England

The English has a true "Westernized" view of dragons. Mostly, dragons were evil beast that needed to be destroyed. In some cases, man brought the beast upon themselves, but in other cases they were plague by bad luck.

• Bistern Dragon
• Fire-Drake
• Knucker
• Lambton Worm
• Shervage Worm
• Dragon of Norton Fitzwarren
• Footnotes

History: Knucker lived in a hole in Lyminster (Sussex in England). Although no water could be seen going into the hole that the dragon lived in, a stream came out of it. Knucker did cause a good deal of problems: eating people, animals, and a number of other naughty dragon things.

One version of the tale tells that Knucker was killed by a local boy named Jim Pulk. The boy baked a poisonus pie of Sussex, which the dragon willingly accepted. Sadly, somehow Jim managed to get some of the poison on him, and he died as a result of it.

Closely related to this version is the version of Jim Puttock. Puttock did the same thing as Pulk, but he did not die in the end. He was lucky enough to receive an award from Mayor of Arundel.

The most well-known version is that of the King. The King, wanting to rid himself of the nuisance, decided to allow the man who slew the beast to marry his daughter. A wandering knight happened upon this place, and he gladly slew the dragon in return for the princess.

Symbolism: Knucker was one of those sterotyped dragons, yet the humans have a roll in each of the version. In the first version mentioned here, Jim Pulk dies trying to kill off the dragon, much like the Germanic tale of Jormungand. In the second version here, it is the more "western" version of the tale. The final story told here is the most "western" dragon tale, although it is similar to some Greek Myths loosely.

Physical Description: Most likely, given the time period and location, Knucker was a Western dragon with four limbs and two wings.

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History: Sneaky little John Lambton decieded to skip church one Sunday and took it upon himself to go fishing. While fishing, he caught a dreadful looking creature: long, thin, and dangerous, but small, only three feet long. It was also quite ugly and had dark black skin and the head of a dragon. With that, Lambton decided to throw it into an unused well.

However, the confrontation, no matter how short, with the creature change him. He found that he had done way too many wrong things in his life and ventured to the Holy Land. Unbeknownst to him, the creature grew in the well...it grew to a horrible size.

While he was away, the worm, now so huge it could rap itself around a hill over nine times, crawled out of its entrapment in the well. It began terrorizing the town, killing everything from livestock to towns folk. The worm was cut in half, but it simply revived itself by coiling back together. The towns people, knowing legends of such creature, gave about twenty gallons of milk the the worm and he drank it. With that, he sleepily returned to his place in the hills.

It was then that John returned home from the Holy Land and leaned about the terrible monster. He asked the local witch how he could kill the monster, and she instructed him to wear a suit of armor with spikes all around the surface and to confronted it near the river where he originally caught it. However, after John killed the worm he would have to kill the next living thing he saw. And, if he didn't, his family name would be cursed for nine generations.

John, knowing that he was the one to bring to the plague to the land, decided to at least attempt to kill the worm. So, he got the blacksmith to make his armor and then wore it down near the river. The worm came to kill John by wrapping around him, but John was covered with spikes, so the creature fell to pieces. After that, John cut the creature to many smaller pieces, and it finally died.

As John returned to the castle, he saw his father, the first living thing after killing the worm. He could not kill his own father, so, instead, he killed his favorite dog. It did not work, however, and all of his family died in horrible ways away from home for nine generations.

Symbolism: The Lambton worm is a symbol of both evil and wrong doings. The story itself tells of a man who made many mistakes and, after learning everything to prevent making another, makes yet another mistake.

Physical Description: The worm was huge after growing in the well. Its scales were dark and it had the head of a dragon. It is also said to be very fat, too, due to all the creatures it gobbled up.

Related Articles: Song of the Lambon Worm

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History: An Old English document in the sixteenth century reports that n Hampshire, England, a man named Sir Moris Berkeley met with a terrifying dragon in the countryside. This dragon had been killing all that tried to remove it and was also generally causing destruction to the area.

Sir Moris met with the dragon, along with his dogs, and heroically slew the beast. Unfortunately, he and his dogs were also killed with it. But, the Berkeley family's coat of arms was changed to glorify the event.

Symbolism: None known.

Physical Description: None given.

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History: Beowulf was a warrior who had battled many monsters in his youth, two of which being Grendel and Grendel's mother. As he grew older, be became the King of the Geats, and his legend grew. An epic poem, which is indeed historical in some respects, was written containing the story of his struggles with monsters, one of which was the Fire-Drake.

The Fire-Drake was a fearsome dragon that lived in a cave guarding a large horde. Someone crept into the dragon's lair and stole a cup. The dragon awoke and found that his treasure was indeed missing a cup, so it searched for it. It discovered human foot steps, which allowed the dragon to learn who stole the cup: humans. With that, the fire-drake took to the skies and began tormenting a nearby town.

Beowulf, the King, was informed of this creature's wrath, and he, as the legend and the king, was asked to slay the beast. He took with him men, but in the end only one man helped him. They went to the dragon's lair, and Beowulf began to fight the mighty monster.

Unfortunately, the Fire-Drake had a good deal of fiery breath, which made it hard to fight. Beowulf's sword, Naegling, broke during the battle, which made Beowulf quite helpless. Being bitten by a venomous dragon, Beowulf did not die right away, but lived to see the dragon slain with the help of Wiglaf, his relative. However, he died later because of the poison.

Symbolism: The Fire-Drake attacked because something was stolen from it, which makes at least some of this creature's actions warrented. However, Beowulf fought this creature to save his reputation as a beast-slayer, which makes this dragon a symbol of such.

Physical Description: Being fifty "paces" long, the dragon was serpentine in nature and fearsome in presentation.

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History: The Shervage Worm lived in Shervage Wood, gobbling up anything that came its way. An old woman who lived by picking berries couldn't pick with the worm there. It was as long as "three large oaks", and there's no way she can get around it.⁵

Then, one day, a wood cutter from out of town came by. She welcomed him, gave him food and cider, and pointed him in the direction of the woods. He didn't know about the worm, so he set off without a worry. However, the way was long and stony, so he eventually sat down on a huge fallen log to eat the meal he brought with him.⁶ He was surprised when it began to wriggle, and he ordered it to keep still. The log didn't pay attention, so the wood cutter brought his axe down on it, and the axe went clean through it. Blood came out. The wood cutter said, "This log be sappy!"⁷

It was the worm he cut. Half went to Bilbrook and the other to Kingston. It never reunited, so it died.

Physical Description: The wurm was as long as "three large oaks".⁸

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History: During the Iron Age, there was a great battle which littered the battle field with bodies.⁹ The Dragon of Norton Fitzwarren came forth by something like spontaneous combustion from them. The ghoul-dragon became a plague by devouring children and destroying crops.¹⁰

Then, Fulke Fitzwarren, a thirteenth century knight¹¹ stood up to the beast and slew it after a long, bloody battle.¹² Fulke was exiled, but while he adventured abroad he also saved the Duke of Iberia's daughter from a dragon near Carthage.¹³

Symbolism: A ghoul-dragon, while uncommon, could have come about due to an earlier Anglo-Saxon superstition concerning fire and burial.¹⁴ It could also simply be related to the idea of carrion generating new life. Because dead animal bodies attracted bugs, it was believed that the bodies actually generated these scavangers rather than attracted them.

Physical Description: Unknown.

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1. Mythological Dragon List
2. History of Dragons
3. Giants, Monsters, & Dragons by Carol Rose
4. Information on Beowulf was obtained reading a translation of the poem and reviewing it in an English class. The notes are from that class and have been double checked.
5. The Hill of the Dragon by Paul Newman
6. Shervage Wood
7. The Hill of the Dragon by Paul Newman
8. The Hill of the Dragon by Paul Newman
9. The Hill of the Dragon by Paul Newman
10. Norton Fitzwarren Dragon
11. British Dragon Gazetteer
12. Norton Fitzwarren Dragon
13. British Dragon Gazetteer
14. The Hill of the Dragon by Paul Newman

For more information, see the Bibliography.