LOOKING FOR SAINT GEORGE IN STOCKHOLM

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

Probably the dragons are
the most frequent fabulous beasts that appear in world folklore.

As dragon-snakes or as dragon-men,
they usually are enemies of the people.

Astronomically-mythologically,
there is a constellation named just the Dragon (Draco in Latin).

Astronomically-meteorologically-mythologically,
the dragons appear in the sky as meteors and fireballs.

Religiously,
there is a famous myth,
Saint George and the Dragon.

*

Saint George was a Christian martyr of Greek origin,
who lived in Cappadocia during the Roman Empire
and was killed during the time of Emperor Diocletian (around 300).

However, his cult was adopted soon by entire Europe,
and later his remembrance was enriched
with the quality of a dragon slayer.

*

In 2015 July 16 I arrived by ship in Stockholm,
the Capital City of Sweden and the largest city in Scandinavia,
and I saw a cloud which seemed like… a dragon-man.

And I remembered that here, in the 15th century,
one of the best sculptors in the Hanseatic League,
Bernt Notke,
made one of the most famous sculptures in Hansa’s history,
in which Saint George kills… a dragon-snake.

As a recognition of its value,
in 1912 a bronze variant of that statue was erected
in the centre of a small square,
close right to the Royal Palace.

Obviously, I went to see the statue,
trying to imagine how this myth travelled
from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea,
conquering, in fact, the entire Christian world.

And here is the statue!

Something both earthly and cosmic,
Neither merry nor sad:
George and the Dragon are an association of
The Good defeating the Bad.