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    on the Trail of the Real St George
    on the Trail of the Real St George
    on the Trail of the Real St George
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    on the Trail of the Real St George

    By Oliver Hayes

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    About this ebook

    Dragon-slayer, English hero, martyr, warrior, soldier and saint — St George has been all these things. But who was the real St George?

    This fascinating book draws on the most recent academic research into folklore and legends to put together an accurate account of St George’s original life story, and how he has developed in folklore and legend to become what he is today.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBretwalda Books
    Release dateSep 8, 2010
    ISBN9781907791079
    on the Trail of the Real St George
    Author

    Oliver Hayes

    Oliver Hayes studied the Dark Ages and early Medieval periods. He has since earned a living in publishing and is now writing freelance to bring some of his research to press in an entertaining and user-friendly format.

    Read more from Oliver Hayes

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      Book preview

      on the Trail of the Real St George - Oliver Hayes

      On the Trail of the Real St George

      by

      Oliver Hayes

      Published by Bretwalda Books at Smashwords

      Website : Facebook : Twitter

      Copyright © Bretwalda Books

      Website : Facebook : Twitter

      This book is available in print from www.amazon.co.uk

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      ISBN 978-1-907791-07-9

      Contents

      Introduction

      The Martyr

      On Crusade

      Enter the Dragon

      A Very English Saint

      The Obscure Years

      St George Resurgent

      Introduction

      As flags go, it is stunning. A blood red cross on a white background is instantly recognisable, easily produced and clear enough to be spotted a mile away. It is a flag that England has made its own.

      These days, you can see St George’s flag almost anywhere. When England is playing in an international football competition, they are everywhere. They flutter from cars, being carried on plastic struts that attach to the car windows. Larger versions are nailed to wooden poles lashed to builders’ vans and trucks. Houses have flags flying from windows, garages and garden fences. Shops are festooned with them and pubs are swathed in St George’s flags, St George’s buntings and St George’s posters.

      The imagination of modern marketing men has been let loose on the once simple flag of St George. Breweries put their logos into the white quarters of the flag to link their product to the ubiquitous flags. Other flags are decorated with a silhouette of a mounted knight in armour piercing a fierce dragon with a lance. Some combine the coat of arms of England with the flag of St George by displaying three lions on the flag. Advertisements show jocular knights in armour and a surcoat displaying the flag enjoying a wide variety of products seeking to gain sales by being linked to the patron saint of England.

      St George and his flag have entered the public life of England in a big way. Fully grown men dress up as St George to go to football matches or to slip down the pub to watch English cricketers take on foreign rivals on giant television screens. His flag is emblazoned on supermarket packs to show that the apples, steaks or lager within was produced in England.

      In part this modern obsession with St George has got a lot to do with the marvels of modern manufacturing. Time was when flags were expensive things to buy. Coloured dyes that would remain true in sun, rain and wind were pricey to make and costly to fix on cloth. Now with new synthetic fabrics and artificial dyes, a pound or two will buy you a colourful flag that would previously have set you back half a day’s wages. Flags, costumes and outfits are cheap enough to be bought, used and discarded without much cost.

      But there is also something about St George himself that captures the English mind. In the public imagination, St George is a bold, fearless and hearty chap. He thinks nothing of grabbing sword or lance to rush into battle against a ferocious dragon to save a pretty damsel. No doubt he would be just as ready to hurl himself into battle to slaughter foreign enemies of England. And nobody can be in much doubt that he would celebrate his victory with a vast platter of sausages, steaks and chips washed down with a beer or two, while belting out a singalong chant with his mates.

      St George’s image is decidedly male and working class. In these days when politicians tell us that we are all middle class now, submerge England into a bureaucratic European Union and seek to embrace a touchy-feely empathy with the world, St George gallops out on his white horse to remind us of a very different England. When the football World Cup comes around it is Council estates and areas of smaller houses that are festooned with red and white, and it is white vans that carry the largest flags.

      Big, bold, brave and determined to enjoy himself while cheerfully slaughtering his enemies, St George is seen in much the same way as the English like to think of themselves.

      But what was the real St George like? How has he come to embody the more robust virtues of the English? To find the answers we must set out on the trail of the real St George.

      England fans dressed as St George on their way to a match in the 2007 Rugby World Cup Finals, held in France during October. England beat the USA, Tonga, Samoa, France and Australia on their way to the World Rugby Final, where they came second to a strong South Africa team.

      Chapter 1

      The Martyr

      The trail goes back to the distant past. So far back does the trail wind that records are sparse and facts obscure. There is little that can be said with any real certainty — there are different versions of events even in the oldest sources — and it can be difficult to sort out truth from legend. As a rule, however, it is usually best to start with the oldest written sources on the grounds that they are more likely to be accurate, or at least not to include any information that would have sounded wrong to the people reading it.

      The oldest reference to St George is almost certainly to be found in a History of the Church written by Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea in about 322. It is worth noting in the light of later events that Caesarea was the main city in the province of Cappadocia (now Kapadokya in Turkey).

      This was an interesting time to be a Christian. The pagan Roman state had been largely indifferent to the new religion, though there had been periods of persecution, but

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