I saw this interesting version of the house of Wessex flag. Historians are saying that this type of serpent style dragon was more common and more likely used on flags. The modern idea of a dragon being like a heavy built winged dinosaur of some kind didn't come about until much later when people started to put together and display dinosaur skeletons.
It is said that when Hengist and Horsa came to England Horsa was shocked by the number of snakes. He feared they would grow up to be dragons. Of course legend has it that his horse being startled by a snake led to his untimely death on the battlefield. Apparently, back home on the continent there wasn't so many snakes as we had in England due to colder winters. Great bounties were put on snakes and hundreds of thousands were killed. This bounty on snakes continued into the xtian period. They even worked out how to drain some of the marshes to deprive snakes of their habitat. This is why there are only one or two varieties of small snakes in England now. (Thankfully, not too many grew up to be dragons.....)
Let's talk about why our ancestors used dragon imagery on their flags. There were 2 types of threats that our forebears faced. 1. was 'the dragon'. The dragon represents a huge, insurmountable danger like an earthquake, disease, 100'000 man army at the city gates or a supernatural threat when the Gods were angered etc etc. The 2nd type of threat was 'the snake'. The snake was in some ways harder to deal with. It represented a hidden threat or deception. It could be one of your own men opening the city gates for the enemy army for cash. It could be a trusted advisor to the king telling the king it would be better to attack the enemy army from the bottom of the hill! The snake would always manifest where we feel most safe and warm...... I always think of a snake coming into the family home and sleeping under the babes cot attracted by the warmth and then biting the poor child when he is put to bed.
The idea was to 'BECOME' the dragon. If your tribe grew in strength and size, it could become an insurmountable threat to your enemies. Becoming the dragon meant that your king and witton could handle any threat that came our way, thus maintaining frith among your folk. 'Frith' was the ultimate goal of any witton and king. Frith, in basic terms means peace, calm, harmony and safety but so much more.
On a simpler level we should also remember that our ancestors thought in terms of order Vs chaos rather than good Vs evil. The dragon always represented chaos. From the famous Fafnir slain by sigurd to the world serpent Jormungandr who stretches all around the world keeping the sea in. When he releases his tail the sea floods out and the end of the world begins. Thor is the great enemy of the world serpent. We can note that those who fight these dragons are examples of the European heroic ideal. Examples that inspire our people. Now imagine an army rushing towards you flying the dragon flags........
Hail the Gods FFF Admin GaryH
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