EUROPA INVICTA, ANGLI EVIGILA!
A latin start to a short essay on the patron saint of the English. Odd, isn’t it? It’s something almost leftist, like an assertion that St George neither lived down the road, nor drank in your local pub, nor played for your local team, back in the day. The desire for a literal reading of history is strong among many of our folk and exploited by the preaching crowd that despises our very existence - who would love nothing more than to tell you how he was “Turkish” and that therefore we now need to accept our nation and culture going under beneath the waves of the third world. Yet we are still fundamentalists, in our own way, Bowdenian if you like - we step over what exists. George was no Englishman, but he was a European in one of the truest senses. Born into a patrician family of Grecian stock in Roman Palestine, risen to the rank of tribune in the Legions, admitted into the Praetorian Guard, ultimately martyred for his faith and beliefs under the regime of Diocletian in 303 AD – all things that occurred many a mile from England’s shore. And he is not exclusive to us either. We share him with Venice, Genoa, Moscow, Portugal, and number of other towns, cities, and nations across Europe. Yet this idea of courage in the face of extreme danger sits well in English hearts, and Edward II and Edward III felt this too, adopting St George’s banner for their own. After Agincourt, St George’s feast day became canon, partly in thanks for his aid to Henry V, and his banner has flown across our land ever since.
If the latin start was bad, how about the Romano-Egyptian statuary? Horus the Saviour, falcon-headed Horus, god of war and the sky, who sacrificed an eye (The Eye of Horus) for victory over Seth, the destroyer. Transformed from the Egyptian harpooner of Chaos (Seth as Hippopotamus) to the Roman spearer of Egypt (in the form of the crocodile), mounted upon horseback and garbed in the attire of the legionary cavalryman. Parsed through the Germanic mind, the hippo-turned-crocodile later evolved again, into the familiar guise of the dragon. This near-universal, consistent depiction is a representation of the timeless struggle of good and evil that transcends the ages, an eternal battle between the sovereign and the chaotic forces of the depths. A representation, in fact, of the victory of Europe over those that would wish to destroy her.
Be it George, Perseus, Apollo, or otherwise, the motif of triumph over wickedness is stamped into our hearts. Look inwards, see the past, present, and future for Europe. That is our Tradition; eternal struggle, eternal glory!
