BeastHidden
The Walden Cockatrice
Its stare killed, until it met its own reflection.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Great hilltop parish church; relics long gone
- Legend from
- Pre-Civil War tradition
- Tone
- Curious
Saffron Walden church ahead, where a knight's sword once hung for killing a monster with a deadly stare.
Saffron Walden once told of a cockatrice, a serpent-like monster whose look could kill, that was killing the townspeople. A knight finally defeated it by wearing a coat of crystal glass, so that the creature saw its own deadly reflection. In memory of the deed, a sword and a brass image of the cockatrice were said to hang in the parish church. They were destroyed in the Civil War. The story was printed in 1669 alongside the Henham flying serpent, in William Winstanley's pamphlet, and was recorded again by Edward Smith in 1908. Today the great church on the hill is the place to remember the tale.
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.