In my previous post I summarized the The Golden Legend version of St. George and the dragon but did not quote the original. This created some confusion since it wasn’t entirely clear what was directly in the legend and what parts were my own commentary. In the Golden Legend, St. George manages to wound the dragon with his martial skill after making the sign of the cross. But after he wounds the dragon, it is the princess who tames it with the magic of her girdle. Once she ties it around the dragon’s neck the nature of the beast is transformed:

Thus as they spake together the dragon appeared and came running to them, and St. George was upon his horse, and drew out his sword and garnished him with the sign of the cross, and rode hardily against the dragon which came towards him, and smote him with his spear and hurt him sore and threw him to the ground. And after said to the maid: Deliver to me your girdle, and bind it about the neck of the dragon and be not afeard. When she had done so the dragon followed her as it had been a meek beast and debonair. Then she led him into the city, and the people fled by mountains and valleys, and said: Alas! alas! we shall be all dead. Then St. George said to them: Ne doubt ye no thing, without more, believe ye in God, Jesu Christ, and do ye to be baptized and I shall slay the dragon. Then the king was baptized and all his people, and St. George slew the dragon and smote off his head…

St. George’s power here as the hero (beyond his skill as a knight) is knowing what kind of magic will defeat the beast. He knew the sign of the cross would allow him to wound the dragon, but that another kind of magic was required to tame the dragon. This is very common for heroic tales. It very often takes a combination of martial skill as well as secret knowledge for heroes to vanquish the beast.

One thing that is confusing in the account is that St. George tells the princess to:

Give him her girdle. Bind the dragon with her girdle.

This is an odd contradiction, but it makes sense when you consider the courtly love imagery involved. When a noble woman gave a knight her girdle it was a symbol that he had won her favor. Thus we have the princess demonstrating that St. George had indeed won her favor. But we also have the princess, through the magic of her virtuous femininity, taming the dragon. Courtly Love/Chivalry are all about the mysterious power of noblewomen to tame what is vulgar. Usually it is a knight who is tamed, but in this case it is the dragon. Nevertheless, the important part is that even though her two actions (giving St. George her girdle vs tying it around the dragon’s neck) are in contradiction in the plot, they are in harmony in message.

Here is an excerpt from the plot summary in Infogalactic, which struggles with the contradiction. First it says St. George puts the girdle around the dragon’s neck, and then immediately after it says “when she did so”:

Saint George by chance rode past the lake. The princess, trembling, sought to send him away, but George vowed to remain. The dragon reared out of the lake while they were conversing. Saint George fortified himself with the Sign of the Cross,[10] charged it on horseback with his lance, and gave it a grievous wound. He then called to the princess to throw him her girdle, and he put it around the dragon’s neck. When she did so, the dragon followed the girl like a meek beast on a leash.[citation needed] The princess and Saint George led the dragon back to the city of Silene, where it terrified the people at its approach.