The
White Dragon Flag of the English
The years around AD450 witnessed the landing, in what was
then Celtic Britain, of the first Anglo-Saxon war bands who
were to go on and lay the foundation stones of what was to
become the English Nation. Two of these warrior traders, Hengest
and Horsa, together with their Saxon, Angle and Jutish followers
are traditionally regarded as the founders of England. From
the coast they gradually pushed inland up the rivers with
small squadrons of ships whose crews became the founders of
new communities as they advanced from East to West through
Celtic Britain.During the next four centuries, the Saxon,
Angle and Juttish settlers together with the northern Vikings,
would become known collectively as the English. History records
that when in battle, they carried a Dragon Standard before
them.
Various accounts of the times record battles between opposing
armies of the "Celtic" British and the English,
each carrying their own Dragon Battle Standards. The dragon
of the Britons can still be seen in the Red Dragon of the
Welsh flag. For the English it was the White Dragon emblem
that was to prove most enduring. Legend has it that the defeat
of their Celtic enemies by the early English was foretold
in a prophecy. It goes that in an underground lake slept two
dragons. The Britons were represented by a red dragon and
the English by a white dragon. When they awoke they started
fighting and the red dragon was overcome by the white one,
symbolically representing the victory of the Anglo-Saxons
over their Celtic adversaries.
The Dragon was the emblem of Wessex, the territory of the
West Saxons. It is the banner under which King Alfred the
Great defeated the great Viking Army at the Battle of Edington
and it was the banner carried by the mighty King Athelstan
when he smashed the combined armies of the Scots, Welsh, Norse
and Irish at the Battle of Brananburgh in 937. The Dragon
was flown by Harold II, when he destroyed the Norse army at
the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 and it was the banner
under which he and his warriors fought to the death, three
weeks later protecting their homeland from invasion. The Dragon
flag of the English is shown on the battle scene of the tapestry
sewn by Englishwomen to commemorate the battle.
Moves are now under way to once again raise the White Dragon
flag, not as the flag of England, but as the flag of the ethnic-English
community within England. We need to see our banner flown
as a signal to everyone else that although we may well have
been forgotten about by our beloved leaders we most certainly
have not gone away and we are once again finding our voice.
In a world with few certainties this flag tells us who we
are and from where we have come. It imparts a sense of permanence
and continuity. It is a symbol of our identity, our common
history, tradition and of the kinship of all the Anglo-Saxon
people. It is also a stark reminder that in multi-cultural
England unless we embrace these things then we will surely
die.
Look for the sign of the White Dragon and you will find a
friend....
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the White Dragon...
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