Medieval Collectibles A Story of Dragon Slaying from Medieval Collectibles

From: Medieval Collectibles - Wednesday Jun 20, 2018 03:25 pm

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A Legend from New Forest: The Bisterne Dragon

Not all stories of dragon slaying have happy endings. Today we bring you a tale from New Forest, where one of the national parks of England is the setting of many age-old myths. As home to some of the oldest areas of forest in England, some claim supernatural and ghostly inhabitants dwell among the trees and within the surrounding towns. The story of the Bisterne Dragon explains the origins of one such spirit.

The Terror of Bisterne

Legend says that sometime during the late 15th century, a dragon terrorized the town of Bisterne. Every morning, the dragon would fly three miles from his den and bring mayhem to the people and livestock, demanding he be granted a pail of milk. Different versions of the story debate what exactly the dragon's request was, as milk seems like an odd thing for a dragon to want. Other takes on the tale say the dragon instead demanded mutton, a maiden, or not just a pail of milk, but all the milk in town. Other tellings theorize that the dragon had grown tired of milk offerings and was starting to develop a taste for blood. Either way, the dragon was an unwelcome daily visitor to Bisterne.

Arming Sword
with Scabbard
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15th Century
European Cuirass
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Celtic God
Cernunnos Bust
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To Kill a Dragon

Eventually, the villagers had enough of the dragon, and they hired a knight named Berkeley to come slay the beast. Within the forest, a mysterious, hairy old man with horns on his head gave the valiant knight advice on how to defeat the monster. The stranger instructed him to build a small hut made of glass and mirrors and to attach glass shards to his armour with bird lime, a sticky substance made from holly bark. Accompanied by two dogs to help serve as a distraction to the dragon, the knight Berkeley waited in the hut he had built to take the beast by surprise the next morning.

Fight through the Forest

When the dragon arrived at the edge of town to begin its daily mayhem, Berkeley and his dogs jumped out of the hut, startling the dragon and establishing the upper hand. The two dogs, Grim and Holdfast, fought ferociously but died early in the fight. The fight then took Berkeley and the dragon all through New Forest. Because of the sharp glass shards attached to Berkeley's armour, the dragon could not catch hold of him without injury. Eventually the combatants came just outside Lyndhurst, now the capital of New Forest, and the exhausted dragon was finally slain, its corpse turning into a great hill now called Bolton's Bench. But though the dragon was defeated, the battle did not leave the knight unscathed.

Green Dragon
Tankard
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Dragon Forest
T-Shirt
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Forest Pentagram Dragon
Wall Plaque by Anne Stokes
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What Remains of a Legend

Driven mad by lingering visions of the encounter, Berkeley could neither eat nor sleep. After 30 days had passed like that, he wearily traveled to the great hill that had once been his sworn foe, lay down, and died there, his body turning into a yew tree. To this day, yew trees grow on Bolton's Bench and the area where the knight and dragon battled is called Dragon Fields. Stone carvings of dogs decorate the entrance of a nearby manor, said to commemorate the dogs that perished in the battle. And some say the ghost of Berkeley and his hounds still haunt the area.

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