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55-410: (Redirected from Dragon Riders ) Dragon Rider , Dragonrider or DragonRider may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media [ edit ] Dragon Rider (novel) , a 1997 novel by Cornelia Funke Dragon Rider (film) , a 2020 film based on the novel Dragonriders of Pern , a series of novels by Anne and Todd McCaffrey "Dragonrider",

110-648: A reductio ad absurdum with a chain of homunculi " all the way down ", an idea also known as the homunculus fallacy . This was not necessarily considered by spermists a fatal objection, however, as it neatly explained the Genesis creation narrative 's claim that it was "in Adam " that all had sinned: the whole of humanity was already contained in his loins during the original sin . The spermists' theory also failed to explain why children tend to resemble their mothers as well as their fathers, though some spermists suggested that

165-545: A dragon-killing machine to obtain the Dragons' horns which he used in his experiments to create gold. Twigleg, and his eleven other Homunculus brothers, were made as Nettlebrand's caretakers. When the Silver Dragons went into hiding, Nettlebrand killed the alchemist and eventually ate all of Twigleg's brothers, then went hunting on his own. Zubeida showed Firedrake not only the tomb of the original Dragon Rider but also

220-479: A map leading to the Himalayas, marking dangerous areas along the way. Only able to fly at night, Firedrake wastes no time wanting to leave. He and Sorrel also decide to bring Ben along with them. After Ben and Sorrel argue about turning East too soon or not, the three end up in a mountain range full of dwarves. Firedrake sleeps while the sun is up and the dwarves wait for him to wake up. While he rests however, one of

275-583: A massive success. Dragon Rider remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 78 weeks, reaching number one on the Children's Best-Seller list. In late 2015, Cornelia Funke divulged details on a sequel to Dragon Rider , titled A Griffin's Feather . The sequel would be set two years following the first book, with Ben living with the Greenblooms at a creature refuge founded in Norway. The book

330-496: A mutilated anthroparion ". The Greek word "anthroparion" is similar to "homunculus" – a diminutive form of "person". Zosimos subsequently encounters other anthroparia in his dream but there is no mention of the creation of artificial life . In his commentary, Jung equates the homunculus with the Philosopher's Stone , and the "inner person" in parallel with Christ . In Islamic alchemy , takwin ( Arabic : تكوين )

385-610: A segment of the 1968 novel Dragonflight Dragonrider, a villain from Marvel Comics Dragon Riders, a group of fictional magician-warriors in Christopher Paolini's The Inheritance Cycle Other [ edit ] DragonRider, the former name of the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft by SpaceX See also [ edit ] Eragon (film) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

440-459: A single grim fact—Nettlebrand is hunting the Dragons who live in the Rim of Heaven, and expects Firedrake to find them for him. Dr. Ghalib reveals a legend of a Dragon Rider who once lived in the village. Ben is his reincarnation, and his destiny is to save the silver dragons from a terrible enemy. No sooner have they heard the legend than two more of Nettlebrand's ravens descend on them. Sorrel attempts

495-558: A species of flower that collects moonlight in the form of dewdrops on its leaves. Having drunk this "moon-dew", Firedrake can fly even if there's no moon at all. The two parties split up to lose Nettlebrand's pursuit in the mountains. After a hazardous encounter with a Roc, they are forced off course and must take refuge in a valley. Nettlebrand continues tailing a boat wherein Professor Greenbloom and his family, knowing they will lead him to Firedrake are seen by Guinevere. In

550-520: A stone which she has smeared her adhesive saliva. The stone sticks to the Raven's wing and sends him panicking to shore. In Pakistan, the friends enter a village where Zubeida the Dracologist is living and also find Professor Greenbloom. His wife and daughter, Guinevere, have joined him on account of the incident with Nettlebrand. Deeply worried, the two parties compare their findings, which all point to

605-421: A storm, arriving on the shore of Egypt. Encountering a chicken-like monster known as basilisk and a band of zealous archaeologists, the party eventually befriends a kindly scientist named Professor Greenbloom. Sorrel is initially suspicious but soon warms up to him. Professor Greenbloom gives Ben one of two freezing-cold metallic scales he has, which unknown to the humans, once belonged to Nettlebrand. Twigleg relays

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660-504: A vessel shaped like the animal and combining the animal's bodily fluids within it, then placing the vessel at the center of a model of a celestial sphere as heat is applied to it. Some of the alchemists believed that these methods originated somewhere in India or Southeast Asia. The homunculus continued to appear in alchemical writings after Paracelsus' time. The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616) for example, concludes with

715-589: Is a 1997 German children's novel by Cornelia Funke . Originally translated by Oliver Latsch, Dragon Rider was published in English in 2004 by The Chicken House in the United Kingdom and Scholastic Inc. in the US, using a translation by Anthea Bell. Dragon Rider follows the exploits of a silver dragon named Firedrake, a cat-like brownie named Sorrel, and Ben, an orphaned human boy, in their search for

770-455: Is discovered but is allowed to stay due to his almost-perfect ability to understand and translate any language. He has grown to be very attached to Ben, and he begins relaying false information to his master, sending him into the middle of a desert where he gets attacked by the sandmen, whom the monster eventually escapes. While flying over the ocean, a lunar eclipse occurs and Firedrake (who lives off of moonlight), cannot fly. He falls and lands on

825-484: Is embodied and inborn in them, and they need learn it from no one." Comparisons have been made with several similar concepts in the writings of earlier alchemists. Although the actual word "homunculus" was never used, Carl Jung believed that the concept first appeared in the Visions of Zosimos , written in the third century AD. In the visions, Zosimos encounters a priest who changes into "the opposite of himself, into

880-451: Is reputed to have created ten homunculi with the ability to foresee the future, which von Kufstein kept in glass containers at his Masonic lodge in Vienna . Dr. Emil Besetzny's Masonic handbook, Die Sphinx , devoted an entire chapter to the wahrsagenden Geister (scrying ghosts). These are reputed to have been seen by several people, including local dignitaries. References to

935-474: Is seen as more of a magical phenomenon in the story, however, rather than necessarily having a symbolic meaning. Homunculi appear in fantasy based television, film, and games in a manner consistent with literature. Examples can be found in numerous media, such as the podcast Hello From The Magic Tavern , the films Homunculus (1916), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), Dr. Who episode The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977),

990-432: The 31st day arrives, take out the root in the middle of the night and dry it in an oven heated with branches of verbena ; then wrap it up in a piece of a dead man's winding-sheet and carry it with you everywhere. The homunculus has also been compared to the golem of Jewish folklore . Though the specifics outlining the creation of the golem and homunculus are very different, the concepts both metaphorically relate man to

1045-466: The Arcanum of human blood, and be nourished for up to forty weeks, and be kept in the even heat of the horse's womb, a living human child grows therefrom, with all its members like another child, which is born of a woman, but much smaller. The fully grown homunculus was supposedly greatly skilled in "art" and can create giants, dwarves, and other marvels, as "Through art they are born, and therefore art

1100-505: The British children's writers Mary Norton and Rumer Godden used homunculus motifs in their work, expressing various post-war anxieties about refugees, persecution of minorities in war, and the adaptation of these minorities to a "big" world. W. Somerset Maugham 's 1908 novel The Magician utilises the concept of the homunculus as an important plot element. David H. Keller 's short story "A Twentieth-Century Homunculus" (1930) describes

1155-491: The Children's Best-Seller list. A sequel, Dragon Rider: The Griffin's Feather , was published over a decade later, in 2017, and a feature film adaptation of the same name was released in 2020. Firedrake is a young dragon who lives in a hidden valley in Scotland with other dragons. After realizing that humans intend to flood the valley and the dragons living there are no longer safe, Firedrake sets off with guidance from

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1210-581: The Djinn's thousand eyes; it is a path, marked by the Indus River, by a mountain range, and by a monastery. Beyond this monastery is the Rim of Heaven. In the monastery, Ben must break the moonlight on the stone dragon's head. The Djinn also gives them a prophecy: "When that day comes, twenty fingers will point the way to the Rim of Heaven, and silver will be worth more than gold." Meanwhile, Nettlebrand tracks down Greenbloom, who managed to escape him. Twigleg

1265-499: The aid of a four-armed brownie, named Burr-Burr-Chan. He agrees to guide Firedrake, Sorrel, Twigleg, and Ben to the Rim of Heaven. He warns, however, that Firedrake's kin has degenerated into earthbound cowards as a result of hiding from Nettlebrand. Whilst waiting for the moment of departure, the company discovers Gravelbeard (who was threatened by Nettlebrand into becoming another spy) but fails to catch him. They fly on their way swiftly, with Nettlebrand in pursuit. To Twigleg's dismay, in

1320-525: The back of an initially frightening but amiable sea serpent. She agrees to take the friends to Pakistan, where they will rendezvous with a Dracologist, Zubeida Ghalib. She alone knows a way to help Firedrake fly without moonlight. Along the way, the Serpent tells them (among other things) about Nettlebrand and his army of red-eyed Ravens. As the peaceful voyage atop Serpent-back continues, they are spotted by one of Nettlebrand's raven spies. Annoyed, Sorrel throws

1375-432: The body, but instead may find its brightest state as it passes through the material plane, is central to the character. William Makepeace Thackeray wrote under the pen name of Homunculus. The homunculus legend, Frankenstein and Faust have continued to influence works in the twentieth and twenty-first century. The theme has been used not only in fantasy literature , but also to illuminate social topics. For instance,

1430-403: The cave and wishes to enhance them with his skill, revealing that doing so will bring the petrified dragons back to life. Within a few days, all the silver dragons are awakened again. Firedrake and Maia went flying with Sorrel and Burr-Burr-Chan to bring the other members of their species back home. Ben and Twigleg went to live with Professor Greenbloom and his family. Two months later, news reached

1485-420: The cave, he is at once dive-bombed by Firedrake, Maia, and Lola in her plane. At last, the Dragons came together and set Nettlebrand afire. The Brownie spits reacted at once, dissolving Nettlebrand's armor and destroying him. Nettlebrand melts to reveal nothing but a toad underneath. As the company stares in wonder at this transformation, Gravelbeard enters. He has seen the marvelous gemstones and rock formations in

1540-501: The center of the Rim of Heaven is a great lake, a perfect gateway for Nettlebrand, who can travel instantaneously by water. To make sure that he is right, Lola takes Twigleg in her miniature airplane to investigate and distract Nettlebrand, while above the others seeking the Dragons' cave. There, they meet with a she-dragon, Maia. She is the only living dragon there, as the other twenty-two have since turned into stone through lack of moonlight. Outside, Lola and Twigleg found Gravelbeard. In

1595-433: The creation of a male and female form identified as Homunculi duo . The allegorical text suggests to the reader that the ultimate goal of alchemy is not chrysopoeia , but it is instead the artificial generation of humans. Here, the creation of homunculi symbolically represents spiritual regeneration and Christian soteriology . In 1775, Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein, together with Abbé Geloni, an Italian cleric,

1650-554: The creation of homunculi on an industrial scale by a pair of misogynists . Likewise, Sven Delblanc 's The Homunculus: A Magic Tale (1965) addresses alleged misogyny and the Cold War industrial-military complexes of the Soviet Union and NATO . In German children's author Cornelia Funke 's book, Dragon Rider , the protagonists meet and are aided by a homunculus created by an alchemist. The homunculus, and alchemy broadly,

1705-455: The divine, in his construction of life in his own image. Preformationism is the formerly popular theory that animals developed from miniature versions of themselves. Sperm cells were believed to contain complete preformed individuals called " animalcules ". Development was therefore a matter of enlarging this into a fully formed being. The term homunculus was later used in the discussion of conception and birth. Nicolas Hartsoeker postulated

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1760-586: The dwarves, Gravelbeard, runs to the castle in that same mountain range, revealing Nettlebrand, the Golden One, a fearsome dragon-like monster whose only purpose in life is to hunt, kill and eat dragons and his servant, Twigleg the Homunculus . After hearing of the trio, Nettlebrand decides to follow them, hoping to hunt down and kill the last of the dragons because he failed decades before. Firedrake, Sorrel and Ben fly onward, but are soon swept off course by

1815-502: The eldest member of his clan (Slatebeard) to avoid the "Golden One" and to find the Rim of Heaven, a legendary location that is a haven for all dragons. Firedrake travels to the city with his friend Sorrel, a forest brownie with cat features, to find Gilbert Graytail, a rat who specializes in making maps. The duo meets Ben who provides Sorrel with human clothes so she may go in disguise to find Gilbert while Firedrake stays hidden. After finding Gilbert and providing payment, Gilbert hands over

1870-449: The existence of animalcules in the semen of humans and other animals. This was the beginning of spermists' theory, which held that the sperm was in fact a "little man" that was placed inside a woman for growth into a child, an effective explanation for many of the mysteries of conception. It was later pointed out that if the sperm was a homunculus, identical in all but size to an adult, then the homunculus may have sperm of its own. This led to

1925-409: The field of neurology, this is also commonly called "the little man inside the brain". This scientific model is known as the cortical homunculus . In medical science, the term homunculus is sometimes applied to certain fetus -like ovarian cystic teratomae . These will sometimes contain hair, sebaceous material and in some cases cartilaginous or bony structures. In a recent article published in

1980-510: The forehead is closest to the shoulders. The lips, hands, feet and sex organs have more sensory neurons than other parts of the body, so the homunculus has correspondingly large lips, hands, feet, and genitals. The motor homunculus is very similar to the sensory homunculus, but differs in several ways. Specifically, the motor homunculus has a portion for the tongue most lateral while the sensory homunculus has an area for genitalia most medial and an area for visceral organs most lateral. Well known in

2035-628: The golden scale the Professor gave Ben. Inspired by his success with the Ravens, Firedrake breathes fire on it and reduces it to gold paint. Twigleg comes up with a plan. He pretends to be still loyal to Nettelbrand and frees Gravelbeard then sends him back to Nettlebrand. The Golden One, elated by upcoming success, orders the Dwarf to polish his armor. Unfortunately for Nettlebrand, the armor polish has been replaced with Brownie spits. When Nettlebrand enters

2090-425: The growing homunculus assimilated maternal characteristics from the womb. The homunculus is commonly used today in scientific disciplines such as psychology as a teaching or memory tool to describe the distorted scale model of a human drawn or sculpted to reflect the relative space human body parts occupy on the somatosensory cortex (the sensory homunculus ) and the motor cortex (the motor homunculus ). Both

2145-399: The homunculus (little man in a bottle) so praised by Paracelsus ? Then find a root of the plant called bryony . Take it out of the ground on a Monday (the day of the moon), a little time after the vernal equinox . Cut off the ends of the root and bury it at night in some country churchyard in a dead man's grave. For 30 days, water it with cow's milk in which three bats have been drowned. When

2200-458: The homunculus do not appear prior to sixteenth-century alchemical writings but alchemists may have been influenced by earlier folk traditions. The mandragora , known in German as Alreona , Alraun or Alraune is one example; Jean-Baptiste Pitois 's The History and Practice of Magic makes a direct comparison to the mandragora in one excerpt: Would you like to make a Mandragora, as powerful as

2255-539: The humans that Firedrake had convinced the silver dragons to come with him to the Rim of Heaven. Eager to see their friends again, Ben and Guinevere occupy their time with other investigations of "imaginary" creatures until they can revisit the silver dragons. After being released to critical acclaim in Germany in 1997, the novel was translated into English and released in the United States in 2004, where it became

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2310-401: The inspiration for Victor Frankenstein. German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's Faust, Part Two (1832) famously features an alchemically-created homunculus. Here, the character of Homunculus embodies the quest of a pure spirit to be born into a mortal form, contrasting Faust's desire to shed his mortal body to become pure spirit. The alchemical idea that the soul is not imprisoned in

2365-408: The motor and sensory homunculi usually appear as small men superimposed over the top of precentral or postcentral gyri for motor and sensory cortices, respectively. The homunculus is oriented with feet medial and shoulders lateral on top of both the precentral and the postcentral gyrus (for both motor and sensory). The man's head is depicted upside down in relation to the rest of the body such that

2420-456: The mythical part of the Himalayas mountain range called the Rim of Heaven to find a safe place for Firedrake's kin to live when the dragon finds out that humans intend to flood the valley where he and his fellow dragons live. The novel became a massive success following its English-language release, and remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 78 weeks, reaching number one on

2475-423: The news to Nettlebrand, who immediately makes his way to the dig site to find Professor Greenbloom and recover the scales. Meanwhile, the three searchers set out on the advice of the professor to seek the advice of a Djinn, whose thousand eyes can see everything. Ben succeeds in fulfilling the Djinn's arcane requirements with the question: "Where does the Rim of Heaven lie?" The answer to the question appears in two of

2530-575: The peer-reviewed journal Leonardo "The Missing Female Homunculus” by Haven Wright and Preston Foerder revisits the history of the Homunculus, sheds light on current research in neuroscience on the female brain, and reveals what they believe to be the first sculpture of the female Homunculus, done by the artist and first author Haven Wright, based on the current research available. Homunculi can be found in centuries worth of literature. These fictions are primarily centred around imaginative speculations on

2585-741: The quest for artificial life associated with Paracelsian alchemy. One of the very earliest literary references occurs in Thomas Browne 's Religio Medici (1643), in which the author states: I am not of Paracelsus minde that boldly delivers a receipt to make a man without conjunction, ... The fable of the alchemically-created homunculus may have been central in Mary Shelley 's novel Frankenstein (1818). Professor Radu Florescu suggests that Johann Konrad Dippel , an alchemist born in Castle Frankenstein, might have been

2640-426: The saliva trick again, with one variation: a few sparks of dragon fire are added to the mix. The stones do not adhere, but the Ravens are indeed changed before the eyes of all, into a few crabs. This new strangeness on the part of Nettlebrand disturbs the searchers, ultimately inducing Twigleg to reveal his original intentions as Nettlebrand's spy. He also reveals Nettlebrand's origin—an alchemist created Nettlebrand as

2695-575: The same name was released in 2020. Homunculus The term lends its name to the cortical homunculus , an image of a person with the size of the body parts distorted to represent how much area of the cerebral cortex of the brain is devoted to it. During medieval and early modern times, it was thought that homunculus, an artificial humanlike being, could be created through alchemy. The homunculus first appears by name in alchemical writings attributed to Paracelsus (1493–1541). De natura rerum (1537) outlines his method for creating homunculi: That

2750-416: The sperm of a man be putrefied by itself in a sealed cucurbit for forty days with the highest degree of putrefaction in a horse's womb ["venter equinus", meaning "warm, fermenting horse dung" ], or at least so long that it comes to life and moves itself, and stirs, which is easily observed. After this time, it will look somewhat like a man, but transparent, without a body. If, after this, it be fed wisely with

2805-418: The struggle that follows, the Dwarf's hat (which functions as an altitude compensator), is taken by Twigleg. Promptly Gravelbeard is struck with mountain sickness, allowing himself to be taken a prisoner. Nettlebrand, who now knows their location, is coming. No one knows how they could ever stop him since he is twenty times as strong as one dragon and immune to other dragons' firepower. In disgust, Sorrel spits on

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2860-516: The title Dragon Rider . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dragon_Rider&oldid=1175526075 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Dragon Rider (novel) Dragon Rider (original title: Drachenreiter )

2915-411: The valley, help comes to Firedrake and company in the form of Lola Graytail, Gilbert's niece. Lola had been charting the country for her uncle and she guides them to the monastery. There, they are welcomed by the monks, who look on Firedrake as a bringer of good fortune. Also, it is here that Ben "breaks the moonlight"--- a moonstone kept by the monks for this purpose. Ben shatters the moonstone and summons

2970-580: Was a goal of certain Muslim alchemists, and is frequently found in writings of the Jabirian corpus . In the alchemical context, takwin refers to the artificial creation of life, spanning the full range of the chain of being , from minerals to prophets, imitating the function of the demiurge . One set of instructions for creating animal life found within the Jabirian Kitab al-Tajmi involves finding

3025-500: Was published in Germany under the title Drachenreiter: Die Feder eines Greifs on 23 September 2016, with the hopes of releasing it in English the following year in 2017. Dragon Rider: The Griffin's Feather was published on 5 July 2017. Funke also announced plans for a third book, tentatively titled The Volcano Adventure , which would be told like a graphic novel, along with mobile phone interaction. A feature film adaptation of

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