The fact that dinosaurs lived in the memory of mankind, and did not become extinct "very many millions of years ago," can hardly be doubted, given the latest research in the field of paleogenetics and individual specimens of fresh dinosaur remains containing blood cells, hemoglobin and soft tissue. But could dinosaurs survive to the Middle Ages ?! This question is not easy to answer unequivocally. It remains to turn to legends …
Dinosaurs were not lucky enough to get into serious Slavic written sources, however, many oral legends abound in legendary rather than mythical creatures such as the Serpent Gorynych. In the chronicles and epic literature of Western European peoples, we find many references to all kinds of dragons.
So, according to the evidence of the ancient Celtic chronicles, King Moridd (in the Latin interpretation - Morvidus) was killed and swallowed in 336 BC. a giant monster "belois" (remember that the term "dinosaur" appeared only in 1841, and before that different peoples had to call these animals in their own way). The monster "swallowed Morvidus's body like a large fish swallows a small one." The early Breton king Peredar was more fortunate - he won a battle with a similar monster in the area of Llyn Llyon (Wales). The Breton Chronicle also tells of many places in what is now Wales, once inhabited by the Afank and Carrog monsters and named after these creatures. One of the last Afanki was killed in 1693 by Edward Lloyd at Llyn ar Afank on the Conway River.
Dragons also occupy a significant place in the Scandinavian epic. So, for example, the Wolsung saga glorifies the feat of a warrior named Sigurd, who defeated the monster "Fafnir". Fafnir moved on four legs, dragging a heavy body along the ground. Knowing that the skin on Fafnir's back is invulnerable to a sword or a spear, Sigurd dug a hole on the path that the monster used to go to the watering hole, and, seated in it, struck the animal crawling above him in the belly.
In early medieval European literature, we see that battles with dragons were almost the most popular pastime of knights, apart from tournaments and romantic adventures. The Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf" occupies a central place in chivalric literature. According to the unanimous opinion of researchers, the hero of this poem, the grandson of King Grethel Beowulf (495-583 AD) is a real person who took part in many historical events that actually took place. However, Beowulf's main "profession" remained outside the scope of research - seasonal dragon hunting.
We can even establish the exact date of Beowulf's main achievement - the victory over the Grendel monster - - 515 AD. (it was in this year that the knight undertook his famous journey to the Danish king Grothgar). The life span of a grendel could exceed three hundred years, and by the end of its life the monster was several times higher than a person, whom he could not easily swallow. The skin on the animal's body could not be pierced with a sword or spear. The giant monster moved quickly and silently on two powerful hind legs, while the front ones were small, frail and hung helplessly in the air. What is not a reliable description of a Tyrannosaurus?
Beowulf, who knew the most vulnerable sides of the enemy, cut off the grendel in close combat, a weak and awkward front paw, after which the creature died, bleeding (no wonder - the blood pressure of the Tirex should have been considerable to supply oxygen to such a head held high). Beowulf and his team, as befits professionals, paid enough attention to the study of the structure, habits and lifestyle of dragons. The descriptions given in the book make it possible to identify almost all types of dragons mentioned in the poem with fossil reptiles …
The great martyr George, a native of Cappadocia, who attained the position of a comit (senior military leader and advisor) under the Emperor Diocletian, is also a reliable historical figure. The chronicles have preserved for us a biography and the exact date and place of the martyrdom of Saint George - April 23, 303 in the city of Nicomedia (now Ismid). However, another feat added to the name of the hero so revered throughout the baptized world the sonorous definition of the Victorious …
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According to legend, in one of his campaigns the warrior ended up in Beirut, which was at that time a Phoenician city. There was a lake not far from the city, in the Lebanese mountains. It was inhabited by a predatory dragon that terrified the entire area. At the instigation of the pagan priests, the locals brought a young man or girl to the lake every day, leaving them there to be devoured by the dragon. Learning of this, Saint George entered into single combat with the dragon and, piercing the animal's throat with a spear, nailed it to the ground. Then he tied the wounded monster (the reptile, as it should be, turned out to be very tenacious) and dragged him to the city, where he beheaded him in the presence of a large crowd of people.
Saint George's victory over the dragon became a great symbol of the victory of Christianity saving people over paganism devouring man. Although the legend itself does not pay much attention directly to the dragon, the pictorial canon more or less unambiguously depicts it. George the Victorious, slaying the dragon, adorns coats of arms, palaces and temples throughout Europe - from Perm to Lisbon, and beyond. It is very interesting that, as a rule, the defeated reptile resembles a carnivorous dinosaur baryonyx.
The episodes of encounters with dragons mentioned in church chronicles are as frequent as in secular sources. In particular, the warrior-martyr Theodore Tiron (+ February 17, 305, city of Anasia, Pontus) and the voivode (stratilatus) from Heraclea Fedor Stratilatus (+ February 8, 319) had to fight with them. And in the chronicles of the Canterbury Temple (Great Britain), it is noted that on Friday, September 16, 1449, near the village of Little Conrad on the border of Suffolk and Essex counties, many residents watched the fight of two giant reptiles.
A characteristic feature of all the above stories is the abundance of purely everyday details and the absence of any supernatural properties characteristic of mythology in the animals described.