I probably did pick up the idea from Rowland - A Medieval
Woman's Guide to Health, if anyone else is interested. I
agree, identifying with the dragon doesn't seem to be a
good move, but then it does seem to be implicit in the use
of the image to represent childbirth. I have been
wondering whether there's any connection with the female
dragons Sam Riches writes about (are you out there, Sam?)
but haven't found any real support for this.
There are plenty of pictures of Margaret standing on or
coming out of the dragon - it seems to have caught people's
imaginations - so I still think this episode was likely to
be well-known.
Sarah Salih
On Mon, 31 Jul 2000 14:46:37 +0100 Patricia Cullum
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Sarah, Does it help to think about who one is identifying with?
> presumably Margaret rather than the dragon?
> On saving the mother rather than the child, I think you are right, though I
> can't give chapter and verse, but presumably before Caesareans were widely
> practised or survivable by the mother, the thinking was that a mother could
> always have another child, whereas a child, if baptised before dying was
> better off that way. You could try Beryl Rowland's edition of ?Trotula,
> (sorry, haven't the reference to hand) or Hilary marland's collection on
> early modern midwifery (ditto).
> Pat Cullum
> University of Huddersfield
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sarah Salih [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 31 July 2000 14:42
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Interim Saints - July 20th St Margaret of Antioch
>
>
> I suppose that like everything else, how well known the
> dragon story was varies from time to time and place to
> place, but my impression was that it's fairly well-known -
> eg, the Golden Legend says something to the effect that the
> dragon story is apocryphal but popular. And it is a
> memorable episode, and stands out from the standard vm
> themes. Though, as you suggest, if the copy of the vita is
> itself the magical object, you don't actually have to read
> it to get the benefit.
>
> In the versions of Margaret that I know, when Margaret
> organises her cult just before she dies, she stresses the
> health of the mother rather than the child. I think
> standard practice - if there is such a thing, that is - was
> to save the mother not the child if the situation required
> - but can't immediately remember where I got this idea from
> and would welcome support and/or correction.
>
> I don't know whether women originated the idea, but some
> certainly took it up - Margaret Paston, for example, refers
> to a St Margaret ring when she is pregnant. But I still
> don't see the appeal of the image.
>
>
> On Wed, 26 Jul 2000 07:06:26 -0400 (EDT) [log in to unmask]
> wrote:
> > > The safe escape of
> > > > St.Margaret from the dragon's belly was an obvious symbol of
> childbirth and
> >
> > > As the dragon explodes, I've never understood what the
> > > women liked about the symbol.
> >
> > which makes one wonder whether women were, in fact, the original
> > promotors of the idea? Two points for discussion:
> > the "child" survivess the " maybe this was more important than the
> > mother surviving?
> > how well known was the dragon story? would a woman who called on
> > saint margaret have known of this etiology? For example, in reformation
> > iceland, copies of the saga (translated vita) of St. Margaret were
> > sometimes taken to women in childbed. I doubt very much that those
> > involved (either the women or the owners of the saga) were aware
> > of the original reason why Margarets saga was used.
> >
> >
> > Margaret Cormack [log in to unmask]
> > Dept. of Philosophy and Religion fax: 843-953-6388
> > College of Charleston tel: 843-953-8033
> > Charleston, SC 29424-0001
>
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