The dragons of London. Eastern or western symbolism?

Both England’s flag and London’s heraldic crest has St. George’s red cross as a symbol, but what about the dragons? Why are they there at all? Why does it look like this and were does it all come from?

The crest with dragons with crosses on the wings and the motto “Domine routing Nose”, ” Lord guide us ” should have received its final form in 1609 , but was not London’s official crest until 1957.

The Dragons on the London crest are assumed to aim at the dragon St. George killed, which were the symbol of the alleged unfaithful Saracens of the east, but also a symbol for Satan and those allied with him.

Just as in the painting below from 1435, this symbolism began to appear in the visual arts in Europe around the 1300 s, about hundred years after the tradition came from the eastern parts of Christendom by the returning Nights Templars. These soldiers had the red cross on their shields and garments which later would be the red cross in the English flag.  A strange twist to this is that when they rode out to recover the Holy Land from the Saracens the French army had the red cross and the English a white cross.

A thought about folk traditions of England from earlier immigrant dragon myths . We have the dragon in Beowulf myth about a hero from the Swedes (Svearnas) countries who came to Britannia and killed the dragon Grendel.  We have also the saga of Sigurd Fafnesbane, or Siegfried, who were slaying the dragon Fafnir, which was both a Germanic and a Nordic myth that may have come to England in the 1200s or 1300s. The Norwegians, who fought in England in the 11 century, had its myth of the dragon Níðhöggr and from France came  probably the dragon myths inherited from the Norwegians and Svear (Swedes) who conquered Normandy in the 800s. And this mythology came to England with the Norman Conquest in 1066.

The Welsh flag with its red dragon has possible origins in the Roman cavalry (49- 409 AD) who had an “Draco” on their standard. This was probably inspired from draco emblems from Dacia, i.e., the Romanian and Moldavian region of the Roman empire. This is just one of the originating possibilities for the Welsh red dragon.

Whatever the possible amalgamations of the many dragon myths, when well established on British soil, it seems like the accepted English dragon most likely originates from regions outside the British isles.

 

 

London Bridge

London Bridge is broken down. —
Gold is won, and bright renown.
Shields resounding,
War-horns sounding, Hild is shouting in the din!
Arrows singing,
Mail-coats ringing —
Odin makes our Olaf win!

This is a verse in the Icelandic saga Heimskringla by Óttarr Svarti (Óttarr the Black) who lived c:a 994 – 1060 AD.  It was written down in the 1200s. It’s about (I strongly believe) the supposed destruction of London Bridge 1009, (or if it was in 1014) by the Norwegian King Olaf II. Lately it has been dismissed that it would be about the attack on London by the Vikings and how they tore down the long wooden bridge. The strophe resembles the famous verse  below, which was often believed to be about when the bridge was destroyed, though it was written later, sometime in the 1600s! Today this popularly held belief is rejected by scholars.

London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.

A consideration: Is it not likely that an overwhelming event such as a terrifying armada of Vikings that destroying the very long London Bridge would live in folk memory for 600 years and during this time gradually change the rhyme and lyrics in a nursery song?