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St. George
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St. George was born in Cappadocia, Turkey in the 200s. He died in 303. The story of St. George's encounter with a dragon was thought up no longe after
he died. By the 500s, it was translated into six different tongues. His tomb was discovered during the First Crusade. The dragon legend probably originated
from the story of Perseus and Andromeda. The story became so famous that over 160 churches became dedicated to him. One of the
first tellings of this story goes something like this.
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There once was a great city that didn't have any source of water. To get water, people had to go outside the city walls to a nearby oasis. However, this oasis
was guarded by an evil dragon. This dragon would not let anyone have water unless it was given a maiden or youth to eat. This dragon was not a fire breather, he was worse.
This dragon had the breath of a poisonous gas. Many brave souls died trying to kill this dragon and end their pain and torment, but their wasn't any strong enough to
pull off this feat. One by one, the city's youth was destroyed. The dragon kept eating them until only the kings daughter was left. The king then had to weigh two choices:
sacrifice his daughter and his people would live, or keep his daughter alive and his people (including his daughter and himself) would die of dehydration. He finally decided
to give his daughter to this beast. You my think this was an incredibly terrible thing for the king to do, but he had no choice. Anyhow, he had her escorted to the dragon's lair.
The dragon happily accepted this gift and just as he was about to devour her, a knight in shining armor sitting upon a shimmering, white war stallion rode up to rescue her. The knight
charged the dragon with his lance, delivering a killing blow upon impact. The dragon tore at the air as he fell to the earth never to rise again. The king was so pleased at what the knight,
also known as St. George, did, that he gave him half of his kingdom and his daughter's hand in marriage.
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There are many versions of this story, some of the later versions have the dragon living in a cave instead of an oasis. The later ones even have St. George not killing the dragon at first, but
injuring him enough so he can lead him into the middle of the town square where he eventually decapitates it.
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