or The Labyrinth (and who hasn't?) then you've come across Brian's art - he was a conceptual designer on both films. His work is quirky and gloriously grotesque, with his most famed illustration collections including Goblins, Trolls, Good Faeries/Bad Faeries and Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book. There's a huge sense of humour and playfulness to Brian's art, and his partnership with Jim Henson's Creature Shop (responsible for The Muppet and Sesame Street) seems only natural. His wife, Wendy Froud, is also a talented fantasy artist and puppet-maker. We'd love to see what their dinner parties are like!

Browse our full collection of Brian Froud products here.

We're forever in awe of the artists that help make Dragonspace even more magical with their spell-binding creations. Do you have another favourite fantasy artist you think we should check out? Let us know in the comments below!