The Penguin Book of Dragons
Page 14
(A) ST. GEORGE, DRAGON’S BANE1
George was a native of Cappadocia and a tribune in the Roman army. One day he came to Silena, a city in the province of Libya. Close by this city was a vast lake, as big as an inland sea, where a pestilential dragon had its lair. The people had often risen in arms against it, but the dragon always put them to flight, and would venture right up to the city walls and asphyxiate everyone with its noxious breath. So the citizens were compelled to feed it two sheep every day, in order to allay its fury, otherwise it would make straight for the city walls and poison the air, causing a great many deaths. But in time, since their flocks were not large, the supply of sheep began to run out, and the citizens decided to give the dragon one sheep and one human being. The names of the victims were drawn by lot, and no one of either sex was excluded. But in due course nearly all the young folk were eaten up, and one day the lot fell upon the only daughter of the king, and the people seized her to feed her to the dragon. The king was heartbroken. “Take my gold and silver,” he cried. “Take half my realm, and let my daughter go, save her from this dreadful death!” But the people rounded on him in fury. “It was you who issued this decree, your majesty, and, now all our children are dead, you want to save your own daughter? If you do not sacrifice your daughter, and do what you forced all the rest of us to do, we will burn you alive, you and all your household!” At this, the king began to weep for his daughter. “Woe is me!” he cried. “My sweetest child, what am I to do about you. What can I say? Can I no more hope to see your wedding day?” Turning to the people, he said: “I beg you, grant me a week’s grace in which to mourn my daughter.” This the people agreed to, but at the end of the week they came back and demanded angrily: “How can you destroy your subjects just for your daughter’s sake? We are all dying from the breath of the dragon!” Then the king, seeing that he could not save his daughter, dressed her in all her regal finery and, embracing her, said tearfully: “Alas, my sweetest daughter, I thought to see you rear royal children at your bosom, and now you are going to be devoured by the dragon! Alas, my sweetest child, I hoped to invite all the nobility to your wedding, to deck the palace with pearls, to hear the music of timbrels and trumpets, and now you are going to be devoured by the dragon!” He kissed her and let her go with a final word: “Oh, my daughter, would I had died before you, rather than lose you in this way!” She then fell at her father’s feet, asking his blessing, and, when in a flood of tears he had blessed her, she set off towards the lake.
Now St. George happened to be passing that way, and when he saw her weeping, he asked her what was the matter. “Good youth,” she replied, “mount your horse with all speed and flee, or you will share my fate and die as I must.” “Do not be afraid, my child,” George told her. “But tell me, what are you waiting here for, and why are all these people watching?” “Good youth,” she replied, “I see you have a noble heart, but do you want to die with me? Make haste and flee!” George told her: “I shall not move from here until you tell me what is the matter.” So then she told him the whole story, and George said: “My child, do not be afraid, for in the name of Christ I will help you.” “You are a brave knight,” she replied. “But do not perish with me. It is enough that I die, for you cannot save me, you would only die with me.” While they were talking, the dragon suddenly lifted its head from the lake. Trembling, the young girl cried: “Flee, good lord, make haste and flee!” But George mounted his horse, armed himself with the sign of the cross, and bravely went to meet the dragon as it came toward him. Brandishing his lance and commending himself to God, he dealt the beast such a deadly wound that he threw it to the ground. He called to the princess: “Throw your girdle round the dragon’s neck! Do not be afraid, child!” She did as he told her, and the dragon followed her as meekly as a puppy. She led it to the city, but when the people saw it, they began to run for the mountains and hills, crying: “Help! We are all done for!” But St. George waved at them to come back. “Do not be afraid,” he told them. “The Lord has sent me to free you from the tyranny of the dragon. Only believe in Christ and be baptized, every one of you, and I will slay your dragon!”
So the king and all the people were baptized and St. George drew his sword and slew the dragon, and gave orders that it should be carried outside the city walls. Four pairs of oxen dragged the beast out of the city and left it on a broad open plain. That day twenty thousand were baptized, not counting women and children. The king built a large and splendid church there in honor of Blessed Mary and St. George, and from its altar there still issues a natural spring whose waters cure all illnesses. The king also offered St. George a vast sum of money, but the saint refused to accept it, and ordered it to be given to the poor. He then gave the king four brief rules of life: to cherish the Church of God; to honor priests; to be scrupulous in attending mass; and always to be mindful of the poor. With that he kissed the king farewell and left. We read in some sources, however, that when the dragon was rushing towards the girl to devour her, George actually armed himself with a cross, and then attacked and killed the dragon.
(B) ST. SYLVESTER MUZZLES A MONSTER2
Some days later, the priests of the idols came to the emperor, saying “Most sacred emperor, since the time when you adopted the Christian faith, the dragon that lives in the cave slays more than three hundred people every day with its breath.” Constantine consulted with Sylvester about this problem. The pope said: “Through the power of Christ, I can stop the dragon from harming anyone ever again.” The priests promised that, if he accomplished this, they would believe in the Christian faith. While Sylvester was praying, the Holy Spirit appeared to him, saying “Go down safely to the dragon, you and two presbyters with you, and when you reach him, speak to him in this way: ‘Our lord Jesus Christ, born from a virgin, crucified and buried, who rose again and sits at the right hand of the Father, this is the one who will come to judge the living and the dead. Therefore, you, Satan, must await him in this cave until he comes.’ You will bind his mouth with a thread and you will seal it with a seal bearing the imprint of the cross. Thereafter, you will all come back to me safe and sound and you will eat the bread that I will have prepared for you.” With the two presbyters, Sylvester descended into the cave carrying two lanterns down 150 steps. Then he spoke the aforesaid words to the dragon and bound the mouth of the rasping and hissing creature, as he had been instructed. As Sylvester went back up the stairs, he discovered two magicians, who had followed them to see if they had descended to the dragon, almost dead from the fetid smell of the monster. Indeed he led them out with him safe and sound and they immediately converted to the Christian faith with an innumerable multitude. And thus the people of Rome were freed from a double death, namely from the worship of the demon and from the venom of the dragon.
(C) ST. MARGARET, BREAKER OF DRAKES3
Margaret was a citizen of Antioch and daughter of Theodosius, patriarch of the pagans. As a child she was entrusted to a nurse, and when she reached the age of reason she was baptized, and so incurred the wrath of her father. One day, when she was fifteen years old, she and some other young girls were looking after her nurse’s sheep, and the prefect Olybrius happened to pass by; as soon as he saw how beautiful she was, he fell madly in love with her, and at once sent his men after her. “Go and seize her,” he told them, “and if she is freeborn, I shall make her my wife; if she is a slave girl, I shall take her as my concubine.” Margaret was then brought before him, and he asked her about her family and name and religion. She replied that she was of noble birth, her name was Margaret, and she was a Christian. The prefect said: “ ‘Noble’ and ‘Margaret’ suit you perfectly; you are clearly noble, and you are a pearl of beauty!4 But Christianity does not! How can a girl so beautiful and noble worship a God who was crucified?” “How do you know,” Margaret asked, “that Christ was crucified?” “From the Christians’ books,” he told her. “You have read, then, of Christ’s suffering and his glory,” she said. “How can you be
lieve in the one, but deny the other?” Margaret went on to explain to him that Christ had died on the cross willingly for our redemption, but now lived on in eternity. But this angered the prefect, and he had her thrown into gaol.
Next day he summoned her and said: “You foolish girl, have pity on your beauty! Worship our gods and you have nothing to fear.” Margaret replied: “I worship him before whom the earth trembles, the sea quakes in fear, and all creatures stand in awe!” “If you do not obey me,” the prefect told her, “I will have your body torn to pieces!” Margaret said: “Christ gave himself up to death for me, so I want nothing more than to die for Christ!”
The prefect had her put on the rack; then she was beaten cruelly with rods, and her flesh was raked with iron combs until the bones were laid bare and the blood gushed from her body as if from the purest spring. All those who were present wept as they watched. “O Margaret,” they said, “we pity you, truly! To see your body torn so cruelly! What beauty you have lost because of your unbelief! But there is still time: believe and you will live!” “You counselors of evil!” Margaret cried. “Be off, be gone! This torture of the flesh is the soul’s salvation!” And she said to the prefect: “You shameless dog! Ravening lion! You may have power over the flesh, but my soul is Christ’s alone!” The prefect, unable to stand the sight of so much blood, covered his face with his cloak. He then had Margaret taken down and thrown back into her cell, which was at once filled with a miraculous radiance. While she lay there, Margaret prayed the Lord to show her, in visible form, the enemy who was fighting her. A monstrous dragon suddenly appeared before her and sprang at her to devour her, but she made the sign of the cross and it disappeared. According to another account, the dragon got its jaws over Margaret’s head and its tongue round her feet and swallowed her; and it was while it was attempting to digest her that she armed herself with the sign of the cross, and this proved too much for the dragon, who burst apart, and the virgin emerged unhurt. But this story of the dragon devouring the virgin, then bursting apart, is considered apocryphal and of no historical value.
(D) ST. MARTHA TAMES THE TARASQUE5
Martha, who welcomed Christ to her home, was of royal descent. Her father was named Syrus and her mother Eucharia. Her father was governor of Syria and of many coastal territories. Martha inherited through her mother and possessed jointly with her sister three towns: Magdalum and the two Bethanies, and part of the city of Jerusalem. Nowhere do we read that she had a husband or ever lived with a man. This noble hostess attended upon the Lord and wanted her sister to do so, too, because, to her way of thinking, there were not enough people in the entire world to serve so great a guest as he deserved.
After the Lord’s ascension, when the disciples went their separate ways, Martha, with her brother Lazarus, her sister Mary Magdalene, blessed Maximinus (who had baptized the two sisters and to whose care the Holy Spirit had entrusted them) and many others were put on boats by the infidels with no oars, sails, rudders, or provisions, and, with the Lord’s guidance, landed at Marseilles. From there they made their way to Aix where they converted the people to the faith. St. Martha was a gifted speaker and universally popular.
There was at that time in the forest along the banks of the Rhône between Arles and Avignon a dragon, half-beast, half-fish, larger than an ox, longer than a horse, with sword-like teeth as sharp as horns and flanks as impenetrable as twin shields. This monster lurked in the river, killing everyone who tried to pass and sinking their boats. It had come by sea from Galatia in Asia, and was an offspring of Leviathan, an unbelievably savage aquatic serpent, and a beast called Onachus, a native of the region of Galatia, which lets fly its dung like an arrow at anyone who gives chase and can shoot it up to an acre away, scorching whatever it touches as if it were fire. The people begged Martha to help, so she set off with them, and when she found the dragon in the forest, it was in the act of devouring a man. Martha threw some blessed water over it and held up a cross. The beast was at once defeated and stood there as meek as a lamb while St. Martha tied it up with her girdle, and the people pelted it with stones and spears and killed it. The local people called this dragon “Tarasconus,” and that is why, in commemoration of this miracle, the place is still called Tarascon (it had formerly been known as “Nerluc,” i.e., the “black place,” because the forest there was dark and shadowy). With the permission of her teacher Maximinus and her sister, Martha stayed on at this place and devoted herself unremittingly to prayer and fasting. Later she gathered a large community of sisters there, and built a great basilica in honor of Blessed Mary Ever Virgin. She led a life of great austerity, avoiding all meats and fats, eggs, cheese and wine, eating only once a day, and bending knee in prayer a hundred times each day, and the same number of times each night.
ANTICHRIST ASCENDANT
Dragons in Early Modern Literature
Medieval dragon lore persisted in the European imagination long after the Protestant Reformation fractured the millennium-old unity of Christian belief in the sixteenth century, but dragons found a new purpose in this age of religious contention. Catholics and Protestants alike employed the printing press to create polemical pamphlets adorned with images that vilified their opponents. For their part, Catholics condemned Martin Luther’s challenge to traditional Christian values as a depraved heresy and depicted him as a seven-headed monster akin to the dragon in the Book of Revelation (see pp. 34–35), each head spouting a different falsehood. Protestants responded in turn with caricatures representing the pope and his advisors as a loathsome beast with seven heads sitting on an altar fashioned to look like a chest full of money collected by the Church of Rome through the sale of indulgences. While the belief in living dragons and inquiries about their habitats remained topics of scholarly rumination throughout the early modern period (see pp. 239–83), the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed the popular revival of the dragon as an avatar of the Antichrist in Christian polemics and poetry.
THE DRAGONS OF FAIRYLAND1
The longest and most vivid dragon battles in premodern literature appeared in Edmund Spenser’s towering allegorical poem, The Faerie Queene. Published in stages during the last decade of the sixteenth century, these epic verses earned Spenser the esteem of Queen Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603) and lasting renown as one of the most important poets of the Elizabethan age. Despite its poetic charms, The Faerie Queene was not solely a source of entertainment for the queen’s court; it also served a polemical purpose. Spenser’s virtuous heroes represented adherents to the Anglican Christianity of his royal patron and her supporters in their struggle against the papal see, depicted as the Antichrist and his monstrous accomplices. In the poem’s first book, the Redcrosse Knight and his lady Una confronted two dragonic monsters in Fairyland. Their first adversary was a cave-dwelling creature called Errour. This hybrid horror—half-woman, half-serpent—was a thinly veiled allegory for the errant teachings of the Church of Rome. After she was slain by Redcrosse, the dragon’s offspring swarmed her body to drink her blood, illustrating how difficult it was to stamp out the errors of false belief. Their second adversary was even more daunting: a fire-breathing monstrosity that laid siege to the castle of Una’s parents, the king and queen of Eden. Redcrosse’s epic battle with this dragon was an allegory for Christ’s triumph over the Devil and the devout Christian’s rejection of sin. Their contest lasted for three days, during which the knight was healed by the waters of the Well of Life (representing baptism) and refreshed by the balm of the Tree of Life (representing the eucharist). Just as Christ rose from his tomb three days after his crucifixion, Redcrosse rose from apparent death on the third day of the battle to triumph against his ancient enemy.
Canto I:
The patron of true Holinesse
Foule Errour doth defeate;
Hypocrisie, him to entrappe,
Doth to his home entreate.
* * *
—
Redc
rosse and Una Discover a Cave in a Forest2
At last resolving forward still to fare,
Till that some end they finde, or in or out,
That path they take that beaten seemd most bare,
And like to lead the labyrinth about;
Which when by tract they hunted had throughout,
At length it brought them to a hollowe cave
Amid the thickest woods. The Champion stout
Eftsoones dismounted from his courser brave,