Quick Specs
- Type: Dragon pen with dragon-head holder
- Size: 7 inches
- Color: Red
- Design: Winged dragon seated on the pen; horned dragon-head holder on a black rock base
- Best for: Journaling, grimoire writing, desk display, dragon-themed gifts
A Red Dragon on the Barrel, a Horned Dragon Head for the Holder
At the top of the pen a winged dragon sits upright, hands folded over its belly, clawed feet crossed over the barrel below, and wings raised behind it in a pointed arch with yellow tips. Frilled fins fan out on either side of its head. The barrel runs down from there as the dragon’s body, scaled in ridged bands that shade from orange to gold. The holder is a dragon’s head seen from the front, with yellow eyes and black slit pupils, swept-back horns, finned cheeks, pale fangs along the jaw, and a speckled, pebbled hide. A black, faceted slab of rock forms the base, and the pen drops into a socket on top of the skull so the whole figure stands upright. The red is deepest on the wings and face and warms toward the belly and barrel, which makes the dragon look lit from below by its own fire. The gold of the barrel returns in the eyes and horn tips, so the pen and holder read as one animal. The yellow also keeps the red from looking flat, because every ridge and horn has a lighter edge that catches the light.
The red here leans toward fire: the flush of a forge on the wings, ember orange down the belly, gold along the barrel. The dragon on the pen sits with its hands folded, as if it were waiting, while the dragon in the holder stares straight out with its fangs showing, so one figure carries the calm and the other the menace. When you lift the pen to write, the seated dragon comes with it, and you set it back into the socket when you finish. The arched wings give the pen a tall, narrow silhouette you can pick out from across a desk. A holder also solves a small, practical problem. A pen left lying across a journal gets buried under the next thing you set down, and a pen standing in a dragon’s head stays upright and in view. Because the holder is a sculpture in its own right, the empty socket still reads as a dragon’s head while the pen is in your hand, and the black rock under it gives the bright figure a dark footing.
Practical Ritual Applications
Keep it beside your writing book. If you’re starting a first grimoire or Book of Shadows, a dedicated pen gives the pages a tool of their own, and my journal collection has books that go with it. The same pen suits a dream journal, a tarot journal for the cards you draw each day, or a planner that could use a little drama. Readers who log their spreads can stand the pen next to the deck, so the notes get written while the cards are still on the table. On a desk, the holder keeps the pen where your hand falls, and the red stands out against dark wood or a white surface. On an altar, set the holder to one side, well away from candle flames, and the dragon becomes a small guardian figure among your tools. As a gift, it suits anyone who collects dragons.
How to Set Up and Care for Your Red Dragon Pen
The pen stands in its holder, so a few small habits keep the set ready to write.
- Seat the holder where you write
Set the holder on a flat, steady surface within reach of your writing hand and away from the desk edge. Drop the pen into the socket on top of the dragon's head, with the winged dragon facing the way you sit. Keep candle flames and incense burners well clear of the set, since altar tables get crowded and a lit taper is the usual hazard.
- Test the pen on scrap paper
Lift the pen out and write a few lines on a scrap sheet. The test shows how the ink flows before the pen touches a bound journal or a grimoire page. Turn the pen in your fingers until the scale ridges on the barrel sit comfortably, then use that same grip when you write for longer.
- Return it and keep the paint bright
Slide the pen back into the holder when you finish. Dust the scales, wings, and horns with a soft, dry brush or cloth, and keep the set away from heaters and hot windowsills so the paint stays bright. Skip soaking and cleaning sprays on a painted surface.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I look for dragon pieces you’ll use as well as display, and you pick up a pen every time you write. I stock this one because it comes as a set with its own holder, and because the pen moves between your hand and its stand. The pen is 7 inches long, with the winged dragon on top and the dragon-head holder below. The same sculpt also comes in green and in blue. For more dragon pieces, from figurines to chalices, browse my dragon collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
The red dragon is best known as the emblem of Wales. The ninth-century Historia Brittonum tells how King Vortigern's fortress at Dinas Emrys kept collapsing until a boy named Ambrosius, whom later writers turned into Merlin, said two dragons lay buried beneath it. The red dragon stood for the Britons and the white for the Saxons, and the boy said the red would prevail. Henry VII flew a red dragon banner at Bosworth in 1485, and in 1959 the red dragon flag was officially recognized as the flag of Wales.
English took dragon from Old French, which took it from Latin draconem and Greek drakon. Many etymologists trace the Greek word to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to see, and to the Greek verb for seeing clearly, which would make a dragon the one with the deadly glance. The oldest sense of the word, then, may be a creature defined by its stare.
No. European dragons are usually pictured with wings, and often as fire-breathers; the dragon on this pen has the wings. Chinese dragons are serpentine and mostly wingless, because their flight is understood as mystical, and tradition links them with water, weather, prosperity, and good luck. Heraldry also has wingless dragons, called lindworms.
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