A French Dragon

 

The Niort Dragon

There are four bronze dragons in the main shopping street of Niort in France. Niort is also known as the Green Venice

They are based on the story of a dragon from  1692.

The city was terrorised by a giant snake with wings that devoured  women ,children and men  The dragon sat on Notre-Dame and drank water from the Sèvre Niortaise. No one dared to challenge  it. Then Jacques Allonneau, a convicted deserter, a soldier .who was condemned to death offered to fight the dragon in exchange for his freedom. Wearing a suit of armour, that included a glass visor, he was  armed with a long spear and dagger. He fatally stabbed the dragon in the throat.  When he lifted his visor in triumph the dragon spat venom at him with its dying breath. The soldier was mortally poisoned .

His tomb was located in the old cemetery of Notre Dame de Niort , but the cemetery was destroyed in 1792,

A Description of the tombstone was found:

The tomb was roof-shaped, from which two sculptures can be seen on the tombstone:

First side: a character representing a soldier wearing a short coat and  holding  a short sword on his chest.His head is covered with a helmet.The top of his head is decorated with a cross.

The Second side shows  a winged serpent a  Dragon

So was this really the tomb of a dragon slayer? We shall never know but the town celebrates the story as real.

 

The Scottish Boobrie

 

The  Boobrie

 The boobrie is a legendary creature inhabiting the lochs in the west coast of Scotland. It is described as normally looking like a giant bird but sometimes looks like  a water bull. A shape shifting entity. . It can also manifest as a water horse .

It tends to be aggressive preying on livestock being transported across the lochs and also eats otters. Sometimes in the summer it appears as a giant insect sucking the blood of horses

The  folklorist  John Campbell of Islay, wrote an account of the size of the boobrie  provided by a witness .It is claimed to be "larger than seventeen of the biggest eagles put together".It has a strong black beak about 11 inches  wide and 17 inches  in length, the final 5 inches  of which taper like that of an eagle. The creature's neck is almost 3 feet  long with a girth of a little under 2 feet . Short black powerful legs lead to webbed feet with gigantic claws.”

 A footprint of  a boobrie's foot fond in some mud by a loch was said to  equal "the span of a large wide-spreading pair of red deer's horns".

 He also wrote that it bellowed loudly when angry.

The West coast sea lochs are its preferred home.

The great auk,now  extinct, is thought by some to be the source of a number of boobrie sightings due to its large size and similar colour.

I am surprised it hasn’t been cited as an explanation for Nessie. Its probably the only thing that hasn’t !

 

Campbell, John Francis (1860), Popular Tales of the West Highlands, vol. I, Edmonston and Douglas