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Ponto Designs : England United : English Dragon
The years around 450 AD 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 the White Dragon was their emblem.
Various accounts of the times record many battles between armies carrying the Celtic British Red Dragon Banner (now the Welsh Dragon) and the white dragon flag of the early English. 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 White Dragon was, and still is, 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 White 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 White Dragon flag of the English is shown on the battle scene of the tapestry sewn by Englishwomen to commemorate the battle. It is also seen displayed on the same tapestry featuring a scene at Westminster Abbey during the crowning ceremony for the usurper, William the Bastard.
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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