Dragonslayers

by Joseph McCullough

  There was one among the Knights, however, who did not agree with the Grand Master’s decision, a young, headstrong man named Dieudonné de Gozon. Soon after the death of the brave knights, Dieudonné received leave to visit his home in France. There, in the house of his father, Dieudonné constructed a life-sized model of the dragon. It was the size of a horse, with the head of a snake, and ears like a donkey. It had four legs, short like a crocodile’s, and small wings resembling a bat. He gave it a skin of canvas and stuffed the creature with straw.

  For the next several weeks, Dieudonné trained with his horse and dogs to fight the dragon. The horse he trained to approach the creature without shying. He taught the dogs to attack the creature’s legs and underside, while he practiced with his lance to spear it from horseback. When, finally, the young knight felt confident, he left his home with his dogs and quietly sailed back to the island of Rhodes. He avoided the city and the Knights of his order, and instead put in at an isolated cove. From there, he rode via a back way to the cave of the dragon.

  As Dieudonné approached the cave, he was nearly overcome by the rotten stench. He could see dark bloodstains on the ground, and pieces of dented armour lying about. His dogs growled as they too scented something foul in the air. Then the dragon appeared, a malevolent serpent, just like the one Dieudonné had constructed to train his animals. It flapped its wings and gave a shrieking cry.

  Dieudonné whistled and his dogs sprang forward. They leapt at the dragon’s short legs, latching on with their powerful jaws. The dragon swatted one dog aside, disembowelling it with its razor-sharp talons. It snatched up another with a coil of its serpent’s tail and broke its back upon the ground. Yet still the remaining dogs held on, tugging the dragon off balance.

  Many people have theorized that the dragon of Rhodes was in fact a crocodile, as depicted in this drawing. (Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library)

  PHORBAS

  The island of Rhodes had trouble with dragons long before the time of Dieudonné de Gozon. According to the myths and legends of Ancient Greece, a horde of serpents, including one gigantic dragon-serpent, overran in the island in the distant past. The islanders called upon a hero named Phorbas, who came to Rhodes and slaughtered or drove out all of the serpents. For his deeds he was immortalized as the constellation Ophiuchus.

  Dieudonné saw his chance. With the dragon distracted by the dogs, he spurred his horse forward. As the horse’s hooves pounded on the hard earth, Dieudonné lowered his lance. The point impacted square on the dragon’s head, piercing its skull, driving through its brain, and bursting out of its lower jaw. The dragon died in an instant and collapsed to the ground.

  When Dieudonné returned to the preceptory of his order, carrying the dragon’s head as proof of his deed, he was greeted as a hero by his fellow knights. Grand Master de Villeneuve, however, was less impressed. He charged Dieudonné with disobeying orders. He stripped him of his habit, of his status as a Knight of St. John, and threw him into the dungeon. There Dieudonné stayed for many days, while the Grand Master’s temper cooled. Eventually Hélion de Villeneuve relented. He released Dieudonné from his prison and reinstated him in the order. He also ordered the dragon’s head mounted over the main gate of the city as a symbol of the bravery of the Knights of St. John.

  Many years later, the Knights of St. John elected Dieudonné as Grand Master of the order, and he led the Knights with honour and distinction. When Dieudonné eventually died in 1353, his gravestone was marked with the words ‘Extinctor Draconis’.

  Outside of the saints, there are few documented historical figures who are also dragonslayers. Although very little is actually known of Dieudonné de Gozon, he appears in the historical record as the Grand Master of the Knights of Saint John, better known as the Knights Hospitaller, from 1346 through 1353, making him either the third of fourth leader of that order.

  The first account of his battle with the dragon is found in a pilgrim’s tale, written in the early part of the sixteenth century. About seventy years later, G. Bosio wrote a longer version of the story in his Historia della S. Religione di S. Giovanni (1594). From there, the story passed into the folklore of the island of Rhodes, until it achieved a new popularity in 1799 thanks to a ballad by Friedrich Schiller entitled Der Kampf mit dem Drachen (The Fight with the Dragon).

  Another interpretation of Dieudonné de Gozon. (Mary Evans Picture Library / Alamy)

  Lord Albrecht Trut

  For many weeks, the servants of Lord Albrecht Trut had worked on the new town. They had cleared a large stretch of land, felling many trees and cutting them up into boards. They had laid the first foundation stones for the new tower, and marked out the path of the walls. Then one day, as a group of workmen were passing by a deep ravine, they heard a rook crying out shrilly from below. The men looked over the edge and saw a long and deadly dragon emerge from a cave in the wall of the ravine. Terrified, the men ran back to Lord Albrecht and told them what they had seen.

  The Trutnov dragon clinging to the side of a building. (Al Pulford Photography)

  At first Albrecht refused to believe his men. There hadn’t been any dragons in the area for generations. Still, something had frightened the workers, so he agreed to take a look. The men led Albrecht back to the ravine. Although the dragon wasn’t visible, Albrecht saw its tracks in the dirt around the cave and the old bones of many of its past meals. The young lord immediately came up with a plan.

  He ordered his men to run back to the construction site and bring back ropes, chains and wood. Also, he told them to bring the heavy iron gate they planned to use for the town walls and a sheep they could use as bait. The men hurried off and before long had returned with everything their lord had requested. Having assembled everything he needed, Albrecht put his plan into action.

  He had his men fashion the ropes and chains into a heavy net. When this was done, they took a rope and lowered the sheep down onto the ground in front of the dragon’s cave, with the heavy net dangling a few yards above it. When the loathsome dragon came out of his cave and attacked the poor sheep, Albrecht’s men dropped the net, entangling the dragon in its heavy web. The dragon roared in anger and thrashed about, snapping its powerful jaws at the netting. Albrecht knew the net would not hold the creature forever, so he launched the second part of his plan.

  Under his orders, Albrecht’s men had built a crane at the top of the ravine. Then they took the iron gate and loaded it up with heavy rocks. Using their crane, they slowly lowered the gate down on top of the dragon, pinning it to the earth under the vast weight. Still the dragon struggled and threatened to topple the gate off of it.

  Finally, Albrecht led a group of volunteers down into the ravine. These brave men built a great fire by the dragon’s head and then wafted the smoke into its face. In this way, they choked the dragon to death.

  Satisfied that the creature was dead, Albrecht ordered his men to skin the creature. For many years, the stuffed dragon skin hung by the gates of the newly built town of Trutnov.

  THE WAWEL DRAGON

  One of the most famous dragons in European history, the Wawel Dragon lived at the base of Wawel Hill in what is now the city of Krakow. While all the stories of the Wawel Dragon agree that the beast was slain, they do not always agree on the identity of the dragonslayer. In some stories, King Krakus, the legendary founder of the city, kills the dragon. In other stories, the dragon takes up residence in the city during the reign of Krakus, but the slaying is done by a cobbler’s apprentice named Skuba. In this version, Skuba tricks the dragon into eating a lamb stuffed with sulphur. The sulphur makes the dragon so thirsty that it keeps drinking water until it explodes. Skuba is rewarded by marrying the princess.

  Regardless of the confusion in the legend, the Wawel Dragon’s cave has been turned into a popular tourist attraction, which includes a seven-headed dragon statue that breathes fire at regular intervals.

  The Wawel dragon in its cave beneath the city of Krakow. (Mary Evans Picture Library / Al
amy)

  The town of Trutnov lies near the northern border of the Czech Republic. The story of its legendary founding is remembered today by a small dragon statue in one of its town parks, a newly developing, annual ‘dragon festival’ and by a metal dragon sculpture that can sometimes be seen clinging to the side of one of the buildings in the town square. According to the legend, the actual dragon skin was eventually given as a gift to the city of Brno, where it still hangs in one of its museums. Of course the citizens of Brno have their own story for the origins of the dragon, a story nearly identical to that of Skuba and the Wawel dragon. Whichever story is believed, the dragon skin hanging in Brno looks decidedly like a crocodile.

  Stories such as the Trutnov dragon, the Wawel dragon and the Brno dragon represent a distinct subset of the dragonslayer legend. At one time during the Middle Ages it became a popular trend to have a dragonslaying hero as the legendary town founder, which can also be seen in the aforementioned battle between Jason and the Argonauts and the Ljubljana dragon. Today, many European cities have a dragon as part of their city coat of arms, although determining which came first, the dragon symbol or the dragon story, can often be difficult.

  Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych

  When Dobrynya was still a young man, his mother gave him four pieces of advice. ‘Don’t ride to the Saracen Mountains. Don’t trample baby dragons there. Don’t rescue Russian captives, and don’t bathe in the Puchai River.’ Of course, being a valiant young man and a seeker of adventure, that’s exactly what he did. Slipping away from home one day, Dobrynya walked up into the craggy peaks of the Saracen Mountains. During his trek, he went out of his way to stamp on any baby dragons that he passed, ensuring that they would never grow up into monsters. He also moved a boulder away from the mouth of a cave, releasing some travellers who had been captured there by a dragon. Finally, Dobrynya made it high into the mountains, near the source of the Puchai River. Tired from his excursions, he decided to take a bath.

  Dobrynya and Zmey Gorynych by Vasnetsov. In most versions of the tale, Zmey Gorynych has three heads, though occasionally he has twelve. (Global Look / Corbis)

  While Dobrynya was bathing naked in the river, he felt a rush of wind and looked up to see a mighty three-headed dragon swooping down upon him. In a panic, he swam to the shore and cast about for a weapon. There was nothing there but an old hat of the type worn by Greek pilgrims. He snatched this up as the dragon landed in front of him. As the dragon’s middle head reared back, preparing to belch fire, Dobrynya ducked around its heads, leapt upon its back, and used the old hat to clamp its mouth shut. Man and dragon wrestled hard, until they rolled over Dobrynya’s clothes that were laid out by the riverside. In that instant, Dobrynya grabbed hold of his knife and put it to the dragon’s throat.

  A modern interpretation of Dobrynya and Zmey Gorynych by Alexander Yatskevich

  ‘Hold Dobrynya, Nikita’s son,’ said the dragon. ‘Let us make a pact! You will not come into the Saracen Mountains, nor trample baby dragons, nor rescue Russian captives, nor swim in the Puchai River. In return, I will not fly to Holy Russia. I will not take any Russian captives. I will not carry away any Christian people.’

  Dobrynya lowered his knife and rolled away from the dragon. ‘I will hold you to this, Zmey Gorynych. Now go and keep your promises.’ With that, the dragon beat its mighty wings and leapt into the sky, flying out of sight.

  Several years passed. The story of Dobrynya’s fight with the dragon had spread around the country. The young man had become a regular at the court of Prince Vladimir, who ruled from his capital at Kiev. Although still not officially honoured as a bogatyr, the prince often called upon Dobrynya to serve as his messenger, especially when courtesy or cunning was required.

  Then one day, while Vladimir’s niece, Zabava, was out walking in the garden, the three-headed dragon, Zmey Gorynych, swooped down from the sky and grabbed the princess in his claws. Before anyone could react, the dragon was gone, flying home to its lair in the mountains. The court was in uproar. Many brave bogatyrs rushed for their arms and clamoured for the honour of rescuing the princess, but Prince Vladimir went first to Dobrynya.

  ‘The stories tell that you have bested this dragon before, Dobrynya Nikitich. Go now to the mountains and bring my niece and the dragon’s head. If you succeed, you’ll be made a bogatyr and greatly rewarded. If you return in cowardice without her, it will be your head that is mounted over the city gate.’

  So Dobrynya left the court, weighed down with responsibility. He went first to see his mother and told her of his plight. His mother, that wise woman, said he must have a horse. So she gave him the horse, Burko, who had carried both his father and his grandfather on many adventures. She gave him also a whip of seven silks, and told him to use the whip to drive Burko forward. Finally, she gave him a Tartar spear with which to fight. Thus equipped, Dobrynya set off to face the dragon.

  He rode up into the Saracen Mountains, and as he rode, the baby dragons attacked Burko’s legs. The poor horse trampled them into the dirt, but more and more emerged from the rocks to snap at his fetlocks. When it appeared that Burko might be pulled down by the nasty little creatures, Dobrynya took out his whip and snapped it on the horse’s flank. Burko sprang forward, shedding the baby dragons and charging up the slopes.

  Near the mountaintop, by the banks of the Puchai River, Dobrynya found the dragon once more.

  ‘Hail Dobrynya, Nikita’s son,’ spoke the dragon. ‘You have failed to keep your promise. You’ve rode in to the Saracen Mountains, and you’ve trampled baby dragons. No doubt you’ve come to rescue Russian captives here.’

  Dobrynya responded, ‘Hail Zmey Gorynych. Was it I or you who broke the faith? Did you not swoop down and take the princess, a virtuous Christian woman, and carry her away as your captive? For this treason you must die.’

  Without further words, the battle was joined. For three long days the brave warrior and the mighty beast battled. The dragon blew fire and bit with its three snake-like heads. Dobrynya dodged and parried, looking for openings to drive in his sharp spear. On and on the battle raged, around the River Puchai, through the rocks of the mountains, and even into the caves underneath it. Both man and monster received and dealt many wounds, until both were covered in bloody cuts. Dobrynya began to despair of ever defeating the dragon, until a voice, carried by an angel from heaven, spoke into his ear. ‘You have fought for three days, Dobrynya, fight for three more hours and you will have victory.’

  So the fight continued for another three hours, until Dobrynya found himself unhorsed and battling the dragon in a small crater on the mountainside. There, the dragon finally made a mistake. Rearing up in its anger, the dragon exposed its soft underbelly. Dobrynya took his chance and drove his Tartar spear deep into the unprotected flesh. The dragon cried out in pain, as Dobrynya ripped the spear free in a spray of blood. The dragon staggered and then collapsed, its weight falling upon Dobrynya and pinning him to the ground.

  Dazed, Dobrynya looked about and saw that everything below his waist was pinned under the dragon. All around, the dragon’s blood flowed from the monster’s many wounds, filling the shallow crater. Over three more days, the blood came up to Dobrynya’s ears. Bereft of strength after his long battle, he knew that he would soon drown in his enemy’s blood. He laid back and prepared for his own death.

  Then the angel’s voice came to him again and said, ‘Do not give up Dobrynya. You have won a great battle. Drive your spear into the earth and go free.’

  In that moment, energy once again filled Dobrynya’s limbs. With a prayer, he drove his spear down into the earth, allowing it to soak up the dragon’s blood. With the spear firmly planted, he used it to pull himself free of the dragon’s corpse. Covered in blood, he staggered up from the crater and saw the princess, Zabava, standing by the mouth of the dragon’s cave, surrounded by numerous other captives that he had rescued.

  Courteous knight that he was, Dobrynya checked upon the captives to make sure th
at they were well. Then he did one more thing. Removing his blood-soaked armour and clothes, Dobrynya bathed in the waters of the River Puchai one more time.

  Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych. In most Russian tales, and indeed most Slavic folklore, dragons are multi-headed creatures. While Eastern Europe contains a wealth of dragonslayer stories, they are only slowly being made available in English.

  Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych is one of the most popular Russian byliny, the traditional folk songs of medieval Slavic culture. Thanks to a major cultural conservation effort in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Russia has preserved a huge body of byliny, including over seventy versions of the Dobrynya and the dragon story. This story is only one of the many tales to include Dobrynya, who is considered one of the ‘big three’ bogatyrs (knights-errant) of Russian folklore, the other two being Ilya Muromets and Alyosha Popovich.

  While the stories of the bogatyrs mostly exist in the land of fairytale, there are some who argue that both Dobrynya and his confrontation with the dragon have a historical basis. Dobrynya was the name of the uncle of Vladimir I, who ruled as Grand Prince of Kiev from 980–1015. It was during this reign that much of the population is thought to have been Christianized, and this may have included a mass baptism in the Pochaina River. Thus, some argue that the story is a metaphor for the rise of Christianity against the pagan dragon, which also explains why the story contains a Greek pilgrim’s hat and the voice of heaven. However, it is just as possible that these Christian elements were later additions to an older, pagan tale.