Basic Information
Type/Species: Wurm
Origin: English Legend
About Song of the Lambon Worm
Sneaky little John Lambton decided 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. [1]
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. [1]
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 worm and he drank it. With that, he sleepily returned to his place in the hills. [1]
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. [1]
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. [1]
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. [1]
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. [1]
Related Articles
Footnotes
For more information on footnotes and references, please see the bibliography.
