Representations of George and his Female Counterpartin Caucasus Vernacular Religion and Folklore
Representations of George and his Female Counterpartin Caucasus Vernacular Religion and Folklore

Summary/Abstract: I. The princess as junior partner. The miracle of St George, the princess and the dragon (see Appendix) is more than the ancient dragon-slaying motif with a new character added. The narrative of a hero rescuing a woman or women from a dragon has a long history, going back at least as far as ancient Iranian tales of combat against a dragon guarding vital resources, such as water, livestock or women (Ivanov & Toporov 1974: 136-164; Fonterose 1980: 515-520; Watkins 1995: 297- 300; Kuehn 2011: 87-91; Aarne-Thompson 1961: #300; Thompson Motif-index B11.7.1; Basilov 1991; Skjærvø et al 2011). The theme lives on in Georgian and Azerbaijanian folklore, as in the following excerpt from a Georgian folktale: (The protagonist, the youngest of three brothers, descends to a land beneath the surface of the earth, and arrives at the home of an old woman. She tells him:) “Our water is held by a dragon (čveni c’q’ali ert gvelašap’ uč’iram). If we do not bring it a sacrifice (msxverp’l) each day, it does not let us get water.” (The boy asks for two large wine-jars, and goes to the water source). He saw a beautiful (mzetunaxam) woman seated there, weeping. “Why are you weeping?”, the boy asked. “I am the daughter of the king, brought as a sacrifice. When the dragon comes it will eat me.” The boy said: “Let me rest my head on your knees, and when the dragon comes, wake me up.” The boy lay down and went to sleep. The maiden saw that the dragon was coming, but she felt sorry for the boy and did not awaken him. She began to weep. One of her tears fell on the boy’s cheek and he suddenly woke up. He jumped to his feet and asked her, “What is it?” “Look over there, the dragon is coming.” The boy grabbed his boy and arrow, and shot the dragon through the middle. He chopped up the dragon and scattered the pieces (Gogiashvili 2011: 170).

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