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| Book Cover |
"In the day when monster and giants and fairy folk lived in England, a noble knight was riding across a plain."
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| Trina Schart Hyman illustration of St. George |
St. George and The Dragon is a book for children, and a book for adults who love fairy-beauty and well-told tales. My husband had a copy of his own when we were college-chums; my daughter treasures her's for the picture of the knight "sleeping in the water." She carries it 'round the house, playing St. George and kissing his Icon from the altar with almost as much affection as she gives St. Nikolas. The story has captivated her, thanks in part to Ms. Hyman's rich illustrations. The images themselves are breath-taking, and each page of text embellished with boarders of detail-work and illumination.
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| Trina Schart Hyman illustration of St. George |
My image of St. George is from the east - the dragonslayer who saved Lizaveta, instead of the English Una. He defends horses and livestock and husbands. This St. George of Merry England is delightfully similar: fine, heroic, kind, and more than a touch magical. His tale, as Magaret Hodges tells it, is so full of sacramental images and the magic of a land redeemed.
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| Trina Schart Hyman illustration of St. George and the Dragon |
Read it with mugs of cocoa, on grey days or sunlit winter afternoons, either aloud to a child or else quietly, in the tub - with toy figures to act out the exciting parts. Or, more piously, read with tea, mediating on the parallels between St. George's falls and Christ's as He carried His cross, the healing water, the healing tree, and the virtues of the Red Cross Knight.
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| Trina Schart Hyman illustration of St. George and Una |
