St George

Every English person has heard of St George, or should have! And yet few really know much about him. He is the patron saint of our country and yet many churches refuse to honour him because they claim he is not a real saint. He is indeed, an enigmatic character and his origins are more complex than most people realise.

The reason many churches refuse to properly recognise St George is because there is confusion about just who he is. Interestingly, many churches outside England do recognise him and are quite happy to honour him. Indeed, he is not just the patron of England, but of several other lands. So why do the English churches have such a problem with him?

Firstly, we should examine just who the other churches see as St George. The Orthodox, for instance, are quite clear that he was a real human being, who lived, died a martyrs death and has been raised to sainthood. This St George was born into a noble christian family in Cappadocia (now in Eastern Turkey). Following the death of his father, George was brought up as a soldier and became a great military leader.

The story goes that in George's early life, Dadianos, the King of Persia, decreed that anyone not worshipping his 'idols' would be persecuted and tortured. Once when visiting the port city of Tyre, George saw the people bowing down to these idols. He reputably went up to the King and boldly proclaimed the Christian faith. Apparantly, this didn't go down too well with the Persian king, who shoved him into prison and tortured him mercilessly. In prison, the Lord came to George and told him he was going to suffer the 'greatest' of martyrs deaths - not once, but three times! He would then be raised up in glory to heaven.

During this period of torture and persecution, which lasted seven years, many people reputably witnessed George's bravery and became christians themselves, including the King's wife. After seven years, King Dadianos decided to change strategy. He offered his daughter to George in marriage if only he would worship his gods. George pretended to accept this offer, but he called out to the Lord instead and the idols were destroyed. For this, George was beheaded and declared a christian saint.

So how has this middle eastern character, who had probably never heard of England let alone been there, become our patron saint? The answer seems to lie in the crusades and the medieval taste for giving the christian religion a Germanic heathen gloss. The imagery of the dragon is not part of the original story of St George. It has been added later and christianised to adapt to the myth that had grown up around George in medieval times. The orthodox explain this imagery by saying that the dragon represents the devil and that by 'slaying' him, George is overcoming evil and representing the victory of the Church.

This is the clue as to why the English churches are uncomfortable with George. They know something the Orthodox do not! They know that the 'English' St George has little if anything to do with their christian saint. The English churches know that 'our' St George is not a middle eastern soldier martyr, but a christianised version of our oldest english mythical hero. This is why they say he didn't exist and this is why they prefer not to honour him. Because not far beneath this christian gloss, lies one of the deepest images of the pre-christian English and Germanic religion.

Heroic warriors fighting dragons is a deep and well established part of Germanic mythology. The Icelandic epic Volsungasaga tells the story of Sigurd the dragon slayer. The old High German epic Nibelungenlied mirrors this tradition with the story of Siegfried. For the English, the legend is best known through the epic tale of Beowulf. Here, the hero defeats the monster Grendel and his mother and wisely rules over his people for many years. In old age, he is called on to defeat a dragon who has been disturbed by someone trying to steal the treasure hoard he was guarding. Beowulf is the only one brave enough to fight the dragon and a heroic battle takes place. Although our hero defeats the dragon, he is himself mortally wounded and soon after dies.

These stories are not mere fanciful inventions. In ancient times, Kings were buried with their treasure for use in the after life. Indeed, the Sutton Hoo burial contained just such a treasure hoard, most likely of King Raedwald. And guarding this treasure was a dragon, made of gilt-bronze and mounted on the front of the King's shield.

This treasure held great symbolic meaning to our ancestors. The King was chosen as the link between the tribe and the gods. It was said that he held the tribes' luck' or 'maegan' . This was represented by his treasure, which he held in trust for the tribe as a whole. However, 'luck' had a deeper meaning than it does now . It referred to the tribe's well-being, their standing with the comos, the gods and with nature. It was linked to their collective Wyrd or fate. If the King was in favour with the gods, all went well with the tribe. They prospered, had good harvests, did well in battle and so on. But if the King's luck' diminished, things would go wrong. Harvests would fail, wars would be lost and the tribe would suffer starvation, disease and defeat.

Gold therefore represents the natural order of things, the tribe's collective Wyrd. As long as the gold is not disturbed, then the natural balance of the cosmos is not harmed and the world continues. However, if the gold is disturbed, the balance of the cosmos itself is disturbed and a major change follows.

So what is the significance of the dragon guarding the treasure hoard and of the heroic fight against it? At the heart of the dragon stories lies our ancestors' understanding of the cosmos, passed down to us in myths and legends. These myths contain profound wisdom that we are only just beginning to once again understand. For the dragon does not simply represent evil, slain by the righteous hero. It represents something far more profound. Firstly though, we need to understand what our ancestors understood dragons to be.

They are infact a type of snake, the Old English word Wyrm being used for both. Snakes are seen in northern mythology as a representation of of the forces of chaos, negative change and destruction. The norse myth of the world serpent Jormungandr demonstrates this view well. At the end of the current time cycle, or the Ragnarok, he battles with the gods. He is defeated and slain by Thor, but Thor himself dies of terrible wounds inflicted in the fight. The Ragnarok is itself a mythological representation of part of the time cycle when great changes come about. The forces of chaos represented by the Giants, the Fenris Wolf and the World Serpent represent negative change and destruction of the established order. The story teaches us that there is no point trying to turn the clock back or keep things just as they were. Once these forces are unleashed, change will come about. Left to their own devices this will have huge negative consequences for the whole cosmos. However, the story also tells us that the cosmic forces of order and goodness manage and direct this change so that it is ultimately positive. This is the deep underlying meaning of these myths. Even the gods cannot prevent change happening and are themselves consumed by it. But they are reborn in greater glory afterwards. This is more than just good prevailing over evil. It is a sign of continual evolution brought about by occassional seismic shifts in the cosmos.

There are clear parallels between this story and that of Beowulf. Thus we have a number of stories that are telling us of our ancestors' belief that life comes after death, day after night, good after evil. And that at each change in the life cycle we can advance towards greater perfection and ultimate union with God. But to bring this about, there needs to be a struggle, a cosmic change.

St George is part of these dragon legends. He could be Beowulf, Sigurd, Siegfried or the Thunderer himself. But what do these stories mean to us today? Firstly, they tell us we should fight the forces of negative change that confront us and ensure that we emerge stronger as a result. This is true of our personal lives as well as our collective national life. We face mini Ragnaroks all the time. Unless we fight those issues that confront us, we will be defeated by them. But, by fighting them with courage we can bring about positive change in our lives - or at least ensure that the outcome is not negative. Even in death, we recognise that we will be reborn into a different dimension of reality. Our goal is to to spiritually advance until we are joined to God himself. This is what we mean by being made 'whole'. It is this wish that our Anglo-Saxon ancestors greeted each other with when they said "Wes Thu Hael" or "Be Whole".

As with our individual lives, so with our collective tribal or national life. When our folk and country face danger from the forces of chaos and negative change, we look to the powers represented by St George to confront and defeat them. In doing this, we know things are likely to change - but this will be positive change that enables us to advance. To this end, we pray to him for the preservation and protection of England.

English Folk Church Society