The Priory of the Orange Tree Study Guide

Samantha Shannon was born and raised in London, England. She attended an Anglican primary school, which inspired her to write The Priory of the Orange Tree—the school placed great emphasis on teaching an idealized version of the story of Saint George and the Dragon, which Shannon disliked for various reasons from a young age. As an adult, she went on to study English Language and Literature at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. Though she wrote her first (still unpublished) manuscript at age 15, Shannon achieved immense early fame when she published her first novel, The Bone Season, at age 19. The first in a seven-part series, it was nominated for the British Fantasy Awards. Shannon took a break from the Bone Season books to write and publish The Priory of the Orange Tree, which was released in 2019. While it was initially intended to be a standalone novel, she’s since written two more novels that take place in the same universe.

The Priory of the Orange Tree reworks the legend of Saint George and the Dragon. The pre-Christian legend holds that a dragon terrorized a village in Cappadocia, taking the people’s animals and eventually their children—until the princess was selected as tribute. A knight named St. George slayed the dragon and saved the princess, taking refuge under an orange tree at one point during the battle with the dragon. As time went on, the story’s setting moved to Libya, and St. George was eventually cast as an English soldier during the First Crusade. St. George became the patron saint of England in 1348, and he’s also the patron saint of several other countries and various cities and regions worldwide. Numerous cultures worldwide feature myths or legends about dragons, but they differ significantly from region to region. As in Priory, Western dragons are usually thought to be evil, fire-breathing creatures. Particularly in China, however, dragons connote good luck and prosperity and are often associated with royalty, and they’re believed to be highly intelligent. Asian art depicting dragons seldom shows them with wings, but it often shows them with pearls—another detail Shannon borrowed for Priory’s Eastern dragons.

On her website, Shannon lists several source works for The Priory of the Orange Tree, which reimagines and updates the old legend of Saint George and the Dragon. The first is The Golden Legend; or, the Lives of Saints by Jacobus de Voragine, published in 1265. This book establishes George as a heroic figure—but it also describes how he only agrees to slay the dragon and save the city if its people convert to Christianity. The second source work is The Renowned History of the Seven Champions of Christendom by Richard Johnson, written and published in 1596. Johnson characterizes George as an Englishman (George, if he existed, was likely from what’s now Turkey), introduces the lovesick witch figure, and he generally offers disturbing portrayals of female characters and romantic relationships. Shannon is by no means the first to rework old fairy tales or legends, giving them a modern (and often feminist) twist. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas reimagines Beauty and the Beast, while The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke draws from Beowulf. As a book in the high fantasy genre, Priory also shares similarities with classic works like J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King) and George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Though Priory was initially intended as a standalone novel, Shannon has since written two more books in the same universe, A Day of Fallen Night and Among the Burning Flowers, which together are known as the Roots of Chaos series.