The cathedral

"When he was very small, St George left his rock, got on his golden horse and set off in search of the dragon. As an adult, he was still galloping after it, no longer to kill it, but to find out whether it belonged to the real world or to the world of childhood. When he had grown very old, he saw the dragon's shadow on the very rock he had started out from. He had come almost a full circle in the forest he thought he had passed straight through. But an impassable precipice prevented him from completing that circle. His life line was curved as were his horse's shoes: the further he advanced towards tottering old age the closer he came to his early childhood, without however contriving to breach the gap between the two. If he wanted to find the dragon again, he would have to retrace his steps and review his entire life."

"The was afraid no-one would believe in it any more. It was afraid the world would change and that new beliefs would do away with it. It looked so far over its shoulder at the past that it always walked with its back facing to the front. But, while it was incapable of turning itself the right way round again, it did cast about desperately for a more watchful eye in its back through which to look to the future. Then it went off to take shelter on St George's rock and waited until he came back. St George was the only one who, with a single stroke of his lance, could pierce him right through and create an opening through which the past and the future could at last see eye to eye.

Une tradition révèle que les temps troublés qu’elle traversa avaient rendu sainte Aldegonde étrangement statique. Elle ne bougeait pas car elle savait que le cours des événements la maintiendrait de toute façon en mouvement. À tout moment, l’issue heureuse ou malheureuse d’une guerre pouvait déplacer les frontières et faire que, tout en restant immobile, elle passât d’un pays à un autre.
Quand le dragon tenta de l’enlever, elle ne voulut pas le suivre. Il se fâcha et elle se pétrifia. Cela fit d’elle une personne remarquable. Mais même pétrifiée, elle n’allait pas s’arrêter pour autant de bouger : les conséquences d’une nouvelle guerre pouvaient toujours la faire passer de l’état de statue vénérée dans le chœur d’une église à celui de gargouille accrochée sur le toit de cette même église.

exemplaire de peau de dragon de la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle.