FAIRY TALE – “St. George and the Dragon”

At what point does the legend cross the path of religion and worship and then arrive in the fairy tale?

To then see the art arrive that with its magic transforms a story into a splendid scene to admire and appreciate.

Today Fairy Tale wants to talk about one of the most classic stories, the progenitor of a basic concept that still today, despite everything, still dominates the collective imagination, the psychological fantasy and the intrinsic hope of each of us.

Let’s talk about the story of St. George and the Dragon.

The story itself comes from the ranks of the hagiographic world, or rather from an accurate collection of the stories and events of the most important Saints.

This volume, the Golden Legend, was written by Jacobus de Varagine starting from 1260 until 1298. year of the death of the friar. It represents a reliable and detailed document for what became the description of the saints through artistic iconography.

Here the story of St. George is told in many details:
His birth in Cappadocia, Christian education, travels to bring the Christian Word, martyrdom and finally worship.

The clash, according to the story of Jacopo da Varazze, took place in a city in Libya that was hostage to a mephitic dragon, who lived in a large pond. His presence plagued and killed men and animals so to calm him they offered him sheep as a gift and later children.

St. George fought the Dragon, guided by the hand of God and saved the daughter of the king of the city, who was about to be devoured: in exchange he obtained that the city was converted.

From this legend St. George became one of the most recognized and revered saints in the Christian world, even in the Orthodox one and even in Islamic hagiography, which recognizes him as a Prophet.

Within its history there are two fundamental elements that made it suitable for playing such an important role, even for more than one cult: the fight against a supernatural creature with undoubtedly evil connotations; and the talk of the conversion of an entire city.

Unlike other Saints, here there is a strong presence of an evil element which manifests itself with the figure of the dragon; while in other cults, the Saint or the martyr demonstrate their devotion in a more subtle way, with the sole use of faith and resistance to the pressures that the executioners inflict.

The figure of the hero who fights against a monster is well known: in Greek mythology Hercules fights against the Hydra of Lerna or Perseus against a sea monster that threatens a city and saves princess Andromeda.

And still other saints find themselves having to do with a Dragon, such as Saint Julius, Saint Marta or Saint Michael.
The proximity of the word “dragon” itself, deriving from the Latin “draco” and in turn from δράκων (drakon) which means “snake”, makes the figure of the winged monster a reference, not too veiled, to something creeping and treacherous: a reference to the evil one.

George (and others) in addition to being saints, are heroes who defeat evil. Evil in a generic sense, all that can be negative, to the point of leading to the concept of evil as “devil” and “hell”.

Since the Middle Ages, the cult of “hunting the beast” becomes not only devoted mental iconography but also narrative imagination. The image of the Saint married almost automatically with the image of the knights who were part of the daily and social reality.

The knight’s positive association contrasted with the evil of the frightening and infernal beast. And it became a basic theme for the stories.
It became the fairytale heroism in which a knight (sometimes a prince), obviously good and brave, fights a monster and saves an innocent being like a child or a princess – who inevitably becomes the hero’s object of love and reward.

The work we have chosen for St. George and the Dragon is Gustave Moreau‘s version of 1889.

A Symbolist version (Moreau was considered a precursor of this current) of the myth of St. George and the Dragon, in which the atmosphere is imbued with a softness that veils the dynamism and rawness of the action in progress. Everything is extremely delicate and muffled and at the same time clear and defined.

The knight’s royalty is described by the jeweled vestments of his horse, while the princess is dressed up like a Byzantine queen. In the act of praying to heaven in an almost mystical way.

It is also the famous syncretism of Moreau, which managed to make the most diverse elements dialogue, with the aim of bringing out that unique symbolism that Baudelaire had described.

St. George and the Dragon St. George and the Dragon

Because like art, here too we are dealing with hybrids: from devotional legend, to cult, from song to chivalric poem. Up to the fairy tale and the symbols it contains.
Prince Charming hero of our stories, spotless, always good and who does the right thing. A figure who gave life to many principles of today’s fairy tales and then again to movies and cartoons.

The beauty of the fairy tale is that there can be unimaginable obstacles and monsters. But the equation that transpires from them, their life force, is that good always triumphs and that there is justice for all.

That’s why we like them so much, they are good for the heart.

Fairy Tale – “St. George and the Dragon”

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This post is also available in: Italian