First part of the sixth chapter of historian Frederick William Hackwood's study of dragonlore.
FULL ILLUSTRATED TEXT
http://www.justgenealogy.plus.com/fwhdd06.htm
THE dragon appeared prominently in some of the old London pageants. It was generally a huge paste-board contraption, gilded and painted to look as ferocious as possible ; hollow so that a man (or sometimes two men) could get inside to fill the legs for the walking action. Frequently the masked actor inside had other "practical" tricks to work, as spitting fire from the dragon's nostrils, or lashing its tail in fury, and other antics besides, some to appear "natural" to the beast, others for humorous effect and intended to make the crowds laugh.
In olden times Ascension Day was the Church festival most commonly associated with dragon legends. At the Rogation days immediately preceding it was customary for the clergy, accompanied by the church officers and people, to perambulate the parish boundaries, and at certain prescribed spots to offer prayers for the fruitfulness of the fields and a plenteous yield at the following harvest ; and also to beseech protection from the malevolent spirit of all evil. Emblematical of this infernal spirit the image of the dragon was carried in the procession ; on the third and last day of the processioning this effigy was beaten and kicked, buffeted and stoned, and treated in every way with the utmost insult and ignominy.
In some English parishes are places bearing such names as Dragon's Well or Dragon Rock, which indicate the spots where the processions made some of their prescribed stops.
London, of course, had its municipal dragon. Thus is an old chronicle describing the Lord Mayor of London's procession from Greenwich to Westminster, escorting Anne Boleyn to her coronation, we read : "Fifty barges were filled by the various city companies, and followed the Lord Mayor's barge, marshalled by three light wherries with officers. Before the mayor's barge came another barge full of ordnance, and containing a huge dragon (intended to stand for the rouge dragon in the Tudor arms) which vomited wild fire ; and round about it stood terrible monsters and savages also vomiting fire, discharging squibs, and making hideous noises."
In the city procession of 1672 the pageant was saluted over against Bow Church by two griffins, those being the supporters in the arms of the Grocer's Company, to which body the new Lord Mayor, Sir Robert Hanson, belonged.
Than "Snap" no more fitting name could be devised for a devouring dragon, and this was the name by which in former days the famous civic dragon of Norwich was known. Snap was a magnificent reptile, built of cardboard, all glittering in green and gold, who every year on the Tuesday before St. John the Baptist's Day (June 23) went in procession with the Mayor and Corporation, guarded by four whifflers (or maskers) and accompanied by gay banners and bands of music. He was a very witty and amusing dragon, and always delighted the crowd by his antics.
On the arrival of the procession at the cathedral, Snap was never allowed to enter the sacred edifice, but sat on a big stone outside, called the Dragon-stone ; where he waited till the service was over, when he resumed his place in the procession and returned with it to the Town Hall.
At Burford in Oxfordshire it was a much-honoured old custom to make up yearly the effigy of a huge dragon and to carry it up and down the town in great jollity on Midsummer Eve.
The origin of the practice was lost in the obscurity of the past, but is quite plausibly said to have been instituted to commemorate a signal victory gained at that place in the year 750 by Cuthred (or Cuthbert), a tributary king of the West Saxons, over Ethelbald the Proud, King of Mercia, whose insupportable exactions the former had been unable any longer to endure.
The victor captured, after a desperate struggle, the banner of Ethelbald, on which was depicted a golden dragon, and the form of commemoration is said to have been inspired by this device. In the old village morris dances, along with Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, the hobby-horse, and other familiar characters of mediaeval pageantry, a dragon was sometimes introduced as one of the rarer features ; the hobby-horse was then supposed to represent St. George. In a mummers' play at Steyning the dragon took a prominent part, for all fought him at once - a heterogeneous company of heroes and champions, including St. George, King Cole, King Alfred and his bride, Giant Blunderbore, Little Jack, and the Morris Fool. In Cornish versions there is nearly always a dragon to fight with St. George and the Dragon was introduced in the London May games.
Loading...
☻/ bob won the fight, bob is now
/▌ famous all over youtube.
/ \
QelPL 2 years ago
We are in this Business Since 2001!!
Best gears available with fast shipping!
We will ship with tracking number!!
Guarantee shipping!!
JuiceSupplier (dot) c o m
eigorian74 3 years ago