The Lambton Worm

The Lambton Worm 

    Most people reading the posts on this blog will be familiar with the legend of St George yet how many, I wonder, have heard of ‘The Lambton Worm’? It’s almost certain that you have without even realising it. Bram Stoker’s ‘The Lair of The White Worm’ - which itself has proved to be the inspiration for several films and even an opera, was clearly influenced by the tale which has been told and re-told for about 700 years and it set in County Durham in the Tyne and Wear region of North Eastern England.

    The Lambton family actually exist, and during the 13^th century were regarded as respectable landowners albeit not particularly to be counted amongst the rich and powerful- yet by the later part of the 16th and early 17th century they grew considerably richer with some carefully placed investments in both land and in the coal industry. Towards the middle of the 18th century the Lambtons had evolved into one of the richest families in the region with some members even becoming M.P’S.

    The legend tells of a John Lambton who, preferring to go fishing in the River Wear, failed to attend services at the local church one Sunday where, depending on the telling, he meets either an old man or a witch who warns him that his actions will doubtless have dire consequences. Without so much as even a nibble, the hero of the tale catches nothing whilst the church service is in progress - yet as soon as it finishes he manages at last to catch something. Described as a small eel, or lamprey, its size varies, as from anything between the size of a thumb up to a full yard long.

 The old man, or witch, are then informed by John that he has ‘caught the devil’ and that he intends to throw it into a well but by way of a reply give further warnings of  future evils to come. Then, it seems, that some years pass and Mr Lambton goes off to fight in the Crusades for several years.

     

     While John is away the worm grows in strength and size, and the well becomes poisonous to any who partake of its by now less than refreshing waters. Once the locals start to notice that animals are disappearing they investigate the matter further and discover that the worm has left the well and coiled itself no less than seven times around the Penshaw Hill, on which the Penshaw Monument now stands. Alternatively, in others, it seems to be Worm Hill, in Fatfield, which is the local preference for many claim the ‘marks around the site are scars left by the worm itself.

     Free of the well the worm begins its reign of terror- cows stop producing milk, farm animals are devoured, and children disappear. Knights, and villagers, try to kill it but quickly meet with an untimely end.  Not only can the creature somehow reattach bodily parts which are hewed from it, but such is its size that it can uproot trees by coiling its tail around them and use them to batter opponents into. Curiously it is eventually placated, at a price of course, at Lambton Castle where John’s father offers it the milk of ‘nine good cows’ (presumably not local ones) every day.

     With his part in the Crusades done with, John Lambton returns to find the family lands in a ruinous state and, on being told of the cause, concludes that he must seek out the beast and kill it and looks for clues as to how from a wise woman near Durham who reminds him that it is his fault that the worm is there in the first place. Further, she tells him to cover his armour with spearheads and seek out the worm in the River Wear where it was happily enjoying the bucolic atmosphere wrapped around a large rock. If successful in his quest, however, to avert a curse that will haunt his family for the next nine generations he needs must kill the first living thing he comes across afterwards.

   

    Armour duly prepared John arranges with his father that, if successful, he will give three blasts on his hunting horn and that his favourite hound should be released in order that it will come to him whereby he can kill it and then avoid the curse. The fight takes place in the river where those pieces of the worm that are hewed away cannot rejoin its body for they are washed away by the current resulting in the monster’s demise.

     The sound of John’s hunting horn calling causes his father to forget the arrangement whereupon he rushes off to congratulate his son who, unable to kill him, proceeds to kill the hound as soon as possible which unfortunately brings the curse down upon them and so nine generations of the family are doomed not to die peaceful deaths.

Note -
The word ‘worm’ or ‘wyrm’ has its roots in Old German ‘worm’ which in turn has its roots in Norse ‘ormr’, meaning a snake or mythological serpent.

D W Storer 2018/2019