Beast
The Aller Dragon
Pitch on his skin, a mask on his face, a spear in his hand.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Isolated church; wooded hill above Aller
- Legend from
- Local tradition
- Tone
- Light-hearted
Fire over the moors, poison in the milk, and one man from Aller with a very long spear.
A dragon, says the old tale, lived in a den on Aller Hill above the Somerset Levels. It flew out to breathe fire and poison over the farmland and drank the cows' milk. A man of Aller, called John of Aller in the retellings, smeared himself with pitch and wore a thick mask against the fire, and killed it with a long spear. Its hatchlings were sealed in the cave. The spear was long kept in the chapel or church at Low Ham, though one modern writer says what hangs there now is probably a Victorian lance.