The Image of Saint Margaret and the Motif of the Woman and the Dragon

This article investigates the function of Saint Margaret’s image and legenda in childbirth rituals during the late medieval and early modern periods. Illuminating the discrepancy between visual and textual descriptions of the saint’s encounter with a dragon, it con­tends that the saint’s image is based on the millennia-old motif of the woman and the dragon, and that this image was conceived of as similar to images of fertility demons. The portrayal of the saint as collaborating with the dragon and taming it offered guidance to women in surmounting the pains of labor, and was aimed at providing them with a sense of empowerment and control during childbirth.