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Dragons and Dragon Slayers by F. W. Hackwood - NAVIGATIONAL GRAPHIC linking all eight chapters

CHAPTER TWO
~ St. George and the Dragon ~

THAT  dragons should appear in the life-stories of so many of the saints is to be expected, when we remember that the monster so often stands for sin in general and paganism in particular. The majority of the saints of early Christian times devoted their whole lives to combating paganism, to mighty efforts for vanquishing ignorance and unbelief ; their daily lives were one great fight in the cause of light over darkness, of good over evil.

St. George of Merrie England claims first attention here. Till the thirteenth century the patron saint of England was very rightly an Englishman, namely, King Edward the Confessor, who built Westminster Abbey, and around whose shrine there are the tombs of many of the mightiest of his successors on the throne of England. But St. George was always greatly honoured here, even in Saxon times, and steadily gaining in popularity, he was in the year 1222, at a synod or council of bishops and clergy held at Oxford, formally acknowledged as the patron saint of England - a land of which St. George had probably never heard.

There are widely differing accounts of the life of this remarkable man. According to the one generally believed, he was a native of Cappadocia in Asia Minor, where he was born at the close of the third century, and passing thence into Palestine, he entered the army of Diocletian. In the year 303 this Roman emperor commenced a great persecution of the Christians, at the severity of which the soldier-saint made loud complaints, going so far as to tear down from the doors of Christian churches the bloody edicts affixed to them against the worship of Christ, and against all who dared follow that new religion. For this the daring soldier was cast into prison, and after many dreadful tortures was at last beheaded. So that St. George is accounted also a martyr.

Alban Butler, who a century ago wrote a large work for the Roman Calendar, called The Lives of the Saints, states that our hero was the son of noble Christian parents, that he entered the army and rose to a high grade in its ranks, until the persecution of his co-religionists by Diocletian compelled  him to throw up his commission and upbraid the emperor for his cruelty. By which bold conduct he lost his life and won his saintship. The place of his martyrdom was Nicomedia (A.D. 303), where he had torn the edicts from the church doors.

Gibbon, the great historian, gives a poor account of St. George. He says that he was born in a fuller's shop in Epiphania, Cilicia, and became a contractor for supplying the army with foodstuffs, but for doing something wrong in this business had to fly the country. Afterwards he became a Christian, joining himself to the sect called Arians, at Alexandria, in Egypt. Being very zealous, in time he was appointed by the  Christian emperor Constantius to be the Archbishop of Alexandria. Later on the archbishop, during a great religious commotion in the city, was seized, with two of his supporters and cast into prison ; from which after twenty-four days they were dragged out by another mob and murdered in the streets of the disturbed city, their bodies being then thrown into the sea. Death at the hands of fierce, raging pagans naturally endeared his memory to the Christians, who regarded him as a martyr and a saint of the highest order. Whichever version is true, it seems that the imagery, in language in which the evils and errors of paganism he had to combat were represented as a dragon, was employed in the centuries which immediately followed his martyrdom. It was the love of romance in that age which transformed the symbolic dragon into a real monster which he was said to have slain in Lybia, to save a beautiful maiden from  a dreadful death.

The full story of our national patron, as it appears in the Golden Legend, runs in this wise : St. George arrived at a city of Lybia called Sylene, near to which place was a vast stagnant lake or pond like a sea, wherein dwelt a dragon, who was so fierce and venomous that he poisoned and terrified the whole country. The people therefore assembled to slay him ; but when they saw him, his appearance was so horrible that they fled.  Then the dragon pursued them even to the city itself, and the inhabitants were nearly destroyed by his very breath, and suffered so much that they were obliged to give him two sheep every day to keep him from doing them harm. At length the number of sheep became so small that they could only give him one a day, and then they were obliged to give him a man instead of the other.

At last, that all the men might not be eaten up, a law was made that lots should be drawn to select the victim from the youth and infants of all ranks ; and so the dragon was fed with young gentlefolks and poor people's babes, till the lot fell upon the king's daughter. Then the king was very sorry, and begged the people to take his gold and silver instead of his only and much-loved daughter, whose name was Cleodolinda. This the people would not accept, because the law was of his own making. So the king wept very much, and begged of the people to allow the princess eight days before it came to her turn to be given to the dragon to be devoured. And to this the people consented.

When the eight days were passed, the king caused his daughter to be richly dressed, as if she were going to her bridal, and having kissed her and given her his blessing, she was allowed to be taken by the people to the dragon.

It was at that moment that St. George arrived on the scene ; and when he saw the princess being led out, he demanded to know what all the commotion was about.

"Go thy way, fair young sir, that thou perish not also !"

But again the fair youth demanded to know the reason of her being there, and why she wept. Then he tried to comfort her ; and she, seeing that he would not be satisfied, had to tell him. Instantly upon learning this, St. George promised to deliver her ; but she begged him to go away, not believing he could do her so great a service.

While they were thus talking together the dragon appeared and was seen running towards them. The new-found champion, being on horseback, drew his sword and

 signed himself with the sign of the cross, and then, riding violently forward, attacked the monster with his spear, wounding him so sorely that he was overthrown. The victor then called the princess to approach and bind her girdle about the dragon's neck,  and
THE DEED WHICH HAS RENDERED ST. GEORGE FOR EVER FAMOUS
THE DEED WHICH HAS RENDERED ST.GEORGE FOR EVER FAMOUS IN HIS KILLING OF THE DRAGON
OON APRIL 23 IN EACH YEAR PEOPLE FLY THE RED CROSS OF THIS SOLDIER-SAINT AS THE NATIONAL FLAG OF ENGLAND

not to be afraid. When she had done so, the dragon "followed as he had been a meek beast" ; so she led him into the city.

The people, however, when they saw the creature were so affrighted  they fled out of the city, seeking safety in the mountains and valleys. St. George went after them to encourage them, promising to slay the beast outright if they would return, believe on Christ Who had given him the strength, and be baptized. To this they consented ; so the champion slew the dragon, cut off its head, and the people drew the monster's body out of the city on four great carts, each drawn by four strong oxen.

The king and upwards of fifteen thousand men, besides women and children, were immediately baptized ; and soon the king built a magnificent church on the spot where the beast was slain, dedicated it to St. George.

As to the moral character of this great Christian champion, it is only reasonable to suppose that an eminence so high in the saintly calendar was not attained, or a popularity so wide among the various nations of Christendom was not won, without the personal possession of those virtues by which alone man ordinarily wins and retains the confidence and esteem of his fellows. Yet the learned historian Gibbon, who wrote The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, declares that St. George was an army contractor - he is regarded as the patron saint of all soldiers - who was actually guilty of fraud and cheating in his business dealings with the Roman army authorities. Surely no patriotic Englishman will ever accept this estimate of his favourite Christian champion.

A real estimate of St. George's character is best seen in Edmund Spenser's grand poem, The Faerie Queene, written during the spacious days of Queen Elizabeth. This beautiful composition is cast in the form of an allegory or parable, of which the hero is the Red Cross Knight, otherwise St. George, who represents the idea of Piety ; while the heroine is Una, a beautiful maiden who stands for the idea of truth.

Of the various startling adventures of this pair in their perilous journey through Wandering Woods it is unnecessary to say more here ; but it must be noted that towards the end, when they approach Eden, the Dragon porter at the gates flies at the Knight, and St. George has to do battle with it for three days before he succeeds in slaying it.

The Dragon being slain, the two enter Eden, where the Red Cross Knight is united to Una in the holy bonds of matrimony. This happy ending to the tale, if not the description of his character all through the lengthy narrative of the exquisite poem, plainly indicates our national conception of the character of St. George.

Now there are said to be Seven Champions in Christendom ; and St. George is easily the greatest of them. The Christian Champions are : St. George for England (said to have been imprisoned seven years by the Almidor, the black King of Morocco) ; St. Denis for France (who lived for seven years in the form of a hart) ; St. James for Spain (who for seven years was dumb) ; St. Anthony for Italy (who enchanted in a Black Castle till released by the St. George's three sons) ; St. Andrew for Scotland ; St. Patrick for Ireland ; and St. David for Wales (he slept for seven years in an enchanted garden till gallantly rescued by St. George).

All these champions, of course, performed wonderful deeds to win their high renown, but it will be noticed that St. George is always accounted the mightiest champion, and was therefore the most famous. Of such marvellous doings were the romances of the Middle Ages made up ; and for some reason seven is always the mystic number in them.

By the sixth century St. George was fully established in popular favour, and the Crusades added to his great renown. He is said to have fought for Godfrey de Bouillon, in the First Crusade, at the Battle of Antioch, which city was captured and made the capital of a Christian principality ; and for Richard the Lion-Heart, of England, in the Third Crusade, nearly a hundred years later. at Acre, which was taken after a desperate siege of two years.

Many and exceeding marvellous were the miracles attributed to St. George ; and so popular did he become in olden times that many places besides England claimed him for their patron saint ; as Sicily, Aragon, and Malta. Many towns, too, elected to fight under his banner, as Genoa, Barcelona, and not a few others.

His connection with England begins with the first of these episodes, when he appeared at the head of the Christian army, carrying a red-cross banner. The broad red Latin-shaped cross on a white field is now known as the flag of St. George and was for centuries our national flag. It was embodied in the Union Jack, and is to-day the flag of an English admiral.

Since the siege of Antioch, St. George has been regarded as the champion of Christendom as well as of England. The reason for this choice is thus set forth by one historian : "At the famous siege of Antioch, when the city was like to be relieved by a mighty army of Saracens, St. George appeared with an innumerable army coming down from the hills all in white, with a red cross to his banner, to reinforce the Christians, which occasioned the Infidel army to fly, and the Christians to possess themselves of the city."

The name of this saint was used as a war-cry because he was of the military caste, and therefore fitted to become the patron of soldiers.

Shakespeare mentions our patron saint and the use of his name as a battle-cry. Thus in the play of Richard III he makes Richmond finish and address to his soldiers with these words : 

"Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheerfully,
God and Saint George ! Richmond and victory !"

So also, on the other side, King Richard, after receiving the news that Lord Stanley had deserted and gone over to the enemy, valiantly exclaims :

"Advance our standards, set upon our foes,
Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons !
Upon them !"

Richmond won the day, and became King Henry VII. In the tenth year of his reign the Irish were forbidden to use their favourite war-cry in their own language, "Aboo !" and strictly enjoined to use only words that were not "contrary to the king's laws, his crown and dignity and peace, but to call on St. George," or else the name of the King of England, for the time being.

Indeed, in olden times there was an instruction to English soldiers in the art of war, worded in this way : "Item that all souldiers entering into battaile, assault, skirmish, or other faction of armes, shall have for their common cry and word, 'St. George forward,' or 'Upon them, St. George' ; whereby the souldier is much comforted, and the enemie dismaied by calling to minde the ancient valor of England, which with that name has so often been victorious."

And never let it be forgotten that at the glorious attack on Zeebrugge Mole, on the eve of St. George's Day, 1918, our gallant men rushed on the German defenders, strongly posted with every weapon that modern military science could devise, to the ancient battle-cry of "St. George for England !" They showed the same great courage as the mail-clad knights of Coeur de Lion who spurred their chargers against the Paynim hosts of Saladin.

Many are the old ballads in honour of England's patron saint. The ballad of "St. George and the Dragon" places the saintly dragon-slayer above all the heroes of English romance. The first and last verses of this composition run as follows :

"Why should we boast of Arthur and his Knights,
Knowing how many men have performed fights ?
Or why should we speak of Sir Lancelot de Lake,
Of Sir Tristram du Leon, that fought for Ladies' sake ?
Read in old stories, and there you shall see
How St. George, St. George, he made the dragon to flee.
St. George he was for England, St. Denis was for France ;
Sing, Honi soit qui mal y pense !

"Mark Anthony, I'll warrant ye, play'd feats with AEgypt's Queene ;
Sir Eglemore that valiant Knight, the like was never seen ;
Grim Gorgon's Might was known in Fight ; old Bevis most men frighted ;
The Mirmidons and Prester John ; why were not these men knighted ?
Brave Spinola took in Breda, Nassau did it recover ;
But St. George, St. George, turn'd the dragon over and over.
St. George he was for England, St. Denis was for France ;
Sing, Honi soit qui mal y pense !

The burden of this ballad (which is by no means the oldest relating to the legend), "Honi soit," etc., is Norman-French, which was the court language when the ancient Order of the Garter was founded by Edward III. It may be translated, "Evil be (to him) who thinks evil." This is the remark which tradition says the king made when he picked up the garter accidentally dropped by the Countess of Salisbury at a grand court ball at Windsor, and induced him to institute in memory thereof that most noble order for the most chivalrous of his knights. So that a blue ribbon, bearing that famous motto, has become the highest badge of knightly honour in the world. It accompanies a jewelled badge representing St. George slaying the Dragon as the patron saint of the Order. The banners of these knights are appropriately hung in St. George's Chapel at Windsor. Of all the Orders of Chivalry in Europe, the Order of the Garter is accounted the most noble. 

This is the way a very old book quaintly extols the virtues of England's patron saint :

"This blyssyd & holy martyr, saynt George, is patron of this realme of englond, & the crye of men of warre. In the worshyp of whom is founded the noble ordre of the gartre, & also a noble college in the castel of wyndsore by kynges of englonde, in whiche college is the hert of saint George, which Sugysmond the emperour of almayne brought & gave it for a grete & precyous relyke to kynge Henry the fyth ; and also the sayd Sygysmond was a broder of the said garter, & also there is a pece of his heed."

The day set apart for the commemoration of St. George is April 23. In England this date is now called Empire Day, and is a national festival. In the old Clogg Almanacks - those wooden calendars such as poor lonely Robinson Crusoe  made and marked off with notches to reckon the days of the year - St. George's Day notch was always distinguished by a shield or else by a spearhead.

St. George's Day is also kept by us as Shakespeare's Day, the great poet is said to have been born and to have died on that day of the year. One ancient custom in honour of the national saint was to wear blue, though the practice has now entirely fallen out f use. An old rhyme of the time when all patriots donned blue coats or blue gowns on April 23 has it that -

"On St. George's Day, when blue is worn
The harebells blue the fields adorn."

In olden times great was the reverence paid to our national saint on April 23, and rather striking were some of the customs observed on that day. One general custom was for people of fashion to wear blue coats on St. George's Day because, as some said, of the abundant flowering of bluebells in the fields about that season ; or, as others would have it, because blue was the national colour , as St. George was the national saint, and therefore the one was appropriate to the other. More probably the fashion was in imitation of the blue mantles worn by the Knights of the Garter, which noble Order of St. George was sometimes known as the Blue Garter. Another popular custom of St. George's Day was to light great bonfires everywhere possible.

But when the Reformation came, this great national day was shorn of its ancient glories, many of the old customs not being in accord with the purer ideas of religion.

According to an old ballad preserved among the Percy Reliques, St. George was the son of Lord Albert of Coventry. His mother is said to have died at his birth, and the new-born babe was stolen away by the Weird Lady of the Woods, who brought him up to deeds of arms. His body had three remarkable birthmarks : on his breast was a dragon, round one of his legs was a garter, and on his right arm was a blood-red cross. It is easy to see that this tale must have originated subsequently to the institution of the Order of the Garter in 1344, and been inspired by a wish to make the patron saint of England a hero of English birth.

The chorus of an old May-day carol, once popular in the Wednesbury district of South Staffordshire, was :

"Awake, St. George, our English knight, O !
For summer is a-come and winter is a-go !"

Although St. George, as a veritable character in history, was never in England, there is in Berkshire a place called Dragon's Hill which is declared by local tradition to be the actual spot where this saintly champion slew the dragon. A bare place is pointed out upon which nothing will grow, because, say the country folk, it was there the dragon's blood ran out and sank into the soil. This is mere legend, of course ; but in the Saxon Annals we are told that at this place Cedric, the founder of Wessex, slew Naud, the Pen-dragon (that is "the Great Chief"), with 5,000 of his men. In this historic fact is doubtless found the origin of the legend.

Although, as has been said, our national saint was never in these islands, the Welsh claim not only that he came from Wales, but that he performed his memorable exploit there. At the village of St. George in Denbighshire, which is claimed to have been the actual spot where he slew the dragon, they will proudly show you the hoof-mark of the saint's horse on the coping-stone of the churchyard wall ! In Wales St. George was regarded as the protector of horses ; and in the Middle Ages, when university students at Oxford were divided into "nations," Welshmen attended lectures at St. George's Hall !

Wide indeed is the popularity of the saint, and many are the virtues attributed to him. Around Rennes in Brittany he is regarded as the special protector of cherry-trees.

In Egypt, where St. George suffered death, he is venerated by the Coptic Christians next to their founder, St. Mark ; and his ikon or image is found in all their churches.

Not the least curious thing in the remarkable history of St. George of Cappadocia is the surprisingly circumstantial report that during the recent great World War the British Army in Egypt discovered the tomb of their patron saint, which had been long hidden beneath the mosaic of the church at Shellal, on the main road from Jerusalem to Egypt, where it is now suggested his remains had reposed unknown for fourteen centuries.

A captain of Anzacs noticed that the Turks in digging a trench had exposed the edge of a mosaic, whereupon the regimental chaplain got together a band of willing workers from an engineer detachment, and after many days' labour (within range of the enemy's guns) succeeded in carefully removing the superincumbent soil, and revealing an inscription, a translation of which read : "This temple was built by our Most Holy and Most Pious George in the year A.D. 561." Below was a skeleton believed to be that of the saint himself, with the feet towards the east, and with the arms crossed on the breast. All of which is very strange, if the facts are as surmised.

There are a number of places which claim to possess sacred relics of this widely honoured saint, the church of Mares-Moutier, in Picardy, proudly boasting possession of his head.

No symbolical device is more familiar than that of St. George and the Dragon. Yet it will be noticed that it varies in detail. Sometimes the saintly champion is on foot, trampling on the vanquished dragon, but more frequently he is depicted on horseback  ; more rarely a female is seen in the distance praying. Occasionally he is even represented without the dragon, but then always on foot, with a spear or sword in one hand, and holding in the other a shield or a banner of white, with a red cross on it. He is invariably represented as a young man, and is usually clad in Roman armour.

No design for ornamentation is more commonplace, even to use on a plate and china ware. As a public-house sign it is mentioned in Shakespeare's play of King John :

"Saint George that swindg'd the dragon, and e'er since sure
Sits on his horse-back at mine hostess' door."

This refers to its ordinary type of composition as a picture ; but in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of A Woman's Prize occurs a reference to one of a humorous description, and apparently well known at Kingston, depicting the valiant saint as running away from the dragon :

"To-morrow morning we shall have you look,
For all your great words, like St. George at Kingston,
Running a-footback from the furious dragon
That with her angrie tail belabours him
For being lazie."

Here it will be noted that the dramatists refer to the dragon in the feminine, which is very uncommon, though in an old Black Country mumming play the character of a Queen Dragon is introduced ; and the term She-dragon has often been used to designate a duenna, or female guardian of a young maiden, such guardianship being one of the useful functions attributed to the fabled dragon of old romance. This quaint old signboard offers one of the very rare instances in which fun is poked at the much-bepraised saint.

St. George and the Dragon is a prolific theme ; and representations of the subject in art, past and present, in sculptured stone and carved wood, in painting and in stained glass, are as numerous as they are widely scattered throughout Christendom ; all of which appears from a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries in November 1883, and printed in November 1883, and printed in Archaeologia volume xlix.

 

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