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Dragon - The Scottish Bestiary

Artist Adrian Wiszniewski (Glasgow, Scotland, born 1958)

AssociatedAssociated with George MacKay Brown (Stromness, Orkney, Scotland, 1921 - 1996)

Date1986

Mediumlithograph on paper

ClassificationsPrints

DimensionsOverall: 58.4 x 39.4cm (23 x 15 1/2in.)

AcquisitionPurchased in 1986 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG007562.6

Keywords

Bestiary

About MeOne of twenty prints by seven Scottish artists for the artist's book, 'The Scottish Bestiary', illustrating the writing in poetry and prose of George Mackay Brown. The printed text on the opposite page reads:
DRAGON

DOWN THE BROKEN WEST coastline of Scotland streamed the dragon-ships of
the Vikings.
Axes flashed in the April light.
Village and monastery burned after sunset.
The people returned to the blackened ruins at dawn. The farms and the chapels
had been robbed. Cows and sheep had been slaughtered and taken on board for
salting and sustenance.
Would corn ever grow on the burnt fields again?
The ships had sailed on south, hungry for silver and gold, pearls and tapestries.
The dragon carved on every prow sought out their sea-path. It was the dragon
who lusted for the chalices, the blood, and the fame that such adventures bring.
(The story of the voyage, exaggerated and embellished, would be chanted in the
ale-halls next winter).
The peoples of the coast had welcomed, for many generationsnow, the peaceful
merchant ships from Ireland and Spain.
But the spirit of the dragon had entered into those seamen from the north.
It happened that Saint Magnus, earl and martyr, endured his martyrdom among
those people of the dragon.
A generation later, a fleet of fifteen pilgrim ships lingered in Orkney, waiting for
the winter seas to calm.
A winter of gales and blizzards it was.
A company of sailors, riding between Birsay and Scapa, took shelter from a dense
snowstorm in a stone age burial chamber called Maeshowe.
To pass the time, they carved runes on the wall:
INGIBIORG IS THE LOVLIEST OF THE GIRLS....
HERMUND CARVED THESE RUNES WITH A HARD AXE....
MANY A PROUD LADY LOW STOOPING HAS ENTERED HERE...
One of the sailors carved a dragon on the wall, transfixed with a sword.
The dragon in them had to die before they were worthy to make the voyage.
At the time of daffodils and larksong, the fifteen ships set out for Jerusalem,
Byzantium, Rome.

Adrian Wiszniewski
Born Glasgow 1958. Studied at Mackintosh School of Architecture 1975-79 and Glasgow School of Art 1979-83. Artist in Residence at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1986-87. Solo exhibitions include Air Gallery, London, 1984; Galerie F17, Ghent,1989; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 1990; and Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 1995. Lives near Glasgow.
From; Contemporary British Ari in Prints

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