View source for White dragon

{{Short description|Symbol of the Anglo-Saxons in Welsh mythology}}
{{other uses|White Dragon (disambiguation)}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Original research|date=October 2018}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2012}}
}}

[[File:Vortigern-Dragons.jpg|thumb|right|Vortigern and Ambros watch the fight between the [[Welsh dragon|red]] and white dragons: an illustration from a 15th-century manuscript of [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae|History of the Kings of Britain]]''.]]The '''white [[European dragon|dragon]]''' ({{langx|cy|Y Ddraig Wen}}) is a symbol associated in [[Welsh mythology]] with the [[Anglo-Saxons]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/wales/archive/bbc-north-west-wales-celts.pdf | title=Northwest Wales | access-date=September 1, 2017}}</ref>

==Origin of tradition==
The earliest usage of the white dragon as a symbol of the Anglo-Saxons is found in the ''[[Historia Brittonum]]''. The relevant story takes place at [[Dinas Emrys]] when [[Vortigern]] tries to build a castle there. Every night, unseen forces demolish the castle walls and foundations. Vortigern consults his advisers, who tell him to find a boy with no natural father, and to sacrifice him. Vortigern finds such a boy, but on hearing that he is to be put to death to solve the demolishing of the walls, the boy dismisses the knowledge of the advisors. The boy tells the king of the two dragons. Vortigern excavates the hill, freeing the dragons. They continue their fight and the red dragon finally defeats the white dragon. The boy tells Vortigern that the white dragon symbolises the Saxons and that the red dragon symbolises the [[Celtic Britons|people of Vortigern]].

The story is repeated in [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s fictional [[Historia Regum Britanniae|''History of the Kings of Britain'']] (c. 1136). In this telling the boy is identified as the young [[Merlin (wizard)|Merlin]]. The ''Historia Brittonum'' and ''History of the Kings of Britain'' are the only medieval texts to use the white dragon as a symbol of the English.

A similar story of white and red dragons fighting is found in the medieval romance [[Lludd and Llefelys]], although in this case the dragons are not used to symbolize Britons or Saxons. The battle between the two dragons is the second plague to strike the Island of Britain, as the White Dragon would strive to overcome the Red Dragon, making the Red cry out a fearful shriek which was heard over every Brythonic hearth. This shriek went through people's hearts, scaring them so much that the men lost their hue and their strength, women lost their children, young men and the maidens lost their senses, and all the animals and trees and the earth and the waters were left barren. Lludd finally eradicated the plague by catching the dragons and burying both of them in a rock pit at [[Dinas Emrys]] in Snowdonia, north Wales, the securest place in Britain at that time. He captured the dragons by digging a pit under the exact point where the dragons would fall down exhausted after fighting. This place was at Oxford, which Lludd found to be the exact centre of the island when he measured the island of Britain. The pit had a satin covering over it and a cauldron of mead in it at the bottom. First, the dragons fought by the pit in the form of terrific animals. Then they began to fight in the air over the pit in the form of dragons. Then, exhausted with the fighting, they fell down on the pit in the form of pigs and sank into the pit, drawing the satin covering under them into the cauldron at the bottom of the pit, whereupon they drank the mead and fell asleep. The dragons were then wrapped up in the satin covering and placed in the pit to be buried at Dinas Emrys.<ref>"The Tale of Lludd and Llefelys" in ''The [[Mabinogion]]'', translated by Sioned Davies, 2007</ref>

== Chinese Mythology ==
In Chinese mythology, the White Dragon is identified as Ao Run, one of the four Dragon Kings who rule over the cardinal directions and the seas. Ao Run governs the western seas and is associated with the season of autumn. The Dragon Kings are revered as powerful deities who control water-related phenomena, such as rainfall and floods, and are often invoked in prayers for rain and protection against natural disasters. Each Dragon King is linked to a specific color, direction, and season, with Ao Run’s white hue symbolizing purity and the west’s metal element in the Five Elements (Wu Xing) philosophy. <ref>{{Cite web |title=The Five Heavenly Beasts |url=https://thoth-adan.com/blog/five-heavenly-beasts |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=Thoth Adan |language=en-US}}</ref>

The veneration of the Dragon Kings, including Ao Run, has been integral to Chinese religious practices, with temples dedicated to their worship found throughout coastal regions. These deities also appear in various Chinese literary works and folklore, underscoring their cultural significance. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Greenberg |first=Mike |last2=PhD |date=2021-01-18 |title=Long Wang the Dragon King: A Complete Guide (2023) |url=https://mythologysource.com/chinese-dragon-king/ |access-date=2025-05-05 |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Modern usage==
[[File:Royal Wessex Yeomanry Cap badge.png|thumb|Royal Wessex Yeomanry Cap badge]]
Sir [[Walter Scott]] (1771–1832) mentions the white dragon in his poem "The Saxon War Song":

<blockquote poem>Whet the bright steel,
Sons of the White Dragon!
Kindle the torch,
Daughter of [[Hengist]]!</blockquote poem>

In February 2003 during his enthronement at [[Canterbury Cathedral]] Archbishop [[Rowan Williams]] wore hand-woven gold silk robes bearing a gold and silver clasp that showed the white dragon of England and the red dragon of Wales.<ref>Moreton, Cole. Is God Still an Englishman, Hachette UK, 2010</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2003-02-26 |title=Enthronement in Welsh garments |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2796871.stm |access-date=2022-03-31}}</ref>

In 2014 the [[Royal Wessex Yeomanry]] adopted the white dragon as the centrepiece of their new capbadge. A dragon or [[wyvern]] is often used to represent Wessex, and a flag featuring a gold wyvern on a red field is used to represent [[Wessex]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Wessex Flag |url=https://theonlywayiswessex.net/wessex-culture/wessex-flag/ |website=Wessex Society |access-date=14 November 2023 |date=29 April 2018}}</ref>

In the present era, the white dragon symbol is sometimes associated with [[Edmund the Martyr|St Edmund]], and those who commemorate him. St Edmund is sometimes regarded as the patron saint of England during the Anglo-Saxon era, until he was displaced by [[Saint George|St George]], who is famous for having slain a dragon.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Castelow |first1=Ellen |title=St Edmund, original Patron Saint of England |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Edmund-original-Patron-Saint-of-England/ |website=Historic UK |access-date=14 November 2023}}</ref>

==Appropriation attempts by the far-right==
A version of the white dragon symbol was embraced by Geoffrey Dunn (also known as Wulf Ingessunu),<ref name="White 2021">{{cite journal
| last1      = White
| first1     = Ethan Doyle
| date       = 2021
| title      = In Woden's Shadow: Anglo-Saxonism, Paganism, and Politics in Modern England
| journal    = Studies in Medievalism
| issue      = 30
}}</ref>{{rp|136}} a far-right activist whose organisation [[Heathenry in the United Kingdom#Odinist and Wodenist groups|Woden's Folk]] regards [[Adolf Hitler]] to have been "the incarnation of Wotan upon Earth."{{r|White 2021}}{{rp|139}} In the 1980s, Ingessunu adopted the image of a white dragon on a red background as a symbol, and presented the white dragon's mythological opponent of the red dragon as "the Red Dragon of Juda-Rome".The symbol chosen by Ingessunu of a white dragon on a red background briefly became widespread amongst far-right English ethno-nationalists in the early twenty-first century, leading to it being described by historian Ethan Doyle White as "arguably... Ingessunu's foremost contribution to the white nationalist milieu."{{r|White 2021}}{{rp|140–141}} Far-right English nationalist organisations that adopted Ingessunu's white dragon flag include the Steadfast Trust and the English Shieldwall.{{r|White 2021}}{{rp|144–145}}

==See also==
* [[Anglo-Saxons]]
* [[Coronation Stone]]
* [[England]]
* [[English people]]
* [[Funen Life Regiment|Funens Life regiment]]
* [[Hengist and Horsa]]
* [[Jutes]]
* [[Saxon steed]]
* [[Burford#The Battle of Burford and the Golden Dragon|The Battle of Burford and the Golden Dragon]]
* [[Welsh dragon]]
* [[White Horse Stone]]
* [[Wyvern]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:European dragons]]
[[Category:Welsh legendary creatures]]
[[Category:White symbols|Dragon, white]]
[[Category:Nationalist symbols]]