Thursday, 20 June 2019

The Religious Symbolism of the Red and White Dragons

Those of you who are familiar with the writings of Woden's Folk will be aware of the teaching regarding the battle between two hostile dragons, usually depicted (but not always) as red and white dragons and what they symbolise. Some years ago I  completed my reading of Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of  The Mabinogion (1841) and I came across this interesting passage in the final part of the work, Taliesin.


"A coiling serpent proud and merciless, on her golden wings, from Germany. She will overrun England and Scotland, from Lychlyn sea-shore to the Severn. Then will the Brython be as prisoners, by strangers swayed, from Saxony. Their Lord they will praise, their speech they will keep, their land they will lose, except wild Walia. Till some change shall come, after long penance, when equally rife the two crimes come. Britons then shall have their land and their crown, and the stranger swarm shall disappear. All the angel's words, as to peace and war, will be fulfilled to Britain's race." 


The traditional interpretation of the white dragon representing the Germanic English invader and the red dragon the Romano-British is in my opinion an over-simplification of the legend. It is clear to me that in addition to the ethnic interpretation of the two dragons there is also a much deeper religious significance. We know that the Saxon kingdom of Wessex-West Saxons, had a golden dragon banner as their symbol and this is still represented in the county flag of Wessex (an original and historical English county and kingdom). This is the "coiling serpent proud and merciless, on her golden wings from Germany." "The reference to the Britons' "Lord they will praise" implies that despite the efforts of the heathen Anglo-Saxons the conquered people will cling to their Christian god. However the Christian hope is that both Germanic heathenism and the English themselves will "disappear". This is being attempted right now with the flooding of England with unwanted alien immigrants from the four corners of the globe without a single thing being done about it. Clearly the Christianisation of the English was not only an attempt to sever our ties from our natural Germanic Gods and mythology but an attempt to destroy our folc within these islands.

The legend of Taliesin is unfortunately heavily Christianised as is the majority of The Mabinogion. The Irish mythology has largely escaped this Christian contamination and is a better guide to 'Celtic' mythology. However Welsh mythology is still useful for us to study. The legend of the red and white dragons is also contained in Llud and Llevelys, also to be found in The Mabinogion. However the actual colour of the dragons is not mentioned in this tale but it refers to "another dragon of a foreign race" (the English dragon) who is "fighting with it, and striving to overcome it" (the British dragon). Geoffrey of Monmouth and Nennius also relate this story and Nennius in particular places this struggle between the two dragons at the time of the coming of the English (or as some of us prefer, the return of the English) to England at the time of Vortigern, the weak British king. Giraldus Cambrensis locates these events "At the head of the Snowdon Mountains". In recent years (largely due to the efforts of Woden's Folk) the white dragon of the English has experienced an awakening of sorts in the Collective Unconscious or Blood Memory of the English people who are an Aryan Germanic folc. We must continue in our efforts to promote this symbolism in our work as it clearly has a significance for the end of the age events being worked out in this island today.

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