I am sure all of you will be surprised to learn I fell through another research rabbit hole and found an unfamiliar dragon waiting for me at the bottom of it. I was taking a quick jaunt through google, trying to decide if Shakespeare heard dragons-which of course is what every author is trying to find out, right?– and, in the process, discovered a dragon that was the subject of a ballad, a novel, and an opera.

I give you: The Dragon of Wantley.

The Dragon of Wantley

Wantley, also referred to as Whantley, is a region near Wharncliff Crags, in the Peaks, northwest of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. The crags are a gritstone escarpment where stone for tools have been quarried since the Iron age. More or less exactly the sort of place you would expect to find a dragon.

There’s even a formation, called the Dragon’s Den!

According to local legends a huge, bat-winged dragon, the size of the Trojan Horse terrorized the villagers of the Wantley region.

This dragon had two furious wings,
     Each one upon each shoulder;
With a sting in his tail as long as a flail
     Which made him bolder and bolder.
He had long claws, and in his jaws
     Four and forty teeth of iron;
With a hide as tough as any buff,
     Which did him round environ. –

The Dragon of Wantley Ballad

The dragon would regularly fly from its den over the valley to Dragon’s Well on the Waldershelf ridge above Deepcar, a village seven miles northwest of Sheffield. Eating everything it desired, farm animals, children, even trees and buildings, the dragon (as is often the case in legend) was considered invincible, except for its particular Achilles Heel, as it were.

At last, a local knight, more Falstaffian than brave, Moore of Moore Hall—an actually 15^th century residence near the Wharncliffe Crags—took it upon himself to stop his carousing and get on with what knights were supposed to do. He commissioned a special spiked suit of armor from Sheffield (rendering him rather porcupine like), and went out to fight the dragon.

Had you but seen him in this dress,
     How fierce he looked, and how big,
You would have thought him for to be
     Some Egyptian porcupig:
He frighted all, cats, dogs, and all,
     Each cow, each horse, and each hog:
For fear they did flee, for they took him to be
     Some strange, outlandish hedge-hog.~

The Dragon of Wantley Ballad

Though suitably armed and armored, our knight finally overcomes the dragon by—and yes, I’m being entirely serious here— kicking it in the “arse-gut”, apparently, it’s only vulnerable spot. Afterwhich the dragon rolled over and died.

The story does not end there, my friends. This particular dragon went on to be immortalized in stage, story and song. Tune in next week to find out more!

What do you think? Tell me in the comments!

If you’d like to check full text of the ballad, you can find it here:

 The full text of The Dragon of Wantley at Wikisource

The Dragon of Wantley public domain audiobook at LibriVox

Find more Dragon Myths of Britain HERE

References

A True Relation of the Dreadful Combate Between More of More-Hall, and the Dragon of Wantley. 1685

Cash, Cassidy. Dragons in Shakespeare’s England. Cassidy Cash. Aug 15, 2022. Accessed September 30, 2022. https://www.cassidycash.com/dragons-in-shakespeares-england/

Flight, Tim. St. Georgie and Beyond: 12 Dragon-Slayers from Around the World. History Collection. May 4, 2018. Accessed October 23, 2022. https://historycollection.com/st-george-and-beyond-12-dragon-slayers-from-around-the-world/7/

Schiffino, Andres. The Dragon of Wantley.  Atlas Obscura. February 24, 2021, Accessed October 1, 2022 https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-dragon-of-wantley 

The Dragon of Wantley. Planet Hugill.  8 April 2015. Accessed October 1, 2022 https://www.planethugill.com/2015/04/the-dragon-of-wantley.html

Images:

Lampe, John Frederick, and Carey, Henry. The Dragon of Wantley-Mooore fighting with ye Dragon. In Gickman, Georgie: The Musical Entertainer, Vol 2, p 32, 1737

June, John. The Drago of Wantley. In Carey, Henry. The Dragon of Wantley. T. Lowndes, 1770.

Mick Knaption. Wharncliffe Crags-2. English Wikipedia. 2008. CC 3.

Mick Knaption. Dragons Den-Wharncliffe Crags. English Wikipedia. 2008. CC 3.