Lambton Worm

The Lambton Worm is the great dragon-legend of north-east England. The story tells how the young heir of Lambton, fishing in the River Wear one Sunday instead of going to church, hauled out a small, foul, worm-like creature and, in disgust, threw it down a well. There it grew monstrous, emerging at last to coil itself three times around a nearby hill and to lay waste the countryside, devouring livestock and milk while the heir was away at the Crusades.

On his return he sought the counsel of a wise woman, who told him to fight the worm wearing armour studded with spear-blades and to do battle in the middle of the river. As the creature wrapped him in its coils they were sliced apart against the blades, and the current swept the pieces away before they could rejoin. But the wise woman had set a price: he must then slay the first living thing he met, or a curse would fall on nine generations of Lambtons. When his own father ran to greet him he could not do it — and the curse, the legend says, duly followed the family for lifetimes. The tale is beloved in County Durham, kept alive above all by the celebrated Victorian music-hall song that recounts it in broad Geordie dialect.