BOOK HEREFORDSHIRE HOTELS

Join in

Send page to a friend

6168 views since 17th August 2011

Maud and the Dragon, Herefordshire

The story of the Mordiford Dragon is part Disney, part Hammer House of Horror.
A young Mordiford girl called Maud found a tiny baby dragon while walking near her home a short distance east of Hereford . When she brought it home to show her parents they reacted with horror, and told her to get rid of it. But she hid it out of their sight and fed it up on milk. The once tiny creature grew enormously every month, until within a year it was a huge and terrifying beast no longer content to subsist on milk: it began to eat farm animals.
Not unnaturally the farmers objected to their loss of stock, and some grouped together to destroy it. The dragon ate them. The depredations continued apace, but sensitive to the help Maud had once given it the dragon never threatened her or her farmstead; moreover she could temporarily halt its attacks, soothing the giant lizard with motherly strokes.
Eventually a local nobleman, a member of the Garston family, volunteered to confront the creature, and (of course) with great bravery he fought the thing, deflecting fire with his shiny shield before running it through with his lance. Maud was distraught; the neighbourhood apparently less so.

If you like this, Share it

British Lore and Legend by county: Show All

England: Bath(1) | Bedfordshire(1) | Berkshire(5) | Buckinghamshire(1) | Cambridgeshire(4) | Cheshire(1) | Cornwall(4) | County Durham(2) | Cumbria(1) | Derbyshire(1) | Devon(6) | Dorset(1) | Essex(2) | Gloucestershire(1) | Greater Manchester(1) | Herefordshire(1) | Isle of Wight(1) | Kent(1) | Lancashire(2) | Leicestershire(2) | Lincolnshire(6) | London(8) | Norfolk(6) | North Yorkshire(2) | Northamptonshire(1) | Northumberland(1) | Nottinghamshire(2) | Oxfordshire(1) | Shropshire(3) | Somerset(6) | South Yorkshire(1) | Staffordshire(1) | Suffolk(1) | Sussex(3) | Warwickshire(3) | West Midlands(2) | Wiltshire(2) | Worcestershire(2) | Scotland: Angus and Dundee(5) | Argyll(2) | Ayrshire and Arran(2) | Dumfries and Galloway(1) | Edinburgh and the Lothians(1) | Grampian(1) | Highlands(3) | Isle of Skye(1) | Orkneys(1) | Shetland Isles(1) | Wales: Anglesey(6) | North Wales(1) | South Wales(2) | West Wales(3) | Offshore: Guernsey(2) | Isle of Man(1) | Northern Ireland: County Antrim(1) | County Londonderry(1) |

Brit Quote:
As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler. - Izaak Walton
More Quotes

On this day:
Battle of Towton - 1461, Battle of Alresford - 1644, Albert Hall Opens - 1871, Captain Scott dies - 1912, First London Marathon - 1981
More dates from British history

click here to view all the British counties

County Pages