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unworthy of the sacrifice, even families would cut their
new-born daughters in order to protect them. The only
unblemished girl left in the kingdom was the king’s
daughter Princess Anina. The courageous princess
proudly accepted being sacrificed to the seven-
headed beast for the safety of her people instead
of crying. On the day of the sacrifice a man named
ARE THE GODS Khan Laon, who was the prince of a kingdom far away

ANGRY OR IS THERE and claimed he could talk to animals, appeared and
declared that with his ability he would be able to bring
AN EARTHQUAKE? the monster to his doom and save the Kingdom. He
asked the ants, the bees and an eagle to help him.
While the ants bit the dragon’s flesh and the bees
As we all know throughout history, legends have stung all fourteen of his eyes, the eagle carried Khan
always been a way to explain the parts civilisations Laon on top of a cliff high enough that he could cut off
could not comprehend. It didn’t matter whether the all seven of his heads and bring the kingdom to peace
phenomenon brought fear or joy. If its origin couldn’t once in for all. In gratitude the king allowed Anina to
be determined, it would trigger the birth of a new myth. marry Khan Laon and named the mountain after the
hero. It is said that the mountain became a volcano
The format of legends differed from culture to due to the spirit of the dragon haunting it.
culture, every different society had a different way of
explaining the phenomenon that was inexplicable. For That was how the people of the Philippines
example, something that was seen as a bad omen in explained the eruption of a volcano back in the day.
one society could be perceived as an award from the Currently we are pretty certain that there are scientific
gods in another. Everything was once explained by explanations for the eruption of volcanoes. This
these stories from floods to avalanches or simply why brings me to the idea of the extinction of legends as
the day and night came after the other. a result of scientific achievement. At the end of the
day who would be afraid of making the gods angry
The phenomenon I would like to bring to light would and meeting the consequences instead of reading
be erupting volcanoes. Volcanoes have existed for the reasonable scientific explanations that makes it
billions of years since before the birth of humanity. simple to understand natural events these days?
Many different civilisations all throughout history
have legends surrounding erupting volcanoes like Duru Şengöçmen
the Indonesian legend of Mount Bromo or the Greek
myth of Mount Etna. However, the legend I want to
talk about in particular is the Filipino legend of Mount
Kanlaon.

Legend says that, once upon a time there was a
kingdom being tormented by a seven headed dragon.
Rumour had it that the dragon lived on top of a
mountain and could only be defeated if an unscarred
maiden was sacrificed to him. All the women of
the kingdom started to cut themselves to become
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