In the process of adaptation, hagiographic legends often changed, and it is interesting to study what authors omitted from or changed in their traditional sources. Various Lives of the virgin martyr St. Margaret (known as St. Marina in the East) reflect attempts to rein in the more outrageous aspects of her immensely popular legend.

A Middle English text composed between 1200 and 1230 tells this tale of Margaret's encounter with a dragon:

He stretched himself and steered toward the meek maiden, and with his jaw gaping at her threateningly, he began to crane his neck and draw back as if he would swallow her completely. If she was terrified by that horrible demon, it was not much wonder! Her face began to grow pale, because of the horror that gripped her, and because of fearful terror, she forgot her prayer that she might see the invisible demon, nor did she think that her prayer was granted, but she promptly fell to the earth on her knees and lifted her hands up high toward heaven and spoke ...

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