Balluderon Stone

This is the Balluderon Stone, otherwise known as Martin's Stone. It is a class II Pictish cross slab in situ at Balluderon, Angus, Scotland.

 Local tradition associates the slab with the Legend of the Nine Maidens who were devoured by a dragon which was subsequently slain by a hero named Martin. Folk etymology names this as the origin of Strathmartine (Strike Martin), the valley in which the slab stands...

The legend is believed to have originated between the seventh and ninth centuries, when the Picts farmed the land in Tayside. I have come across two versions...

In one, recorded by the antiquarian John Pinkerton (1758–1826), the 9 maidens were daughters of a certain Martin. They are killed by a dragon and their father then avenges their death by killing the dragon:

In the other one the maidens were daughters of a local farmer. They are killed by a dragon and St Martin then avenges their death by killing the dragon:

Is this the actual meaning of this story?

I talked about the link between snakes and sun, sun's heat in many articles on my blog. Snakes our in our world during warm part of the year and in the "otherworld" during cold part of the year...Dragon is just another name for the "great serpent"...Basically the sun, sun's heat...

One very interesting thing about the Balluderon stone is this detali. What is this symbol? It most likely represents the beginning and the end of the snake period, considering that it is depicted upward at the head and downward at the tail...

At the first glance this stone looks so much like early medieval Balkan "Stećak" standing stones. And believe or not the same symbol is found on many of these Balkan standing stones. One example:

What is very interesting is that in the Balkans this symbol has "legs" and looks like anthropomorphic plant. Could this be Jarilo, Young sun from Slavic mythology, the bringer of life, the bringer of Spring? His name means Bright Hot one but also Young Green one...

In Croatia he is called "Zeleni Jura" (Green Jarilo) and is during Jurjevo (St George's day, but really Yarilo's day, Beginning of Summer festival) played by a man disguised as a green bush. This is the original Green Man...

So the symbols marking the beginning and the end of The Great Serpent (The Dragon) could actually mark the arrival and the departure of Jarilo (Sun). Jarilo, who was believed to spend winter in "the land of the dead", where he is "reborn" on Winter Solstice...I talked about this in my post "Young god".

Jarilo's day (St George for Christians) marks of the beginning of summer, the time when sun's heat becomes destructive. Jarilo (Whose name means The Bright Hot Raging one) is "The Dragon"...Dragon that has to be killed or the world will be burned too cinder...

And so St George kills The Dragon (Yarilo) 🙂 Hilarious. And very clever. Turning god into god killer...But also necessary and inevitable (thank god) or we would be living in a lifeless roasting desert...

In reality dragon killing is done by Perun, at the other end of summer. It is him who inflicts the deadly wound with his thunderbolt (spear, arrow, axe, club)... But Dragons are "nasty beasts" 🙂 and they don't die easily...

So it is at the end of autumn that they finally go "to the land of the dead"...By "coincidence" the same time when the sun goes to the "land of the dead" too...

Interesting: Annotated drawing of the Strathmartine recumbent grave-slab (no 2), and the reverse and obverse of the Balluderon cross-slab. From the James Skene sketch album, page 15. Date c. 1832