As my wife was getting out green clovers to decorate the house I wondered what St patrick’s day was truly about… Then while driving and listening to BYU radio I heard, in addition to spreading Christianinty across much of ireland, he had also run all the snakes out of Irelend. My new found world view immediately got me to questioning and researching behind the scenes of this “myth”.
The Myth:
“The more familiar version of the legend is given by Jocelyn of Furness, who says that the snakes had all been banished by Patrick chasing them into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill”
As I researched the first thing to be revealed online is of course the major sceince publications who issue a plethora of warnings and dismissals that St patrick did not use God’s power or fasting an prayer to cast out snakes because there are none on the island and never were. I dare you to count the number of websites taking on the honorable public duty of “setting history straight”. And we know there are books and articles galore explaining away the Dragon Myth in the hundreds as well. Of course there is no evidence we can hold in our hand of a snake skeloton so they say “it never happened”. There are no fossils of snakes and they have never lived on the island since the last ice age since the island has always been separated.
However, all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland never had snakes.[83] “At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish”, says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, who has searched extensively through Irish fossil collections and records.[83]
Of course, If it is false as they claim, there needs to be further explanation for this myth explaining it’s origins: Many attribute it to his battles with the pagan Druids. And that the snake is symbolic for pagan Druids. This is explained with no small irony at all by Lora Obreien who runs the Irish Pagan school in Ireland. The snake metaphor is used in many instances; this is of course similar to all writings around dragons where the similar switch is made.
It is true there are no snake fossils and there are no snakes. However there are dragon myths and dinosaur fossils found on the island. All across Europe we see similar stories of Dragon’s Dragon Slayers and immortilized heroes cast in bronze and the like. Come along and see the link between Snakes – Serpents – Dragons – and Dinosaurs. Even the pagans admit:
“… No country in Europe is so associated with the Serpent as Ireland, and none has so many myths and legends connected with the same… “ Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions – James Bonwick, 1894.
One writer began to make the connection before dismissing it due to a paradigm that has no room for miracles or myths. With no Fault to Ali Isaac at all. I thank her for her contribtion:
“Of course, this story is the subject of controversy. It has been claimed that the tale was never meant to be taken literally, that the serpents referred to symbolised the Druids and their pagan religion.
Apparently, he wasn’t the only Christian to have banished snakes; it was a phenomenon which was happening right across Europe at that time. St Cadoof Brittany banished snakes from Gaul; St Paul from Malta; St Columba from Iona; St Clement from Metz; St Marcel from Paris; St Romainfrom Germany, Spain and Russia… it was quite the popular past-time! Nor was it restricted to saints; it was also the sport of Kings.”
She finishes by citing several Irish Serpent and Monster legends:St George died roughly in 330 A.D. Whereas The great dragon slayer St George in 460 A.D. A similar era of Heroic efforts to rid the land of unwanted predators and monsters.
https://www.aliisaacstoryteller.com/post/the-serpent-in-irish-mythology
Two famous Stories:
Lig na Paiste – The Last Serpent of IrelandThe fire breathing dragon of Banagher
In the latter years of the 6th century, not long after the death of St Patrick, the national apostle who was very active in the northwest, the people of the area were terrorized by a great serpent, a dragon with the ability to breathe fire.
The serpent laid waste to the land from the slopes of the Sperrins to the shores of Lough Foyle and became known as “Lig na Paiste”, meaning the last of the serpents. It had been missed by St. Patrick who, years before, had exiled all of the serpents from Ireland with the exception of Paiste.
This tale Teaches us that we are not talking about ordinary snakes here. We are talking about serpents or monsters that can terrorize a countryside. Dragons and Dinosaurs would more aptly fit the description. Legends begin in truth and are almost always changed and modified. Usually magnified and exaggerated but in this case I believe through nearly 2,000 years of translation now has been minimized from large and terrible dragon monsters to a serpent and down to thin slithering snakes.
https://www.yourirish.com/folklore/lig-na-paiste-last-serpent-ireland
Second: The Master Stoorworm is one of the most prominent dragons in Celtic mythology. Master Stoorworm was a gigantic sea serpent who always ate too much and every morning he would yawn seven times. The town that this always happened near became tired of this because when he yawned his tongue would dart out and snatch up seven random things from the town. A meeting was held and it was decided that anyone who slew the dragon would get to marry the king’s daughter. A group of men came forth to try, but were frightened away by Master Stoorworm.
As in the past we have linked Dragon myths to Dinosaurs:
While very few dinosaur remains have been found on the island; 2 bones to be exact. We dont’ know if more are to be discovered. Here are dinosaurs found in Ireland.
It is interesting that they were also found near the ocean shore.
Fist is the Scelidosaurus a four legged Armored dinosaur similar to the Ankylosaurus.
A 2 legged theropod of some sort. A carnivore possibly similar to the Gorgosaurus.
And interestingly enough the bones were found on the seashore. St Patrick also sent the serpents into the ocean… But now I’ve gone too far. The bones would have been fossilized during the great flood in order to have been buried by sediment rapidly and not decayed. St patrick wasn’t around for that catastrophic event.
A tympanum from Cormac’s Chapel at the Rock of Cashel depicts a Centaur shooting a peist with arrows… Fionn and a dragon?
http://www.draconika.com/cultures/dragons-in-celtic-mythology.php
