I sort of had to do a notes section on Saint Martha. I love this story so much. Everything about it is just the coolest. I like the description of the tarasque quite a bit. "... A great dragon, half beast and half fish, greater than an ox, longer than an horse, having teeth sharp as a sword, and horned on either side, head like a lion, tail like a serpent, and defended him with two wings on either side, and could not be beaten with cast of stones ne with other armour, and was as strong as twelve lions or bears." I think that's interesting that she's described as very nice and polite. She was never seen with a man, was virtuous. Martha found the dragon eating a man and then cast some holy water on it. No big deal. She then bound it with her own girdle and the people attacked it with glaives and spears to finish it off. It's so funny that she showed it the cross and it was just... still and overcome by that. The power of prayer!
I think that this story would be one that I would like to do a writing over. I think that there's many things to do with this one. There's many details included about Martha's life and specific dates and such, but I think a fun retelling of this would just be her doing all of the work and focusing on their fight instead. She would be very fun to work with as is the tarasque. I don't know much lore on it, though I appreciate the little bit included at the top of the reading! I would want to write a simple fight scene or maybe I would want to write about her travels from an outside perspective, I'm not sure yet! I do think this is the story I feel most compelled to write about, though I like Saint Daria's story as well! (I love any story with an animal protector.)
Saint Martha (Wikipedia)
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