English Legends: St. George and the Dragon

St. George is the patron saint of Britain and has grown to legendary status since his days as a Roman soldier and early Christian martyr. He is reported to have been born sometime between 275 and 285 A.D., in either Lydda, Syria or Nicomedia, and Bithynia (modern Turkey) in the Roman Empire. Historians debate the details of his actual life, although they believe he came from a noble Christian family and applied to become a soldier of Emperor Diocletian. Unfortunately, Diocletian came with a decree that all Christian soldiers should be arrested unless they were willing to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. George refused and was eventually executed by beheading and became a martyr.

English soldiers returning from the Crusades brought the story of St. George with them. His feast day is mentioned in the writings of the venerable Bede in the 8th century. The first churches dedicated to him were at Fordington, and the councils of Dorset and Oxford proclaimed April 23 as St. George's Day.When King Edward III established the Order of the Guardian in 1348, he placed the Order of the Guardian under George's protection. Nonetheless, George was not fully associated with the patronage of England until the English Reformation (some consider Edward the Confessor to be England's patron saint), when King Henry VIII shot down the banners of all other saints except George.

The first mention of the legend of St. George and the dragon comes from the Golden Legend, a collection of stories about men and women revered by the Roman Catholic Church. The Golden Legend says that George went to Libya and found a town by a lake terrorized by a dragon. There, George met an old man who told him that every day the dragon came to harass the town, and at first, the dragon was content to accept two sheep, but eventually, the town ate all the sheep and began to draw lots to sacrifice the townspeople. The event backfired horribly when the daughter of the king of Egypt was chosen. The king says that whoever can slay the dragon can marry the princess.

After hearing the whole story, George took it upon himself to kill the dragon he rode to the lake and found the princess. He then released the princess and rode to the dragon's cave to confront the monster. The dragon comes out of the cave and roars at George, who tries to drive his spear deep into the skin of the dragon's cave. Unfortunately, the spear cracked on the dragon's scales and George fell off his horse George rushed at the dragon and killed it by sticking his sword under its unprotected wings. In some versions of the legend, George only wounded the dragon, and he and the princess took it back to town, where George promised to kill it if the king and people converted to Christianity. After they did so, he eventually beheaded the dragon and married the princess.

The story became an intrinsic part of George's legend, brought back by English soldiers on the Crusades, some of whom claimed that he miraculously appeared to lead them on the battlefield. George became the protagonist of the miracle play and became entrenched in English culture, where he reached his zenith under the patronage of Edward III and the eventual recognition of Henry VIII. His cross is England's national cross and features on the flags of many Commonwealth countries as part of the Union Jack. His legend has been represented many times in art, music, literature, film and television. St. George's Day remains a favorite holiday in England and is celebrated everywhere from the ancient tradition of Morris dancing to the modern day ***. Over time, the legends of St. George and the dragon will long be part of English culture.