More of More-Hall and The Dragon of Wantley
This bawdy tale from South Yorkshire, England, is rather similar to that of the Lambton Worm, but is an unusually humorous and satirical dragon-slaying story which simply could not be excluded. The story was once very popular, and is first recorded in a 1685 Broadside Ballad, A True Relation of the Dreadful Combate Between More of More-Hall, and the Dragon of Wantley. The ballad begins in a sardonically high register by praising More of More-Hall above Hercules, for ‘with nothing at all/ he slew the Dragon of Wantley’, whereas Hercules had a club to kill the Hydra in Greek legend.
The Dragon of Wantley was a truly awesome adversary. It had wings, long claws, ‘four and forty Teeth of Iron’ and, unusually for a dragon, ‘a Sting in his Tail, as long as a Flail’. Like the dragon of Beowulf, its hide was tough and near-impenetrable. Its appetite was great, and its diet varied: the dragon lived off children, all sorts of farm animals, and even entire forests. Its tastes did not stop there: ‘Houses & Churches were to him Geese & Turkies’, says the ballad. In despair, the hysterical locals turned to a local tough-guy, More of More-Hall.
More demanded ‘a fair Maid of Sixteen’ before he agreed to engage the dragon in combat. Dressing himself in armor festooned with long spikes (looking like ‘some Egyptian Porcupig/…/ some strange Out-landish Hedge-hog’) and downing six pots of ale and a quart of Aqua Vitae, More hid in a well from which he assumed the dragon would come to drink. Discovering More in the well, the dragon ‘turnd, and shit at him’, the disgusted ‘porcupig’ responding with ‘Thou Son of a Whore, thou stinkst so sore/ sure thy Diet is unwholsome’. They fight for 2 days and a night.
The climax of the fight is crudely funny. Just as the dragon seems to have the upper hand, ‘Moore of Moore-hall/ like a valiant Son of Mars/ As he came like a Lout, so he turnd him about/ and hit him a Kick on the Arse’. The boot to the fundament proves a masterstroke, as it is the dragon’s only weak-spot: ‘With the Thing at thy Foot thou hast prickd my Arse-gut/ and I am undone for ever.’ The poor dragon’s end is especially undignified: ‘First on one Knee, then on Back tumbled he/ so groand, kickd, shit, and dyd.’
Beyond the scatological humor, there is a serious point to the Dragon of Wantley. The ballad probably commemorates a 1573 case brought by George More of Sheffield on behalf of the burghers of the city against George Talbot, the local Lord of the Manor. Talbot was accused of misappropriating the funds derived from Sheffield’s waste land, which had historically been used to help the poor. This explains the consumption of livestock, houses, and even children by the cruel and malodorous dragon, which receives a sound and undignified beating by More at the end of the ballad after a prolonged struggle.
