Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 9:28 pm Post subject: Dragons
I visited a Suffolk Church last weekend while I was out walking with some old friends of ours.
The church is typical of 13th/14th century churches but in this particular one they had uncovered some of the old murals that once decorated all churches until someone decided that nice pictures weren't very Christian.
Anyway one of the pictures was a huge dragon.
I have come across this before.
Goldhanger Church in Essex has dragons carved in quite a few places and interestingly you have to look really hard ti find some of them because it seems to me that they are deliberately hidden.
Dragons it seems have been a part of our psyche for a very long time indeed but what connection does a Christian Church have with them.
Yes I do know about St George and St Michael of course but the pictures and carvings that I have observed do not depict the usual slaying of Dragon by Saint but rather just a stand alone Dragon.
There is a tradition saying that the dragon fought by St George was meant to symbolise the Roman Emperor Diocletian who was distinctly anti Christian.
This could be the meaning. Otherwise it has to be said that there is a tradition in celtic, nordic & gaelic mythology about dragons, one saying that dragons guarded the gate to the underworld, or the gates to Asgard, etc............. _________________
Here is some Dragon information about Essex Dragons.
I also visited Wormingford Church in Essex and they have a stained glass window depicting a dragon eating a victim.
The Dragon looks mightily like a Crocodile to me.
I pinched this from another site....................
Robert Winstantley of Saffron Walden wrote a pamphlet titled ‘A True Relation of a Monsterous Serpent seen at Henham on the Mount in Saffron Walden,’ published in 1699. The creature in question was a winged serpent (it would have been called a gwiber in Wales) that appeared in May of that year. It was around nine feet long and as thick as a man’s leg. Its eyes were as large as sheep’s eyes and it had several rows of sharp teeth. It was also furnished with small wings.
Despite having caused no trouble, its demeanour was sufficiently alarming that a group of villagers armed with farm implements and stones chased it off.
Horndon
The dragon of Horndon was said to have been imported in the Middle Ages by Barbary Merchants (presumably as a youngster) from whom it escaped. It set up home in the surrounding forest and grew to huge proportions.
It was eventually killed by Sir James Tyrell who managed to dazzle the dragon by wearing highly polished armour.
St Osyth
A broad sheet produced in 1704 refers to a dragon of “marvellous bigness” being discovered here during the reign on Henry II. Nothing more is known about this creature.
Saffron Walden
The pamphlet that deals with the Henham winged serpent also relates the story of a basilisk dragon that held siege to Saffron Walden centuries before. It was described as:
“…not about a foot in length, of colour between black and yellow, having very red eyes, a sharp head and a white spot hereon like a crown. It goeth not winding like other serpents but upright on its breast. If a man touch it though with a long pole it kills him: and if it sees a man far off it destroys him with its looks. Furthermore it breaketh stones, blasteth all plants with his breath, it burneth everything it goeth over; no herb can grow near the place of his abode.”
The basilisk killed so many people that the town was becoming severely depopulated. Finally a wandering knight delivered the townspeople by covering his armour in crystal glass. On seeing its own reflection, the monster died.
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