Dragonlore

The concept of the dragon as a bringer of fertility may not be a familiar one, but carvings of dragons with foliage sprouting from their tails and bunches of grapes or fruits issuing from their mouths can be seen in many churches around the country (see for example Llananno in ‘Places to Visit’). In the Far East the dragon represented beneficence and supernatural wisdom, while in the Christian tradition he embodied the power of evil, or the Devil. Originally the dragon had strong fertility connections and in all likelihood it was this aspect which was predominant in pre-Christian times. The church carvings may, like the green men we described in Chapter 11, be a sign of the continuation of pagan beliefs within the Christian tradition, or conversely a means of averting what the Christian hierarchy saw as pagan evil by using its own symbols against it. In churches the dragon is more often seen in his death-throes, being slain by a saint like St George or St Michael, and there he quite clearly symbolises the evil powers of darkness being ousted by Christian virtue.

This dramatic bench-end earr ing in H 'ithersfield church (Suffolk) depicts a dragon being despatched by a brave knight, possibly intended to be St George himself. The horse looks distinctly apprehensive about the whole affair, hut despite his puny sword the knight is clearly in control and the dragon lies on his back in an attitude of surrender.

This theme of dragon-slaying spread out from the Christian Church into the rural communities, with the result that in many areas there were strong traditions of local dragons being outwitted and killed by local heroes, using a variety of ingenious methods. .At Llanrhaeadr-ym-.Mochnant (Clwyd), the people covered a standing stone with red cloth and hidden spikes. The dragon, in this case a flying specimen, inflamed by the colour red, battered himself to death against the stone. Since this event the stone has been known as Post Coch (Red Pillar) or Post-y-Wiber (Pillar of the Viper) and can still be seen, in a field just outside the village. .A wyvern (two-legged dragon) was also vulnerable to the colour red at. Newcastle Emlyn (Dyfed). He lived in the castle and was a fire-breathing nuisance, so the soldier detailed to shoot him first threw a piece of red cloth into the river. While the wyvern was distractedly attacking the cloth, the soldier shot him through the navel, the only vulner-

Able place in the creature’s tough hide. As Jacqueline Simpson remarks in her study British Dragons, it is remarkable that a reptile should possess a navel, and perhaps the vent was intended, that and the mouth being the only two vulnerable places in such a creature.

The farmer who killed the worm of Cnoc-na-Cnoimh (Worm’s Hill, ‘worm’ being another name for the dragon) in Sutherland (Highland Region) did so with the aid of a burning peat dipped in boiling pitch and stuck on the end of a long spear. The fumes were suffocating to the dragon, which wound itself tightly around the hill, until the farmer approached near enough to quickly thrust the peat down his throat and thus kill him.

One of the best known of British dragons was the Lambton Worm (Durham) who began life as an ugly worm caught on the end of a fishing line in the River Wear by the heir to Lambton Castle. He threw it into a well (later known as Worm Well) where it grew fast and soon emerged to spend the day coiled round a rock in the middle of the river. At night it moved to a neighbouring hill (Worm Hill near Fatfield) around which it could coil its long body three times. It preyed on lambs and cows’ milk and having devastated the countryside round about, it moved across the river to the estate of Lambton Castle. A large trough filled with the milk of nine cows was provided for it every morning, and it caused havoc if the quantity was reduced. During all this time, the young heir was away from the castle, fighting in distant wars. Although many gallant knights had come to slay the dragon, none was successful, its severed limbs immediately reuniting with the body. In due course the young heir returned and determined to solve the problem, having been told by a wise woman that it was he himself who had been the cause of all the trouble. He had a suit of armour made which was studded with spear blades and then, holding his sword, he stood on a rock in mid-stream, having first vowed that if he was successful, he would kill the first living creature he met afterwards, or else the Lords of Lambton would for nine generations never die in their beds. When the dragon came, he stood firm and struck out at it. Enraged, it coiled itself around him and cut itself badly on the blades, so that the river ran red with blood. 'I'he blood loss weakened it, and as soon as its embrace lessened, the knight drew his sword and cut it in two. One part was carried off in the river, and being unable to reunite, the dragon died. The knight blew his horn to alert the household, and to warn them to release his favourite hound, which was to be the

Dragonlore

Sacrifice of the first living creature he met. But the old Lord was so e. xcited he rushed forward himself. The knight could not kill his father and again blew his horn, upon which the dog ran forward and the knight slew him. But in vain, for he had broken his vow, and thenceforth the family was cursed.

D’he story of the Lambton Worm is typical of many of the British dragon stories, even though the method of dispatching the monster varies. Many other examples can be found in the two fine books on dragons written by Jacqueline Simpson and Ralph Whitlock (see Bibliography), and some are also included in our ‘Places to Visit’. Are these stories simply folktales, or do they have a deeper or symbolic significance? In our earlier book The Secret Country we noted the number of prehistoric sites with dragon legends attached to them, and the number of legends telling of hoards of treasure watched over by dragons, and we wondered whether in such cases the dragon was a symbol of the earth energy which prehistoric men might have utilised - an energy which, if carelessly handled, could cause havoc and destruction just as the dragons do in the traditional tales.

Another possibility is that dragons were real creatures. A pamphlet was published in 1614, titled ‘A True and Wonderful Discourse relating a strange and monstrous Serpent (or Dragon) lately discovered, and yet living, to the great .Annoyance and divers Slaughters of both Men and Cattell, by his strong and violent Poison: in Sussex, two Miles from Hor-sam, in a Woode called St Leonard’s Forrest, and thirtie Miles from London, this present Month of August, 1614. With the true Generation of Serpents.’ In this pamphlet the creature is described as

Nine feete, or rather more, in length, and shaped almost in the forme of an axle-tree of a cart; a quantitie of thickness in the middest, and somewhat smaller at both endes. The former part, which he shootes forth as a necke, is supposed to be an elle long; with a white ring, as it were, of scales about it. The scales along his backe seem to be blackish, and so much as is discovered under his bellie, appeareth to be red; ... It is likewise discovered to have large feete, but the eye may be there deceived; for some suppose that serpents have no feete... [He] rids away (as we call it) as fast as a man can run. He is of countenance very proud, and at the sight or hearing of men or cattel, will raise his neck upright, and seem to listen and looke about, with great arrogancy. There are likewise upon either side of him discovered, two great bunches so big as a large foote-ball, and (as some thinke) will in time grow to wings, but God, I hope, will (to defend the poor people in the neighbourhood) that he shall be destroyed before he grow so fledge.

'I'he dragon was thought to live on rabbits; although he (or rather the ‘venome’ he shot forth) killed dogs and people, he did not eat them. It is also interesting that always ‘in his track or path [he] left a glutinous and slimie matter... which is very corrupt and offensive to the scent...’ No one has yet been able to suggest a known animal which fits the description of the St Leonard’s Forest ‘dragon’. \ as it a water monster living temporarily on land? There have been reports that the Loch Ness •Monster has been seen on land, and also reports of Irish lake monsters moving from one small lough to another. Perhaps the St Leonard’s Forest monster and the present-day lake monsters (sec Chapter 20 for more details) belong to the same species, and perhaps there were once more of them around, living in lakes and rivers and other wet places and occasionally venturing out to vary their diet with cattle and sheep. Perhaps they have today retreated to the more remote lakes of Scotland and Ireland because in past centuries the bold knights were so successful in slaughtering them!