Retells the segment from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, in which George, the Red Cross Knight, slays the dreadful dragon that has been terrorizing the countryside for years and brings peace and joy to the land.

A fictionalized tale about Saint George, the Roman soldier who defied the emperor's orders to destroy the Christians after imagining himself fighting an evil dragon.

The legendary tale of a fire-breathing dragon, a princess in peril and a bold knight who saves the day.

The ancient dragons -- of the time of the legendary Saint George and earlier -- have never disappeared entirely. Instead, they've moved undercover -- and into human society. Now one lonely schoolboy is about to learn where the dragons have gone ... Educated at boarding schools, Simon St. George has never met his parents. When a ragged-looking man shows up claiming to be his father, Simon is skeptical, and when the man kidnaps him, he's indignant to say the least. Then the man claims to be a descendant of England's Saint George and a career dragon fighter. Why should Simon believe any of this nonsense? But what if the man is telling the truth? What if the dragons know he's out there? Rich with the dragon lore of legend, the saint of dragons continues and enlarges on the tale of the centuries-old conflict between dragons and humans that rages even today.

A village. A dragon. A damsel in distress. Into the story walks George: wandering knight, freedom fighter, enemy of tyrants the world over. One epic battle later and a nation is born. As the village grows into a town, and the town into a city, the myth of Saint George which once brought a people together, threatens to divide them.

In Western tradition, St. George is known as the dragon slayer. In the Middle East, he is called Khidr (“Green One”), and in addition to being a dragon slayer, he is also somehow the prophet Elijah. In this book, Robert D. Miller II untangles these complicated connections and reveals how, especially in his Middle Eastern guise, St. George is a reincarnation of the Canaanite storm god Baal, another “Green One” who in Ugaritic texts slays dragons. Combining art history, theology, and archeology, this multidisciplinary study demystifies the identity of St. George in his various incarnations, laying bare the processes by which these identifications merged and diverged. Miller traces the origins of this figure in Arabic and Latin texts and explores the possibility that Middle Eastern shrines to St. George lie on top of ancient shrines of the Canaanite storm god Baal. Miller examines these holy places, particularly in modern Israel and around Mount Hermon on the Syrian-Lebanese-Israeli border, and makes the convincing case that direct continuity exists from the Baal of antiquity to the St. George/Khidr of Christian lore. Convincingly argued and thoroughly researched, this study makes a unique contribution to such diverse areas as ancient Near Eastern studies, Roman history and religion, Christian hagiography and iconography, Quranic studies, and Arab folk religion.

The image of St. George—atop his horse, lance plunged halfway into a dragon’s body—is so familiar to us that we take for granted what a long history it has had. As Samantha Riches demonstrates in this book, St. George is easily one of the most transported icons across cultures, and his history is the history of myth writ large. Traveling in Georgia, Greece, Malta, Belgium, Lebanon, Palestine, Ethiopia, Estonia, and many other places, she offers a fascinating look at one of the most popular mythical figures of all time. Riches traces St. George in his various appearances and guises across a wealth of religions and traditions. From Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, and Western European Christian traditions, she follows his trail into Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Candomblé, and the many pagan systems where he has functioned a symbol of nature, springtime, and healing. Exploring the innumerable ways artists, poets, and painters have engaged his mythical import, she shows him to be at the center of many political divisions, where he has been used to advance one agenda or another. Drawing together many aspects of the cult of St. George, Riches provides a fascinating history of an enduring icon.