It is: The Year of the Dragon and it is, St Georges day in England today - so...

Just to prove that not all saints hail from the land of Saints and scholars, I need to do some research into St George and his collision with The Dragon. as depicted here:

A painting by Gustav Moreau

It seems to be another classic "Knight in Shining Armour" story where the knight rescues the 'maiden-in-distress' by killing the bad guy, or climbing up her hair, or kissing her to wake her up, and so on.

Actually the dragon side of things seems more interesting as it is now be an extinct species, unless you count Komodo dragons, who reside on, the aptly named, Komodo Island.

and  St George was merely species ‘man’, which hasn’t been wiped out just yet, which is a good thing. I am a pacifist, but then wouldn’t you have killed a dragon if it had been threatening to burn you with its fiery breath. Me. I would have called the fire-brigade, but then maybe there wasn’t such a thing back in the day of ancient folk-lore.

My gripe is this. My daughter has a dragon tattoo on her hip. She was born in the year of the dragon and we see that as a good thing. So to hear about the demise of the last dragon on earth is really very tragic. George, you ain’t no Saint, in my book. But then again, I don’t know you very well.
And then there is the girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a marvellous book by all accounts and a good movie too. Though I shamefully admit I haven’t gotten round to reading the book or watching the movie, yet. But I want to, and I really will.

Back to Georges Day. I don’t know much about it, because I was too busy trying to understand the myth of Saint Patrick and The Snakes. Sounds like the name of a metal band, but as per usual, I digress.



Although to try to understand it from my perspective, as children my brother and I used to travel  to school on dark cold mornings in the Grumpy-bus, driven by The Dragon lady. Alright, now I will debunk that myth. She was grumpy, because a she had to get up on cold dark mornings to do the school run, and she was nick-named Dragon Lady because she was a chain-smoker which five year old imagination of my big brother evidently found amusing. What this has to do with St George, escapes me, but heck, Dragons are extinct now, so I am not sceared.
Thanks George, you’re a saint!

N.B.  All research into this article was not done on google or found in books, but excavated from the, alleged ‘depths’, of Fiocle’s brain.
Except this one:
“Others trace the origin of Saint George and the Dragon to Palestine, where the supposed dragon was controlled by Satan. The creature blocked the city's water supply and would only move if given a virgin sacrifice. Over time, all of the virgins were sacrificed except for the noble's daughter, and even she was sent to quench the castle's thirst. However, Saint George (or Mar Jiryis ) arrived at the last moment on his white horse, striking down the dragon with a spear between its eyes.”
I wonder was the dragon possibly the last dinosaur on earth?  A pterodactyl ?  Flying reptile.  Makes sense to me. Anyway it’s all history now, isn’t it?
Disclaimer – no dragons were harmed in the making of this blog post.  Neither were any Georges.