Dragon Leather Journal

A five by seven leather journal with a dragon embossed into the cover.

Two very different animals share the word. The European dragon is a hoarder and an adversary: it sits on a pile of gold in a cave and somebody has to go in after it. The Eastern dragon brings rain and rivers and is tied to imperial authority and good fortune. Same word, nearly opposite jobs, though not as cleanly as it gets told: Nezha kills the dragon prince Ao Bing, Susanoo kills Yamata no Orochi, and Buddhism brought in dragons that drown people on purpose.

The etymology is better than the usual version. English gets it through Latin draco from Greek drakōn, which traces back to a root meaning to see, so the literal sense is something like the one with the deadly glance. The wings came late and settle into the bat-winged form around the thirteenth century. The fire did not: the Beowulf dragon breathes fire, flies and hoards, and the poem never mentions wings at all.

Which one you have in mind changes what this book is for. The hoarding dragon is the right figure for anything you are guarding, drafting in private, or not ready to show. The rain-bringing one is the right figure for anything you want to grow.

Benjamin International source from artisans in Nepal, Indonesia and India, and every one of these is made by hand. That means the cover takes color unevenly and the tooling sits a little differently on each one, so the journal you get will not be the journal in the photograph. That is the trade you are making and it is the right one.

Good to Know

5 by 7 inches. Embossed leather cover. Handmade, so the emboss and the leather tone vary.

Try It With

A Dragon’s Blood 7 day candle to burn while you work, or Dragon’s Blood incense at two fifty if you want the smell without the commitment. A purple fluorite dragon for the desk. More in journals and journals and pens.