ASSIPATTLE AND THE STOOR WORM
The last week arrived and it seemed all was lost. But on the last day, an unlikely hero arrived. His name was Assipattle which means ‘the Cinder Lad.’
He was the seventh son of a seventh son
Upon hearing the King’s plight, Assipattle slipped away from the farm. He escaped in his little boat, armed only with a bucket containing a smouldering peat from his hearth. In the darkness he sneaked up on the sleeping beast. But this was the seventh day of the week and with the sun rise the Stoor Worm began to yawn. Each yawn sucked a vast tide of water into the dragon’s mouth. Once Assipattle was close enough, one of the mighty yawns drew the poor boy and his little vessel into the creature’s cavernous mouth.
Soon he was whirling down the beast’s throat, carried by a torrent of sea water. Then the boat grounded abruptly. Picking up the bucket, Assipattle ran for his life.
Assipattle turned a corner and found the dragon’s liver. Pulling out a knife, Assipattle gouged a hole in it. Then he stuffed the smouldering peat into the wound. Soon the liver began to burn. Assipattle ran back to his boat. There was not a minute to lose, for the worm retched and spewed out the intrepid boy along with his boat.
Making it back to the shore, the boy watched as the dragon began to burn.
Black smoke billowed from the monster’s nostrils. In agony its forked tongue shot out and grabbed hold of one of the horns of the moon. But in its weakened state, its tongue slipped and crashed causing a deep rift in the earth. The tide rushed in creating the Baltic Sea.
THE CREATION OF ORKNEY
As the beast writhed in agony, teeth dropped from its vile foaming mouth. The first lot of falling teeth formed the Orkney Isles. As the falling teeth rained down, the Shetland Isles and the Faroe Isles formed. Then in its dying moments, the Stoor Worm curled up tightly and became the country we now know as Iceland.
The tale of the Stoor Worm is a folk tale from Orkney about how a young farm boy, Assipattle defeated a dragon known as the Stoor Worm.
