St. George, Princess Una, and the Dragon: How to Grow Up

When we first meet St. George of Merry England, he is simply called the Red Cross Knight, because he carries a shield with a red cross on it. The shield has been used by many other knights to win great battles, but he himself has never been tried in battle and does not even know his own name. 

The Fairy Queen has sent him to kill a dragon that is ravaging the land of Princess Una, his traveling companion. Una’s face is veiled and she wears a black cloak. She had been on a journey to find a champion. She has been on a long journey and has faced many dangers. 

Notice that at the beginning of the adventure, the Red Cross Knight knows neither his name nor where he was born. If the journey is also metaphorical, his will be to discover his identity on the way. 

Una, on the other hand, does know who she is. Yet she has to some extent renounced her identity as princess, disguised herself with a cloak and veil, and left the safety of home to find a champion. The king and queen cannot do this, because they must remain to rule and provide as much safety and stability to the people as possible. It is the role of the unmarried, unattached young people to brave the wild and return to re-establish peace and security. It is only through the successful completion of this task that they can truly take on their destiny and roles in the community. 

The path they are traveling is straight and narrow but difficult to see. Una has to guide the Red Cross Knight back to the path when he strays too far ahead. It is significant that Una knows the path and can follow it, though the knight needs guidance. Una can show him the way, because they are traveling the same road. But she cannot tell him who he is. That is not her task. Their roads are the same, but their tasks are different, and each one must attend to their own. 

After a long way, the path becomes thorny and leads up a hill to the home of a hermit. Una rests in the house while the knight and the hermit climb the hill and see a beautiful palace at the top of a mountain, seemingly just across the valley. Angels go between this city and heaven. 

The Red Cross Knight wants to take Una and go there immediately, but the hermit stops him. The hermit tells the knight that he must do the brave deeds in this world that have been ordered by the Fairy Queen. Only then can he ascend to the High City, which is in another world, and hang up his shield. Right now, the knight must go and fight the dragon. 

Then the hermit tells the knight he was born of English earth and that the fairies stole him as a baby and laid him in a farmer’s field. A plowman found him and named him George, which means both “plow the Earth” and “fight the good fight.” His destiny is to be St. George of Merry England. 

Notice again that Una does not know George’s destiny and cannot tell him. The most she can do is bring him to the hermit. The older man must tell the young man who he is and what his destiny is. The young man must be mentored by a man, who is older than he is. It is not the job of a young woman to do this. Una is not even present for this conversation. It’s important to recognize that this is not a willful exclusion of the feminine. It is a recognition of the process of how a man takes up his destiny. 

Too often single-sex spaces and institutions are seen as deliberately and maliciously excluding the other. Sometimes this is the case, but not always. Some experiences are strictly male or strictly female, and young people need the wisdom and experience of their elders to navigate these experiences. Young people benefit quite a lot from mentorship from both male and female elders. The thing I most want to emphasize is that George needs an older mentor, not Una, who is another young person on a journey of becoming. There are ways they can support one another, as we have seen, but they cannot teach each other how to grow into their destinies. 

Next, notice that George is ready to embrace his destiny. He is anxious to ascend the high city and wants to take Una with him, but apparently accepts the hermit’s correction that he must first accomplish the deeds set for him by the Fairy Queen. 

George is getting ahead of himself--he cannot find rest until he has done his work. He wants to take Una with him. This is foreshadowing of the wedding at the end of the story. But George has to learn the order of things. The fight comes first--the fight which will defeat the chaos that the dragon has wrought and that will re-establish the community in peace and prosperity. 

Here we see again the proper order of the relationship between George and Una. George seems to be motivated to go to the High City out of love for Una, yet he accepts that first he must do brave deeds. He must show himself worthy of both Una and the High City. While George accepts correction, his motivations come from within. Remember that Una rests in the hut while the hermit and George have this conversation. The love a man has for a good woman motivates him to do brave deeds. But note that Una does not try to convince George of any of this. He already has the strong internal motivation to demonstrate his bravery and free the community from the depredations of the dragon.

Una does not make George good or worthy. He is already good, if uninstructed, and wants to prove his worth. 

It is not Una’s job to create any of this in George. The fact that George’s virtue is already present is why the story can go forward. 

Why harp on and on about this? Because too often, women believe they can influence bad men to become good. And vice versa. This leads to profound unhappiness and even abuse in extreme cases. George and Una show us that the way forward is between two people who are already good, who are able to embrace their destiny, and who can practice self-control. 

George and Una cannot yet declare their love, they cannot yet be together. There is much to do before they can ascend the High City. If they abandon those tasks, chaos ensues. So we also see that individual continence and self denial has huge implications for the whole community. 

Finally, we should note the two definitions given of the name George. “Plow the Earth” and “fight the good fight.” They are the two halves of George’s destiny and also something deeply and archetypally masculine. Plow the Earth--bring order to the chaos of nature; use your strength to feed yourself and your family and community; be fruitful and bring forth children. Fight the good fight--use your fighting energy for the good; seek what is good; protect your community, don’t engage in conflict for its own sake. 

George and Una leave the hermit in the morning and arrive in the valley where Una’s kingdom is. They are greeted by the farming folk and their children, who are overjoyed that a champion has arrived. 

Una points out the huge brass tower her parents had built to withstand the dragon. The watchman waits to announce when help arrives. 

Then the dragon appears. It is huge and menacing. Its scales of brass are impossible to penetrate with a sword or spear. It has huge wings and a tail half a mile long, with two stings on the end. Its claws are razor sharp, and it has three rows of iron teeth. It pours forth smoke and sulfur from its throat. This is truly a hell-beast, embodying chaos and destruction. 

In the first round, we are told the dragon had never felt such hard blows as it did from George. George is able to stab its wing, then hits the dragon on the head so hard that the beast wants to escape. Its wounded wing prevents that, so it scorches George with fire. George falls, and the dragon and Una both believe he is dead. However, he fell where a spring of water bubbles up from the earth. It cools him so he can rest and rise in the morning to fight another round with the dragon. 

On the morning of the second day, George manages to cut off the end of the dragon’s tail as well as one paw before the dragon again lets loose with its fire and smoke. This time, as the weary George retreats, he falls beneath an apple tree. The tree drops healing dew on George, and the dragon cannot approach. 

Water is life, and at the end of both inconclusive fights, George falls where there is water. It heals and cools him, so he can recover from the wounds the dragon inflicted on him. The water is antithetical to the dragon’s destructive fire, and this also protects George. In medieval art and music, there are references to Jesus Christ as an apple tree. I also wonder if there is a reference to the rebirth brought about by the waters of baptism. 

On the third day, also significant from a Christian viewpoint, George again arises to meet the dragon in battle. The beast is now afraid of this knight whom it cannot kill. Still, the dragon rushes forward, its mouth open, intending to swallow George whole. But George readies his sword and rams it through the dragon’s mouth, finally killing it. The dragon falls with a crash like a mountain, frightening both George and Una. They are afraid the dragon will rise again and wait to rush into one another’s arms until they are sure it is dead. 

I find it fascinating that this is the moment that the narrator identifies as the end of Una’s journey. Una went out to find a champion who could slay the dragon, and she succeeded. Her search was necessary to get the community to this outcome. Being “safe from the storm,” as the story says, is only possible because of Una’s courage and perseverance. I love that there is a pause in this triumphant moment and that the reflection is on Una’s experience and the completion of her task. 

Once everyone is sure that the dragon is dead, the celebration begins. The watchman tells the king and queen that the dragon is slain. The gates of the castle are finally opened. The king and queen and their court come to meet the brave knight. Laurel branches are laid at the hero’s feet. A crown of flowers is placed on Una’s head. There is music and dancing. 

However, the people are still afraid of the dragon. Some run away or imagine they see its eyes opening. One little boy actually tries to touch its claws and is scolded by his fearful mother. Finally, some of the braver men begin to measure the beast and show how big it really was. 

There is a sort of wisdom in this continued fear of the dragon. It terrorized the community for a long time, and it takes time to trust that the period of desolation is over. It’s not for little boys to touch this awful creature. Eventually, the men get the better of their fears and begin to measure the corpse, to prove to themselves just how huge a threat the dragon was to their community. This is a necessary part of re-establishing order. The community needs to acknowledge the enormity of their experience, neither turning away from it nor exaggerating it. 

The king now embraces his daughter and gives gold and ivory gifts to George, who distributes them to the poor people. Here again we see George’s virtue and also his grasp of the duties of a knight. He protects the people from the external threat of a dragon and also the internal threat of poverty and hunger. 

At this point, the entire community goes up to the castle for a feast and to hear George and Una’s story. The king is deeply impressed by all the dangers they endured together and says that George has earned his rest. George answers that he owes knight’s service to the Fairy Queen. But the king has made his own promise, that the dragonslayer should marry Una and rule the kingdom. He tells George that, if the two of them love each other, they can marry now, and George will rule the kingdom when he has finished his service to the Fairy Queen. 

Una appears now, clothed in a gown of silvery white, having put away her black cloak. Her beauty shimmers forth, and George is captivated. They are wed and live happily together, except when George has to go off on adventures for the Fairy Queen. In her service, he earns his name, Saint George of Merry England. 

In some stories, the marriage of the hero and heroine is the end point. Here, George still has work to do. Marriage establishes one half of his name--“plow the earth”--but he is still obliged to “fight the good fight.” Only by defending the people and accomplishing great deeds will he be worthy to hang up his shield in the Heavenly City.