Exposition: The story takes place in England during a time of dragons, knoghts, and faries; the characters are The Red Cross Knight, Princess Una, the Dragon, and the people of the kingdom in which Una lived.
Conflict: There is a dragon destroying the kingdom and no one can stop it, so Princess Una goes on a search to find help.
Rising Action: Una finds the Red cross Knight and brings him back to her kingdom where everyone is hiding and living in fear of the dragon. The knight gets distracted and wanders off the path of his quest, but the princess and people he meets along the way remind him of what he must do and his destiny in life.
Climax: The knight meets up with dragon and battles him on three different days needing to rest and recover in between his battles, until he finally wears the dragon down and slays him.
Falling Action: The people of the kingdom are thankful and the king offers the knight riches for his deeds, but the knight gives it to the poor. The king offers the knight a place in his kingdom to live happily and his daughter in marriage, but the knight knows he must keep a promise to the Faerie Queen and cannot stay in the kingdom despite his feelings for the princess.
Resolution: The knight and princess marry, but the knight keeps his promise to the Faerie Queen and goes off to battle for her when he is called, thereby earning him the name of Saint George of Merry England.
This book is beautifully illustrated and layed out in a panel fashion very reminiscent of a tapestry. As you look at the pages, one side of each spread has almost another story being told in pictures of flowers and creatures from the area and the legend. The reader is drawn to the "story within a story" style of the illustrations.
Hodges, M., Hyman, T. S., Egolf, R. L., & Spenser, E. (1984). Saint George and the dragon: a golden legend. Boston: Little, Brown.
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