Hi everyone, and welcome back to Britain under the Microscope. 歡迎回來【閑話英倫】 Hi, 安瀾.

Hi Lulu, hi, everyone.

What about cats? I know for a fact that black cats are seen as witches’ familiars.

Yeah.

So is it actually a bad thing if you see a black cat crossing your path in the UK.

Some people still believe that, I have to admit if I'm on the way to an exam or if I'm doing something very important and a black cat tries to walk across my path, I do tend to........shoo it away, or trying to scare it away.

You're like not superstitious but you're somewhat superstitious.

I don't want to.

You do not wanna jinx it.

I don't wanna tempt fate.

You don't wanna tempt fate. Yes, now to tempt fate here is a little bit like in Chinese we say寧可信其有不可信其無

Exactly.

Yeah, but you also got some lores about big cats not just cat cat.

Well yeah, but these are based on modern folklore. So these are called ABCs, Alien Big Cats.

Why alien, not alien ET.

Alien as in foreign. So these creatures are described as being similar to panthers, leopards or pumas. Now this is a little bit of an urban legend. This is kind of more modern folklore. But there have been sightings of big cats in Britain and these have been reported for decades when cows, sheeps have been killed. They found strange paw prints in remote areas.

This is so weird. I mean you don't have any wild live population of these cats.

This is the thing, theories about the origin of these big cats, normally come from animals that were released after the dangerous wild animals act of 1976. So before then rich people could keep pumas, leopards.

So now it's illegal to keep these exotic animals, even if you're super rich

Well you need to get a license.

They probably can get a license.

So some people say actually maybe these are the creatures that were released by the pet owners.

They can't just release them on the streets of England.

It does happen, it does happen.

This is ridiculous.

But they don't release them on the streets. For example, there's the Beast of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, which is.

Oh I think I've been there, Bodmin, there's a jail there, right?

There's a jail. There is a very, very mysterious part of the UK, very bleak, lots of fog, lots of mist.

Forests?

Not really forests, no, but it's a very remote part. And apparently there was a big cat in Bodmin Moor. And there's also a puma in Surrey close to where I was.

That's close to London.

Very close to London. That's where I was brought up.

Do you know what, this explains a long hanging question that I wanted to ask. You know New Concept English新概念英語, so when I was very little and I was looking at that book, there was one article about... talking about some puma at large. Yeah, it's like puma wandering the streets of England, and then you think, why? they don't have any wild pumas. And then it sounds like that puma has escaped from the zoo or something so that probably has its roots from what you are talking about these big cats being lat out.

Well partly, yeah, the thing is if you go around London sometimes you see parrots.

You are not supposed to see parrots ?

Well not in London ,no.

I'm sorry I'm very bad with parrots. They are not originally...

Parrots are tropical creatures.

Okay, thank you.

But you sometimes see them because they escape or they are released accidentally and they can survive. So sometimes very very rarely you can see a parrot flying around London.

I see, so for a period of time those exotic animal, whatever like exotic animal zoos, they're quite popular.

Oh, yeah.

Okay. So we've talked about cats, we've talked about dogs, we've talked about cockatrice. I would like for us to talk about dragons because that is actually a topic on its own.

Yes.

You see many people when they are talking about dragons, they say dragons are龍 and 龍 are very different creatures which I agree. But are dragons purely evil in British understanding?

Not really, dragons in British myths are kind of large, serpent-like creatures with wings and can breathe fire. Now they are associated with evil, but they're also associated with strength and power.

I could swear that I've seen dragons on some of your flags, banners.

Oh yeah. For example, the City of London has the dragon of saint George. That's the most famous story.

Okay, let's hear the story of St. George and the dragon.

Well, according to the Legend, a dragon terrorized the kingdom, demanding sacrifice of basically cows, sheep.

And virgins.

And virgins.

That's one thing, isn't it?

Saint George, the Christian knight fought and killed the dragon, saving the princess and the kingdom. So this tale has become a symbol of good triumphs over evil and we celebrate St. George's day to this day.

Is St. George, your patron saint ?

He is our patron saint, but he's also the patron saint of other countries like for example, Georgia

Georgia, I suppose, St. George. So patron saint就是這種相當于一個守護神的感覺.

So George is a bit of a strange choice for a patron saint because he never ever went to the UK, he lived all of his life in the Middle East.

I see, but you haven't mentioned City of London. Although the original story is St. George is the good knight and then the dragon is the evil, and St. George slayed the dragon. However in the City of London, you could see the dragon, but not saint George.

That's because according to the story of the City of London, it was the dragon that killed St. George.

What does that say about the City of London?

Well, think about dragons are also famous for.

Guarding gold, yes. So dragons or the dragon triumphed over St. George, because he guards the gold in the Square Mile. (倫敦金融城，英國倫敦的金融中心——倫敦城（City of London）的別稱)

Exactly.

And that is what you want for a financial center. You want something that protects the gold.

That is powerful, majestic

Exactly. And more importantly, make sure that no one takes the money.

Good. Good, But what about some of the other parts not just England, but what about like Wales, for example

In Wales, the flag is a red dragon.

Yeah, that must be where I've seen it.

Yeah, and the red dragon now in Welsh, is it like"Y Ddraig Goch" something like that.

I really don't understand anything.

No.

Spoken in Welsh.

Neither do we. It's the red dragon, that's the symbol of Wales and it's on the Welsh flag. That's because it's said to represent the ancient Britons who were fighting against the Saxons who were the white dragon.

Oh I see, so perhaps in more ancient belief in your neck of the woods, in your part of the world, dragons are not necessarily evil or like not necessarily good or bad. They're just powers.

Exactly.

They're just competing powers, perhaps.

Exactly. So this is the whole thing. Dragons are not completely evil, but they are powerful. They represent strength and power.

This is perhaps why in Game of Thrones you remember you said that's loosely based on was it war of the roses?

War of the Roses.

That they put the dragons in. Exactly. Right. And in that, dragons are powerful, they're not evil in Game of Thrones.

No, absolutely. And this is a whole idea that's constantly changing as well.

Yeah, you get the dragon, you get the throne.

That's it, simple as that.

All right. So on that note, we're gonna wrap up. Hey, 安瀾, you know what, in the future maybe we should just do like a segment talking about lores.

I would love to do that, that sounds so much fun.

So if you are equally interested in these stories, lores, legends, mythology, which is a big part of the culture, leave us a comment in the comment section. If we see enough interest, we might consider starting a new segment.

Look forward to it.

All right. And on that note, we're going to say, see you next time.

Bye bye.