St George and the Dragon
In one of the world’s most popular legends, bold hero St George rides to the rescue of a maiden in distress.
Roman Empire (Roman Era) 27 BC - AD 330
© Maigheach-gheal, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
A fourteenth-century fresco of St George slaying the dragon, in St Andrew’s Church, Nether Wallop, Hampshire. To the right, an anxious King and Queen of Silene are watching, and praying that their daughter will come safely home. The historical St George, as we hear from Eusebius, was a brave Roman soldier who defied an Imperial order to persecute Christians in Nicomedia. See St George the Triumphant Martyr.
Introduction
St George was a real person, a Roman soldier martyred in 303, but the story of the Dragon is a myth. The dragon symbolises the devil, a serpent with honey on his forked tongue, whose angels (St Paul tells us) are the real rulers behind the darkness of this world. George is the Christian, who puts on the whole armour of God and stands up to them armed with unceasing prayer.
abridged
GEORGE, a tribune, was born in Cappadocia,* and came to Libya, to the town called Silene, near which was a pond infested by a monster, which had many times driven back an armed host that had come to destroy him.* He even approached the walls of the city, and with his exhalations poisoned all who were near.
To avoid such visits, he was furnished each day with two sheep, to satisfy his voracity. When the sheep at the disposal of the citizens were exhausted, their sons and daughters were cast to the dragon. The lot fell one day on the princess. The king covered his child with royal robes and sent her forth to meet the dragon.
St George was riding by, and seeing the maiden in tears, and the monster rising from the marsh to devour her, advanced, spear in hand, to meet the monster, commending himself to God.
* Our information about St George comes from a contemporary, the historian and bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (263-339). None of this famous legend is even hinted at. See St George the Triumphant Martyr.
* For an English variant, see The Lambton Worm.
