Stoor Worm

The Stoor Worm is the great sea-dragon of Orcadian and northern Scottish legend — a monster so vast that its body stretched across the ocean and its breath was a blast of venom that withered crops and killed all it touched. Each dawn it yawned nine times, and to keep it from devouring the land the terrified people fed it seven young maidens every week, until at last the king proclaimed that whoever could destroy it would win his daughter, his kingdom and a magic sword.

The hero proved to be Assipattle, a lazy farmer's youngest son, who rowed a little boat carrying a pot of burning peat into the creature's gaping mouth and down its throat, and thrust the glowing peat deep into its liver. In its death-throes the Stoor Worm's teeth fell out to become the islands of Orkney, Shetland and the Faroes; its body curled up to form Iceland; and the fire still smouldering in its liver, the tale says, is why that land has volcanoes to this day. It is among the grandest dragon-slaying tales in all British and Norse tradition.