And in all the stories my daughter shall hear,
it will not be princes that slay the dragons,
but little girls that believe in magic
with big, brave hearts and even bigger dreams.

She will learn to rely on her own sword
in every battle, in every struggle, in every war
because she will learn how to devour
every single monster from their very core.

the woman who tames fires and snakes and savours bones.

People say that there are neither dragons to be killed nor distressed maidens to be rescued nowadays. I do not know, but I think I have dropped across one or two, nor do I feel sure whether the most mortal wounds have been inflicted by the dragons or by myself.

There is no beast, no rush of fire, like woman so untamed. She calmly goes her way where even panthers would be shamed.

She's mad, but she's magic. There's no lie in her fire.

I can give her no greater power than she has already... don’t you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her and how well she has got through the world, barefoot as she is. She cannot receive from me any power greater than she now has, which consists in her own purity and innocence of heart.

She walks the waters like a thing of life,
And seems to dare the elements to strife.

She was like Marat only with nobody to kill her.

What a valiant woman. She braves the two greatest kings by land and sea. If she were not a heretic she would be worth a whole world.

She was stronger alone…

I can give her no greater power than she has already, the woman said; don’t you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her and how well she has got through the world, barefoot as she is.

One day she would be a formidable female, a creature to be reckoned with

True dragons are Danish and speak Danish, a tongue that the Danes themselves describe as less a language than a throat disease. To attract a dragon, one chains a naked maiden to a rock. The maiden must be chained to the rock in such a way that every part of her is visible to the dragon. Many famous paintings demonstrate the technique; Ingres's Angelica Saved by Ruggiero is an example. After the dragon has inspected your maiden to its heart's content, you issue one of the conventional formal challenges, in Danish—'Jeg udfordre dig til ridderlig camp' is the way one usually puts it—and then the fight begins.

The best slave does not need to be beaten. She beats herself.