The most famous story about Sant Jordi (Saint George) tells of him slaying a dragon. There is no proof that this actually happened but… If only someone had taken a picture with Stamphoto to certify the existence of the dragon.
Once upon a time, there was a good king, and he had a little daughter whom he loved better than anything which he had. One day a terrible thing happened to the king. Down from the mountains, came a ravening dragon! It was black and horrible to look at, with ayes like two red coals and a mouth that breath out fire. Hard to believe, isn’t it?
The dragon was terrorizing the country and, every day, the people had been feeding the dragon a sheep to appease it. When the sheep had all gone, the dragon had demanded that the people sacrifice a young maiden to him each day. All the young girls had now been killed and only the king’s daughter was left. Unless a knight could be found to slay the dragon, the princess would be sacrificed the next day. The King had promised his daughter’s hand in marriage to the knight who could overcome the terrible dragon. A brave young knight heard the story, and he was determined to save the princess, and rode out to the kingdom. When he arrived, he found the princess near the lake, waiting to be fed to the dragon. The knight sent her home to the palace and approached the dragon’s cave. When the dragon heard the knight’s horse approaching, he came out of his cave and roared at him. The dragon was huge, but the brave knight was not afraid. He struck the monster with his spear, but the dragon’s scales were so hard that the spear simply broke into pieces.
The young and brave knight fell from his horse but did not give up. Instead, he rushed at the dragon and used his sword to slay it under its wing where there were no scales. The dragon fell dead at the knight’s feet.
According to the Catalan tradition a rose bush grew from the huge pool of blood from the slain dragon, and red roses blossomed from its branches. George, or Jordi in Catalan, the name of the knight, gave the princess one of these roses. Sant Jordi has been the patron Saint of Catalonia ever since 1456, and on his feast day people give each other books and roses, a mixture of traditions and customs, some of them dating back to the Middle Ages. The Feast Day of Sant Jordi is also International Book Day.
Lovely legend, but did Jordi really slay a dragon? That depends on your point of view, whether you believe in dragons, and whether you believe in the tale of Sant Jordi and the Dragon. Since dragons do not exist, Jordi could not have slayed one. Perhaps it was some other animal such as a lizard, big one though. Nevertheless, should we have developed Stamphoto 1,700 years ago; someone from Lybia may have snapped the battle and thus certifying Jordi slayed the Dragon.