Saint George's Day - April 23 (Redux)
Today is Saint George's Day, at least in England. He is probably best known for snuffing a dragon. As a child, I always heard and saw references to "Saint George and THE Dragon", leaving me to wonder if he slaughtered the last dragon, but I suspect that this is just a quirk of the English Language.
We don't know very much about that dragon, or dragons in general. but there had to be at least two on the Ark. Though they could've flown hither and yon sufficiently to give rise to the sightings all over the globe, this is unlikely. The energy needs would be horrific and food would've been quite scarce immediately after the flood. It also appears that there were once various species of dragons, perhaps as far back as the Ark itself. Not all had wings, so either there were multiple species on the Ark itself that reproduced and dispersed, or, horror of horrors, the various progeny of the original pair evolved into multiple species, at least some of which dispersed. In any event, St. George's dragon was probably not any of the dragons from Revelations (http://www.lizaphoenix.com/encyclopedia/dragon.shtml)
Insofar as they are generally depicted as being somewhat reptilian, it is likely that each species was pretty prolific. As carnivores, they would tend to disperse as juveniles. They are also reputed to live to enormous ages. Given that the one George killed was somewhere in the middle East,it more likely to be one of the originals from the Ark than the absolute last of their kind.
At any rate, Saint George became the patron saint of England somehow, so happy Saint George's Day.
Now I am aware that it has become fashionable to mimimize the magnificience of this monster mauler by claiming that his hagiographers, at some point, confused and conflated him with Saint Theodore, as if that were so easily done. The linked article is an example of this scurrilous discourse: https://www.foliamagazine.it/saint-george-dragon/ . Consider that this is no mere knight errant, no petty baron or count, but a freaking saint. His triumph is a sacred triumph, and this disrespectful discourse is nothing less than heresy. What's next, "Beowulf did it"?
Comments
Shakespeare's birthday also
and Bollox Minor's.
20 years ago, on Easter Sunday. Now, that was a day.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
had no idea...
Cool stuff EL! I hadn't heard that Stan Freberg in forever, he was great. Funny stuff. Dr. Demento used to play it on his radio show Sunday evenings (in L.A.) occasionally.
I don't know which St. George this place is named after... awesome place, been by it on a boat, it gets covered in those big winter Pacific storms with huge waves. Six miles off Crescent City.
St. George reef lighthouse:
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
It seems the name of Georgia, the country, in Western languages
isn’t really connected to any George familiar to English speakers, but instead derives from a Persian word for “wolf” …
In their own language, Georgian people call themselves “Kartveli” and their country “Sakartvelo” …