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Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Monster Fact, a short-form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures,

ideas, and monsters in time.

Previously on The Monster Fact, I talked about the evil Gormork from the never-ending story.

So today, I'd like to talk about what is essentially his opposite, the luck dragon Falcour.

In the 1984 movie, Falcour rescues Atreou from the swamp of sadness and near death at the

jaws of Gomorke. In the 1979 novel, that it is, of course, based upon, Atreou instead meets him

within the layer of Yigramoul, the mini, the horror of horrors,

a vast swarm of insects with a collective intelligence. In the novel's original German language,

Falcour's name is actually something like Foucour, thought to be an adaptation of the Japanese

Fukuriyu, meaning crouching dragon.

The name change was apparently to prevent the character's name in English from sounding like an expletive.

Author Michael Inda describes the luck dragon as long and graceful, with pearly pink and white scales,

a lion-like head, and ruby-red eyes, very much

in keeping with Eastern dragon motifs.

The 1984 film famously incorporates soothing dog-like elements, which have, of course, become

iconic.

It's such a beautiful design, practically realized on the screen, and I also love how

it stands in opposition to Komork's appearance. You know, on one hand, we have the wild wolf,

and on the other hand, a synthesis of fearsome but serene celestial dragon and the friendly domestic

...