Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1882-03-02


to the shores of Greece, and embodied
in classic literature, it received many
new developments and was presented
in several different forms. But the
central idea was the monster engender-
ed in the darkness and slime of the
marshes, the Python slain by Apollo !;
and the struggles between Bellerophon
and ChimIra, Hercules and the Lar-
nian Hydra, Edipus and the Sphinx,
are but versions of the same story.
The fable of the dragon whose raven
GUS appetite could be appeased only by
the periodical sacrifice of q
beautiful maiden, which is told in the
story of Perseus and Andromeda, has
since been many times reproduced; /;
and, in the more general form of a
damsel delivered from the keeping of
monster, was a frequent theme in
medieval romance. In the former
case it will invariably be found that
the hero arrives just in time to deliver
the Kings daughter from the terrible
fate which otherwise awaits her; and,
as in the classic story, is generally re.
warded with the lady's hand.
AS the classic gods and heroes are
found in the myth0logies of the north
under different names and in different
circumstances, so the dragon is still
preserved as the opponent of all that
is good and yirtuOus. In the older
Edda, which belongs to the ninth CEN
tury, but was collected by Seemund in
the eleventh, it is Sigurd, the popular
scandinavian hero, who Stays the drag
on Fdfnir, by whom the earth has been
robbed of its treasure. He descends to
the internal regions to recover this, and
there stabs the monster, who address,
es to him the following serious words:
youth and youth, of what youth art
thou born? of what men art thou the
man? When thou didst tinge red in
Fafnir that bright blade of thine, in
my heart stood the sword" at the same
time fOretelling that the recovered
treasure will prove to be his ruin.
Siguld then takes the monsters heart,
which he roasts; and, through touch
ing it to see if it is done enough, burns
his finger. With the famil-
iar action which has since been
immortaltzed by Charles Lamb, in his
"Disseltaton on Roast Pig" the hero
then puts the injured member to his
lips and is Immediately enabled to un-
derstand the language of birds. He
thus learns that he must slay Reginn,
the dragons brother who otherwise
would defraud him of the recovered
wealth. This singular story is slightly
varied in the Teutonic version, in the
"Nibelungen Lied" in which Siegfried,
after staying the dragon and obtaining
his hoard, bathes in the monsters
blood, and is rendered invulnerable.
There is an evident connection between
these stories of treasure-keeping drag.
ons and those of the sleepless dragon
of the garden of the lIesperides, and
that which kept watch over the golden
fleece.
1t was doubtless from this TeutOnic
source that the dragon found its way
into English literature. In BeOwulf,
the earliest poem of our Saxon an.
cestors which has leen preserved to
us, the hero's father is "A dragon slayer:
"TO Sgemund sprang--after the deaths
day-glory no little-since battle hardy
he the worm slew-the hOard'sgua
dan;" and BeOwulf himself destroys a
monster, the keeper of treasure; as in
the tales of Sigurd and Siegfried.
Among the English people, with whom
the GrotesQuc and romantic found al
ways ready acceptance, stories of
dragons had a wide popularity, and, no
doubt, were often told on winter nights
in hats of swine-herds and huntsmen,
or were the theme of stirring songs in
the rude halls of thames and franklins,
Sitting by his log.lire, or looking out
from his cottage door as the shades of
night drew on, the Saxon peasant
peopled with elves the forests and
morasses around him, and gave to the
dragon myth Of past ages and distant
climes distinct and local application.
Hence it is that the stories of "worms,"
which may still be heard in many parts
of the north of England, obtained their
place in popular lore.
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