St. George and the Dragon - eternally at odds

This is a statue of St. George and the Dragon in Freedom Square, not far from where i'm staying. Not surprisingly, St George is the patron saint of Georgia (as he is of Canada, Moscow and a fair number of other places). Last September i was asked by a friend at the local Waldorf school to assist with an annual celebration that centres around the story of St. George and thus had to re-familiarize myself with this ancient legend. I'm rather fond of dragons and, especially, of dragon stories. I'll have to look more deeply still into this old tale. Ad i'm closer to where this tale originated than ever before seeing as George was from what is present-day Turkey.

I found this wee Georgian tale on Wikipedia:

An example of folk tale about St. George: Once Jesus Christ, prophet Elijah and St. George were going through Georgia. When they became tired and hungry they stopped to dine. They saw a Georgian shepherd man and decided to ask him to feed them. First, Elijah went up to the shepherd and asked him for a sheep. After the shepherd asked his identity Elijah said that, he was the one who sent him rain to get him a good profit from farming. The shepherd became angry at him and told him that he was the one who also sent thunderstorms, which destroyed the farms of poor widows.

After Elijah, Jesus Christ himself went up to the shepherd and asked him for a sheep and told him that he was the god, the creator of everything. The shepherd became angry at Jesus and told him that he is the one who takes the souls away of young men and grants long lives to many dishonest people.

After Elijah and Christ's unsuccessful attempts, St. George went up to the shepherd, asked him for a sheep and told him that he is Saint George who the shepherd calls upon every time when he has troubles and St. George protect him from all the evil and saves him from troubles. After hearing St. George, the shepherd fell down on his knees and adored him and gave him everything. This folk tale shows the veneration of St. George in the Middle Ages provinces of Georgia and similar tales are told in the northern mountainous parts of the country.