St. George Decoded - Some More Dragon Lore, page 15
Before we leave our good knight, readers may know of other dragon lore not mentioned in St. George's story. Does this also have astronomical significance? I believe it does.
This may be a metaphor for the crossing point of the path of the celestial north pole as it precesses across the constellation of Draco, close to the star Thuban (alpha Draconis), see Figure 13 below.
That crossing occurred some 4750 years ago, just before the Great Pyramid of Cheops was built in Ancient Egypt.
In some legends the dragon sleeps on a hoard of treasure in a burial mound. This was probably circulated to deter the locals from breaking into the places and stealing the grave goods. There is indeed a great treasure to be gained by those who 'defeat' the dragon. That treasure is not gold, rather it is knowledge of the precessional mechanism that drives the cosmos above us.
Only those acolytes who are fully prepared in sky lore should think of approaching the dragon. The resulting shock of finding that the starry dome above is not so fixed after all might be deep enough to 'burn', intellectually, those unable to accept such a precept.