Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/312

 monster.

Other versions of the story are to the effect that the princess was shut up in a castle, and that all within were perishing for want of water, which could only be obtained from a fountain at the base of a hill, and this was guarded by the “laidly worm,” from which George delivered them. “The hero won his well-earn’d place Amid the saints, in death’s dread hour; And still the peasant seeks his grace, And next to God, reveres his power. In many a church his form is seen With sword, and shield, and helmet sheen: Ye know him by his steed of pride, And by the dragon at his side.”

The same story has attached itself to other saints and heroes of the middle ages, as S. Secundus of Asti, S. Victor, Gozo of Rhodes, Raimond of S. Sulpice, Struth von Winkelried, the Count Aymon, Moor of Moorhall, “who slew the dragon of Wantley,” Conyers of Sockburn, and the Knight of Lambton, “John that slew ye Worme.” Ariosto adopted it into his Orlando Furioso, and made his hero deliver Angelica from Orca, in the true mythic style of George ; and it appears aga