Dragon |
In a myth concerning the conquest and settlement of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain, it is said that King Vortigen decided to build a stronghold as a defence against the advancing Anglo-Saxons. Every time work was carried out on the stronghold, the foundations gave way and it |
disappeared. Vortigen decided to call on his wise men for advice, they told the King that unless a fatherless child could be found, and his blood sprinkled on the foundations, the stronghold could not be built. A child fitting the desired description was found, but he surprised the wise men by telling them that beneath the ground, where the stronghold was being constructed, was an underground lake. Here slept two dragons, one red and one white. The British were |
represented by a red dragon, and the Anglo-Saxons by a white one. When the two dragons were woken they began to fight, the white dragon convincingly defeated the red dragon, symbolically representing the defeat of the British. This is a myth concerning the very early days of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain, so it is very much one of the earliest symbols representing the Heathen Anglo-Saxons. The dragon as a symbolic image amongst the Anglo-Saxons rears it's head more times in both literature and archaeology. We read about a dragon in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, that sleeps by and guards a hoard of treasure and gold. Beowulf battles the dragon when it is angered by the theft of some of it's treasure. |
During this confrontation Beowulf is mortally wounded, but he still finds strength to defeat the dragon. Physical evidence of the dragon symbol is found within the Sutton Hoo ship burial upon the front of a shield. Alongside the image of a bird of prey is that of a dragon. A shield of course, like a |
sword or spear, is an instrument of war, so it seems likely that the fierce nature of the dragon may have been associated with war and battle. |
This page was last
updated on: July 22,
2003
