Case file · Folklore / legend
The Lambton Worm
In this County Durham legend young John Lambton fishes a small worm from the River Wear, throws it in a well, and it grows into a monster that coils around a hill; he kills it on his return from crusade.
1820 CE · 54.86, -1.53 · status: legend
The account
To win he must kill the first living thing he meets afterwards; when it is his father, the family is cursed for nine generations. A sword dated 1521 at Lambton was shown as the one used. The story was famous enough by the 1860s to become a music-hall song.
The sceptical view
A dragon-slayer tale attached to a local family; the year is the earliest printed version (Surtees' History of Durham), and older oral forms are likely.