Even though the timelines don’t work, and he didn’t visit these shores, legend claims the bare patch in the chalk, on top of Dragon Hill, beneath the chalk White Horse at Uffington in England, was where George killed the Dragon. This legend has embedded itself in our national psyche.
Investigating the mythology of St George, the Patron Saint of England, led me down ancient tracks, to Boudicca, raising the question,
“Why don’t we have a Matron Saint (or the Pagan equivalent)?”
Ireland has both: Matron Saint, Brigid and Patron Saint, Patrick.
St. George has been in the news a lot recently. I’ve never taken much notice of him until now, because we are experiencing a spate of St. George’s Cross graffiti and flag hanging in some communities, unusual in England because flags are typically only raised on special occasions: regattas, state visits, coronations.
There is a historical tradition of carving horses into chalk hillsides in England. Recently even the Westbury chalk Horse, and Kilburn White Horse have been draped in a red fabric crosses. Without going too far into the politics, this is deemed a symbolic show of patriotism and “englishness” by some, meanwhile others believe it is a territorial act, countering immigration. The flag hanging and graffiti is considered divisive.
The irony is, the Patron Saint of England is a multicultural saint. He never stepped foot in England, nor was he English, neither was the flag. It was Genoese. English ships raised, the red cross on a white ground, around 1190 CE. The flag was later adopted by the Crusaders, a multi-national European bunch, whose aim was to capture and control Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
St. George was a Roman soldier, born in Cappadocia, present day Turkey, around 275 CE. His father was Cappadocian Greek and his mother, Polychronia, was Palestinian. According to Kay Winchester [1] St. George is revered by both Muslims and Christians. As a Roman Christian, denouncing Roman Paganism, he was executed by Diocletian, the emperor he served, becoming part of the martyrology of the Roman Catholic Church.
The truth is St. George reflects England’s multicultural heritage, with an underlying story of invasion, treasure hunting and princesses being touted as knight’s trophies. So why did St. George, a Roman soldier, become an English saint, representing “Englishness,” as opposed to, English born, Boudicca, who attacked the invading Romans, driven to do so, when they raped her daughters, and destroyed the Druids, Britain’s religious order?
The key to sainthood is: St. George is male and he is Christian. His martyrdom represents the moral high ground assumed by the Crusaders, cementing their place within the mythology of the Christian patriarch. St. George was seen as a holy warrior, a star in their black and white story of good versus evil, justifying invasion, slaughter and looting artefacts, in a string of wars, during the Middle Ages, that are simply too numerous to mention.
The legend of, St. George Slaying the Dragon to rescue a sacrificial princess, possibly a legend derived from a cocktail of Christian martyrology and Greek mythology, may have originated in Cappadoccia in the 11th Century. It became part of British folklore around the 13th Century. This Christian mythology somehow got mixed into our Pagan past, specifically the chalk, White Horse at Uffington. In Europe there was a tradition of church building upon Pagan spiritual sites, meaning if Pagans wanted to visit their sites they had to go to church. Likewise, it appears an overlay of Christian mythology has masked Pagan mythology.
The White chalk Horse, created in the late Bronze Age, is, in my view, a hybrid deity, with the body of a horse and the head of a serpent. It has a viper-V and a forked tongue, so it could be seen as a dragon. Perhaps this hybrid-deity is a fusion of Bronze Age deities, similar to horse Goddess Epona and shape-shifting, Celtic, serpent Goddess, Corra.
The serpent Goddess is linked to fertility and Earth wisdom. The horse Goddess, a psychopomp, symbolizes fertility, abundance, rebirth and protection for travelers. For simplicity, I’ll refer to it as a horse.
Having stood upon the heady heights, above the chalk White Horse, over looking the expansive plain, and peered down upon Dragon Hill, the top of which has been flattened by human hands, its easy to imagine Dragon Hill as a stage for Pagan ritual. Let’s not eclipse the possibility these rituals were led by women.
At this site there is a Neolithic earth tomb, and a Neolithic fort, with a prehistoric path, the Ridgeway, running behind it. The Ridgeway connects to the Icknield Way, an ancient track stretching from Norfolk to Dorset. Pilgrims walked the Ridgeway on their way to Silbury Hill, before joining the processional way, a ritualistic pathway, leading to Avebury Stone Circle.
The Ridgeway is sacred.
It is possible that the Icknield Way was named after the Iceni, Boudicca’s tribe, although the etymology is not confirmed.
Head facing east, perhaps the horse-serpent hybrid pulled the sun across the sky by day, then, at night, down into the underworld, rather like the Bronze Age Trundholm sun chariot. If we are going to understand and connect with our ancient past, in the absence of written language, it is important to seek meaning in symbolism, by meditating upon its placement within landscape, and orientation towards the cosmos. As viewed from Dragon Hill, looking towards the White Horse,
“On the winter solstice, the sun rises along the edge of White Horse Hill at such an angle that it evokes the horse pulling the sun behind it as it moves off the edge of the hill into the sky.” – The unconquerable: Attitudes to the sun throughout history – English Heritage [2].
There are similarities between the linear, stylized White Horse and the way horses are drawn on coins of the indigenous, pre-Roman-British tribal population, including Boudicca’s tribe the Iceni, the Trinovantes, Catuvellauni [3], Atrebate, Belgae and Dobunni. Both White Horse and coins point to a continuum of presence, united by belief systems, common currencies, and a matrix of chalk trackways, beneath a universal sky [see timeline at the end of this piece].
Many of these coins depict a lone horse standing amongst a scattering of fertility and cosmic symbols, including constellations, sun wheels, Earth symbols, moon crowns, wheat ears, and possibly altars and chariot wheels. In reality, myriad berries ripen in the hedgerows along the Ridgeway in autumn. This landscape is fertile. The sky above the chalk White Horse is the star map.
I believe these horses were female. Some Iceni coins depict phallic boars. On all the coins I’ve scoured so far, the horse has no phallus, neither does the chalk White Horse.
Both Boudicca and St. George were martyrs, however the mythology of St. George perpetuates false narrative, meanwhile Boudicca’s story is rooted in the soil and ancient pathways we still tread today. Just as the White Horse pulled the sun across the sky, this Warrior Queen, steered her own chariot.
A world of wisdom has been lost between the creation of the White Horse at Uffington and now. In the absence of written records from this era, we can meditate upon the memory of and story telling within symbol carved into landscape.
Roman accounts detail the existence of Britain’s tribal Queens at the time of invasion. Cartimandua was leader of the Brigantes, who submitted to the Romans, and of course there was Boudicca, who fought them. There will be more.
Given that recent DNA findings point to Britain’s Iron Age matrilocal past, I would be open to beatifying Boudicca (or the Pagan equivalent), on behalf the lost Goddesses, all women and men who stood up to the Roman invaders, and all women and men who walked these ancient tracks. Perhaps through her we can honor all women eclipsed by the patriarch, including Warrior Queens, everyday women, shamans, and Druid priestesses, especially since the Romans slaughtered them.
If canonization (or the Pagan equivalent) requires a miracle, I say it is right there in the sky, rising every morning and its veneration is embedded in the landscape.
Timeline of Events
3590 – 3550 BCE Neolithic tomb near White Horse created
2500 BCE Horses introduced to UK
1380 – 550 BCE Uffington White Horse created
100 – 50 BCE Iceni coins first minted
30 CE Boudicca Born
43 CE Romans Invade Britain
60 – 61 CE Boudicca fights the Romans. Romans attack the Druids
275 CE St George born
313 CE Christianity comes to Britain
494 CE St George becomes a saint
1190 CE English ships fly the Genoese flag. Richard I and Crusaders adopt it
1340 CE St George slaying the Dragon becomes British mythology
1778 CE The Westbury White chalk Horse was created, possibly in the place of an older horse
Citations and references
[1] Winchester Kay. April saint: Saint George, April 3 2025, Vermont Catholic https://www.vermontcatholic.org/saints/april-saint-saint-george/#:~:text=There%20are%20many%20saints%20honored,by%20both%20Muslims%20and%20Christians.
[2] English Heritage. The unconquerable: Attitudes to the sun throughout history. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/attitudes-to-the-sun-through-history/
[3] greenwoodsage. The White Horse Uffington. September 4, 2014.https://catuvellauni.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/white-horse-uffington/
[4] Silbury Coins https://www.silburycoins.co.uk/