The Dragon and the Castle

Sunlight is picking out the gray stone on the face of the castle when we pull into the entrance drive. Through the years this castle has held a fascination. A childhood playground for me, a wedding venue for friends, a classroom for my mother and aunt picking up summer education credits.

Tonight it’s the Dragon’s turn to storm the castle.

This was the university she chose two years ago to pursue a Masters in English, and it has, for her, been an excellent choice. The gathering is the English grad students, each presenting a précis of their thesis. There’s much bustle as students and faculty, family and friends arrive and file into the ostentatiously ornate Rose Room off the main entrance.

Entering the castle for the first time is a step back into time. A huge staircase rises center stage to a second mezzanine, with yet another lofting above that. Deep mahogany paneling punctuates the vaulted ceiling high overhead and leaded glass windows glitter above the stairs out onto the back lawns.

Our guests are entranced. The older ladies have known this campus for decades, but also have not visited in many years. The young friend with us has never seen the campus, and particularly, never seen the castle. She’s ready to enroll -- except that she graduates next week with her own Masters so doesn’t need another degree right now.

The castle is the odd extravagance of a sugar baron plunked in suburban Philadelphia. Growing up down the street, I took the castle for granted. The legendary history was as common place as the red tiles of the carriage houses. Tonight I look at it anew and appreciate the beauty of the old building. Though the inside shows signs of the wear of academia, it still is a jewel.

The Dreamer, always building castles in her mind, would have loved to study here. The Driver might have found it a bit dramatic, but she too enjoys history. But to the Dragon, this was the place.

The Dragon’s thesis is stories from the past, history wound intricately with fiction, family legends laced with emotions that slowly catch your heart and take your breath away, ideas that are both a century old and somehow very much today. This is the right place for her to present her work.

Every castle needs a Dragon.