Re: St George
Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:30:03 -0700
At 10:27 PM -0400 4/18/06, Thomas Renna wrote:
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>Does anyone how St George came to be the patron of England?
>When and why was the dragon associated with the Saint? Do we have
>evidence that the dragon was an allegory of evil?
>Can you speculate why the tale become so popular in the later Middle
>Ages? WAs George seen as a model crusader?
>Any modern studies on the legend of George and the dragon.
Yes indeed -- I've found Samantha Riches' _St. George: Hero, Martyr,
and Myth_ to be extremely helpful.
Briefly, she says no one's quite sure when and why St. George came to
be patron of England. Edward I (reigned 1272-1307) seems to have been
the instigator of the practice of displaying St. George's banner
alongside those of the native patrons St. Edmund and St. Edward the
Confessor. By the time of Edward III (reigned 1327-77) royal devotion
to St. George really came to the fore.
Also briefly, the earliest treatments of St. George seem to present
him first as a martyr, who underwent a long series of gruesome
tortures (beatings, poison, wheel, sawing in half, boiling in lead,
etc etc.) at the hands of a pagan king, ending with beheading. A bit
later he appears as a military saint, leader of an army, and his
enemies are all human. In about the twelfth century the dragon joins
the mix. The _Golden Legend_ seems to be the earliest written source
that includes it.
This is a rather swift summary and I may have missed or
over-simplified something. The book's treatment is much more
exhaustive and detailed (maybe more than you want to know!) and I
recommend it highly.
O Chris Laning <[log in to unmask]> - Davis, California
+ http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com