A random theory about St. George

Here's an odd theory that I had been thinking of quite a while recently. Please look at the following picture. (Warning: Contains Graphical Violence.)

The picture is titled "St. George and the Dragon", and painted by Friedrich Herlin circa 1460 (so it's probably out of copyright }B=8)

What makes it interesting is that I have seen a couple of pictures like that from the same era (late middle ages), and in many cases, the dragon is actually shown to be very very small. Why is such a small beast considered a threat anyway? A small dragon like that could hardly be threatening to peasants in middle ages, let alone knights! And I bet small things like this could not eat a virgin per week...

But what is even more interesting that in these pictures, the dragons often don't have wings, or have very small wings.

The size and the winglessness... are these painters sure that it even was a dragon? Moreover, the beast in picture looks much more like a crocodile or an alligator - or any of the big lizards that are very common in some areas.

Besides, many stories say the dragon's lair was in a swamp. Clearly a gator!

The only problem, of course, is this: How this lizard ended up to the place?