Week 7 Storytelling: The Warrior, the Princess, and the Dragon

The warrior found himself wandering in the lands of the northern realms when he happened upon a trio on the road. He saw a crone and a codger and a beautiful young maiden. Her sight brought him to question why she and they should be upon this road. As he came near he saw that they cried with each other as though they were parting for a final time. "Hail, good people. Do you have want of aid?" he asked.

The old man turned to him, with tears welling in his eyes. He stood and stumbled to the warrior and said, "Aye, young swordsman. I was once the king of all this land, but a beast from hell has come upon us and we have lost all that we had. It devoured our warriors, our horses, and our surfs. It broke our castles, our strongholds, and our towns. The demon burned my sons but spared my wife and daughters. Since then, every fifth day, he would come back and devour another of my daughters. Three he has claimed, and now my final child now awaits the same fate. I have begged him to take my life instead, but he revels in my pain."

The warrior gave his word that on that very day the beast would die, but only if the princess would be his reward. She consented to wed him should her life be saved. So the warrior went from them, and began his work. He hunted one hundred stags and two hundred boars. He seasoned them with salts and spices he acquired on his travels to far away lands. The spices were known to be too much for even the mightiest man to eat.  He called upon the Lord and saints to bless the water of a nearby stream. As he finished his prayers a breeze swept through the land, and the sweet smell caught the attention of the great dragon that was on his way to eat the maiden. He turned and flew toward the feast the hero prepared.

The  warrior hid in the bushes as the hell-spawn ravaged the carrion. he ate until all the morsels were devoured, then let out a great roar. The pain from the spices made the serpent writhe and plead. It ran to the river and began to suck the water up. Only after the river was empty and the water no longer flowed was the beast at last satiated. It rolled onto its back and fell into a slumber, for it had eaten a great deal of flesh.

As the monster slept, the warrior fell upon it, striking at its heart. The dragon awoke quickly and lowered its jaw to bring fire upon the man. But his hell-fire was quenched by the blessed water of the stream. The dragon realized this only as the warrior's blade pierced into his heart. It let out one final roar as its life blood shot from the wound. 

On that day, the warrior wed the princess and built a new kingdom that was even great than his father-in-law's had ever been.

Saint George Killing the Dragon by Bernat Matorell (1434); Source: Wikimedia Commons

Author's Notes: The story this is based on was a Japanese legend about a warrior god fighting an eight headed serpent to rescue a goddess to marry. In that story, the warrior entices it with super strong alcohol and gets it drunk. I wanted to go in the same vein as that, but couldn't figure out where my warrior would get the alcohol. So I went with having him hunt a ton of animals and then trick the dragon into drinking holy water. 

Bibliography: Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).