The white dragon ( cy, Y Ddraig Wen) is a symbol associated in

Welsh mythology Welsh mythology (Welsh: ''Mytholeg Cymru'') consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of the predominantly oral societies Celti ...

with the

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

Origin of tradition

The earliest usage of the white dragon as a symbol of the Anglo-Saxons is found in the ''

Historia Brittonum ''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British ( Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia B ...

''. The relevant story takes place at

Dinas Emrys Dinas Emrys () is a rocky and wooded hillock near Beddgelert in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. Rising some above the floor of the Glaslyn river valley, it overlooks the southern end of Llyn Dinas in Snowdonia. Little remains of the Iron Age hillfor ...

when

Vortigern Vortigern (; owl, Guorthigirn, ; cy, Gwrtheyrn; ang, Wyrtgeorn; Old Breton: ''Gurdiern'', ''Gurthiern''; gle, Foirtchern; la, Vortigernus, , , etc.), also spelled Vortiger, Vortigan, Voertigern and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in ...

tries to build a castle there. Every night, unseen forces demolish the castle walls and foundations. Vortigern consults his advisers, who tell him to find a boy with no natural father, and to sacrifice him. Vortigern finds such a boy, but on hearing that he is to be put to death to solve the demolishing of the walls, the boy dismisses the knowledge of the advisors. The boy tells the king of the two dragons. Vortigern excavates the hill, freeing the dragons. They continue their fight and the red dragon finally defeats the white dragon. The boy tells Vortigern that the white dragon symbolises the Saxons and that the red dragon symbolises the people of Vortigern. The story is repeated in

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...

's fictional ''History of the Kings of Britain'' (c. 1136). In this telling the boy is identified as the young Merlin. The ''Historia Brittonum'' and ''History of the Kings of Britain'' are the only medieval texts to use the white dragon as a symbol of the English. A similar story of white and red dragons fighting is found in the medieval romance

Lludd and Llefelys ''Lludd and Llefelys'' ( cy, Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys) is a Middle Welsh prose tale written down in the 12th or 13th century; it was included in the '' Mabinogion'' by Lady Charlotte Guest in the 19th century. It tells of the Welsh hero Lludd Ll ...

, although in this case the dragons are not used to symbolize Britons or Saxons. The battle between the two dragons is the second plague to strike the Island of Britain, as the White Dragon would strive to overcome the Red Dragon, making the Red cry out a fearful shriek which was heard over every Brythonic hearth. This shriek went through people's hearts, scaring them so much that the men lost their hue and their strength, women lost their children, young men and the maidens lost their senses, and all the animals and trees and the earth and the waters were left barren. Lludd finally eradicated the plague by catching the dragons and burying both of them in a rock pit at

in Snowdonia, north Wales, the securest place in Britain at that time. He captured the dragons by digging a pit under the exact point where the dragons would fall down exhausted after fighting. This place was at Oxford, which Lludd found to be the exact centre of the island when he measured the island of Britain. The pit had a satin covering over it and a cauldron of mead in it at the bottom. First, the dragons fought by the pit in the form of terrific animals. Then they began to fight in the air over the pit in the form of dragons. Then, exhausted with the fighting, they fell down on the pit in the form of pigs and sank into the pit, drawing the satin covering under them into the cauldron at the bottom of the pit, whereupon they drank the mead and fell asleep. The dragons were then wrapped up in the satin covering and placed in the pit to be buried at Dinas Emrys.

Modern usage

Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

(1771–1832) mentions the white dragon in his poem "The Saxon War Song":

Whet the bright steel, Sons of the White Dragon! Kindle the torch, Daughter of
Hengist Hengist and Horsa are Germanic brothers said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist as the first of the Jutish kings of Kent. Most modern scholarly consensus now rega ...
!

In February 2003 during his enthronement at Canterbury Cathedral Archbishop

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...

wore hand-woven gold silk robes bearing a gold and silver clasp that showed the white dragon of England and the red dragon of Wales. In 2014 the

Royal Wessex Yeomanry The Royal Wessex Yeomanry (RWxY) is a Reserve armoured regiment of the British Army Reserve consisting of five squadrons. Formerly part of 43 (Wessex) Brigade, the regiment joined 3rd (UK) Division in July 2014, to provide armoured (main battle ...

adopted the white dragon as the centrepiece of their new capbadge. Despite the lack of historical evidence tying it to Anglo-Saxon England, the symbol of the white dragon was embraced by Geoffrey Dunn (also known as Wulf Ingessunu), a far-right activist whose organisation Woden's Folk regards

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

to have been "the incarnation of Wotan upon Earth." In the 1980s, Ingessunu adopted the image of a white dragon on a red background as a symbol, and presented the white dragon's mythological opponent of the red dragon as "the Red Dragon of Juda-Rome,".The symbol chosen by Ingessunu of a white dragon on a red background became widespread amongst far-right English nationalists in the early twenty-first century, leading to it being described by historian Ethan Doyle White as "arguably... Ingessunu's foremost contribution to the white nationalist milieu." Far-right English nationalist organisations that adopted Ingessunu's white dragon flag include the Steadfast Trust and the English Shieldwall.

References

{{reflist European dragons Welsh legendary creatures Dragons Dragon, white Nationalist symbols

Origin of tradition

Modern usage

See also

References