Illidor by Meilin Wong
All over the globe you will find myths and legends concerning dragons in a vast number of cultures. You will find stories such as St George and the dragon, stories like the ancient Babylonian creation myth concerning the five headed dragon, mother goddess Tiamat, and like Nidhogg who chews upon the roots of Yggdrasil in Nordic mythology. You can’t avoid them no matter where you go. Dragons have been with us for a very long time and will remain with us long into the future. So let us have a closer look at some of these dragon myths and legends from across the globe.
First we will start with the UK, my home. I’ve read of at least forty dragon myths and so on, who knows, maybe there are more. Please allow me to pick out a few for you to read.
The Exe Valley (Killerton) Dragon
“If Cadbury Castle and Dolbury Hill delven were. All England might plough with a golden share.”
Not far from Killerton House is an old Iron Age hillfort known as Dolbury Hill. Within this mound is reputed to be stored a mass of treasure that is guarded by the Killerton Dragon. Every night the Dragon is reputed to fly North-West across the valley of the River Exe to the nearby mound that is Cadbury Castle, and then back again. The reason for this is that the Dragon also has a horde of treasure enterred in that hill also. The Iron Age hillfort is one of the main contenders for the site of King Arthur’s Camelot, so in a sense there has been a dragon there since around 480 AD, but that is of course just speculation.
The Lambton Worm – (Penshaw, County Durham) One day the heir of the Lambton family, John Lambton, was fishing in the River Wear but had not caught anything all day. Finally his line was taken by something very strong but after a struggle the young heir was disappointed to find his catch was only a weird looking worm. In a fit of anger he cast the worm down a nearby well. Time passed and John went abroad to help in the defense of Rhodes against the Turks. Meanwhile the worm grew in the well, known to this day as Worm Well, until one day it got out and returned to the river. It coiled itself around a rock during the day and a small hill near North Biddick, later called Worm Hill, at night. It ravaged the land to the north of the river, and after all the livestock had been eaten ventured south into the Lambton estate. In order to pacify the beast the Lord had a trough filled with the milk from nine cows each day which the worm drank. However if the worm did not judge the milk to be enough it would lay waste to the land around. Although many knights did try to kill the worm, none succeeded because the creature was able to rejoin itself when cut in two.
Eventually John Lambton returned from the wars and discovered the ruins of the once prosperous estate. After discovering the reason, he determined to slay the monster. A local village wise woman advised him that he should have a suit of armor fashioned with many blades set into it, then he was to go to the rock whilst the worm was out foraging and swear that if he managed to kill the worm that he would also kill the first living thing he saw afterwards. After the preparations were made, John went to the rock in his armor and swore the oath. Before he did so though, he told his father that he would sound his horn on his arrival back and that his father should loose his favorite hound. With this done, the hero awaited the worm. When it arrived it threw its coils around John Lambton but was wounded by the armor. Then John cut the worm into pieces with his sword and the river carried the pieces away before they could reform. Triumphantly, John blew his horn and set off for home, but his father forgot to loose the hound and was the first to greet him on his return. Now John could not kill his father so the oath was broken and as a result, for the next nine generations no Lord of Lambton would die in his bed.
Now here is one from Polynesia, Taniwhas, these are the dragons of the Polynesians. Some are water-dwelling, some are not. Some burrow in the sand to hide themselves, some live in caves... there is a great variety among taniwha. Their common trait is they are all enormous lizards. Some care should be taken because taniwha is used in species names of other animals too. For example 'mango taniwha' is a great white shark.
Pitaka, Taniwha Slayer This is the story of Pitaka, who fought three taniwha: Hotu-puku, Peke-haua and Kataore.
People were going missing whilst travelling between Rotorua and Taupo district. The people of Taupo assumed a war party must be waylaying the travellers, so sent out a war party to fight them. The war parties stopped at a place called Kapenga.... there they had found the real cause of the disappearances: a taniwha called Hotu-puku. The war party fled. A new party, including a man called Pitaka, set out to Kapenga. They hung up a noose, and Pitaka acted as bait, going through the noose, so that the taniwha would stick his head through. As soon as Hotu-puku put his head through the noose, it was pulled tight until he died. Hotu-puku was cut open, and they found the bodies of the people he had eaten. After burying the bodies, Hotu-puku was cooked and eaten.
After his exploits killing Hotu-puku, Pitaka was called to Te Awan-hou to kill another taniwha, called Peke-haua. Peke-haua was a water taniwha, and lived in Te Waro-uri, a deep water-hole. As this was a different sort of taniwha, different methods were required to kill him. Pitaka and his companions wove traps out of vines, before descending into the chasm. When Peke-haua was asleep, Pitaka swam down to him, and tied a rope around him, before quickly escaping. Using spells to aid them, they pulled the taniwha up, so that they could kill him.
Kataore was a cave dwelling taniwha living near the settlement Rotorua, in the Tiki-tapu district. Continuing the taniwha killing sucess, Pitaka and his companions slayed Kataore. Unfortunately for Pitaka, this taniwha was the pet of chief Tangaroa-mihi. He was enraged by the death of his pet, and made war on the killers.
We turn now to the mythologies of the ancient Babylonians and the story of Tiamat, their mother, dragon, creatrix figure.
In the beginning the universe was a sea, according to Babylonian mythology. Apsu, the father of the primordial Deep, and the dragon Tiamat (also known as Mother Chuber, the the creator of all), the spirit of Chaos, begetted the gods together: they created the god Lachmu and his female counterpart Lachamu, and more gods were created until there were eight in total.
As time went on these gods began to upset Apsu and Tiamat because they planned to control the universe and put it in order. This was contradictory to Apsu and Tiamat who lived to create evil amongst eternal confusion. Apsu finally called upon his evil counsellor Mummu, and together they went to speak with Tiamat- but their conversation was overheard by Ea, who placed an incantation over Apsu and Mummu and the pair were taken captive.
Kingu, who was bright and evil, went to the dragon and told her that Apsu and Mummu had been taken. This enraged Tiamat who responded, "on my strength thou canst trust. So let war be waged."
Tiamat raised an army for herself including eleven kinds of monsters, all armed with the terrible weapons and without a fear of battle, to fight on her side. These monsters included giant serpents with sharp teeth, whose bodies were filled not with blood but poison; snarling dragons, armed with terror, and of such a size and presence that anyone who saw them was overcome with fear. Vipers and pythons, hurricane monsters called the Lachamu, hounds, scorpion men, tempest furies, fish men and mountain rams made up Tiamat's army.
When the god Ea heard of all this, he went to Anshar for help who told him to go beg for mercy from Tiamat, however when he saw the fuming dragon he turned and ran in fear- many other gods tried to do the same but were all gripped with the same terror. Finally Anshar chose Merodach to defeat Tiamat, and Merodach was exalted as the highest of the gods. Taking seven winds and terrible weapons of his own, he beheld Tiamat who said to him, "o Merodach, I fear not thy advance as a chief of the gods. My allies are assembled here, and are more powerful than thou art." Merodach replied, "thou hast exalted thyself, and with wrathful heart hath prepared for war against the high gods and their fathers, whom thou dost hate in thy heart of evil. Unto Kingu thou hast given the power of Anu to decree fate, because thou art hostile to what is good and loveth what is sinful. Gather thy forces together, and arm thyself and come forth to battle."
And so Tiamat and Merodach went to war, and Merodach ensnared the dragon in a net from which she could not escape. When Tiamat opened her mouth, which was seven miles wide, Merodach used his seven winds to keep her mouth agape and filled her with all the tempests and hurricanes until her heart began to subside; then the high god plunged a dart into her chest, severing her heart and slaying the dragon. Once this was done and the other evil gods captured, Merodach opened the channels of her blood which streamed forth, taking her blood to secret places. After this, he used Tiamat's body to create the the earth, the heavens and the stars, moon and sun, as well as the living creatures on earth.
In the Mesopotamian account of this myth, Tiamat only seeks war against the younger gods when they reproach her for not avenging the slaying of Apsu and Mummu's capture. Tiamat then begets a hoard of monstrous beings, but is finally overcome by Marduk
Lets cast our eye over the rich and vivid mythologies that the ancient Greeks left behind. The Hydra in the tale of Jason and his quest for the golden fleece comes to mind, as does the Lernean Hydra from the twelve tasks of Heracles. I’m going to pick out another one for you. The story of Scylla.
Homer’s famous Odyssey mentions the Greek tale of Scylla and Charybdis, situated on either side of the straits of Messina between Sicily and Italy.
Different theories existed as to what Scylla really was, with the idea of her being a giant octopus or a sea dragon the most popular. There has been confusion over who parented Scylla, with Crataeis, Echidna, Hecate and Lamia as possible candidates for her mother, while her father was either Phorcys, Typhon, Triton, or Trienus, of whom little is known. Originally, a beautiful maiden from the town of Scyllaeum, Scylla, from the Greek skulle, or "bitch", shunned the advances of her male suitors and spent her days with the sea nymphs, until the sea god Glaucus fell in love with her. A jealous Circe turned her into a cannibalistic monster by poisoning the water she regularly bathed in. However, other versions say her dangerous relations with Poseidon, or her eating cattle from the herd Heracles stole from the monster Geryon, was the cause of her misfortune . In the latter narration, she died and her father, here Phorcys, returned her to life with fire, only to have to assume a grotesque form. Disgusted with her new body, Scylla fled and took up residence in the caves along southern Italy. Scylla had the upper half of a woman with six dogs for legs. Other descriptions endow her with six heads and multiple jaws, each lined with three rows of teeth, and twelve feet, while other accounts portray her as a typical sea-monster or dragon. Best known for her appearance in the Odyssey, when sailing through with his crew Circe warned the Greek hero Odysseus in order to pass safely he would have to placate Scylla with a few men, as the whirlpool Charybdis would sink their entire ship and crew otherwise. Odysseus followed her sage advice and he and his remaining crew passed safely.
Scylla and her counterpart, the whirlpool Charybdis, represented the female archetype or matriarch, usually presented as a dragon-monster, which most Greek heroes had to overcome in their journey. In doing so, Odysseus was re-instating the patriarchal dominance of the Greek world. Scylla was later transformed into a rock, of which Homer writes, "Into heaven, it thrusts it’s sharp peak which yet is covered always by a somber cloud cap. No mortal man could scale that height or ever keep his footing there- not with twenty hands and feet." Similarly, a nearby Italian village bore the name Scylla. In later European bestiaries, Scylla was portrayed as aquatic, with the body of a young maiden mounted on wolf hindquarters and with the tail of a dolphin.
You are probably suffering from a case of information overload. There are many stories out there and just as many variants on each tale. There are also plenty of good books and websites crammed packed with information just waiting for people to read them. So if I’ve tickled your interest in the subject of dragons in mythologies and legends, all the better.
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