Scotland's Storybook: stories in English (1.1 - Education Scotland

ASSIPATTLE AND THE STOOR WORM
There was once, a long, long time ago, a farmer who lived in a fine farm called
Leegarth. It lay in a lovely green valley surrounded by hills, and a crystal clear
stream danced for joy as it ran past the house. The farmer was not a wealthy
man, and he and his wife and seven sons worked hard to put bread on the table.
Well, that’s not strictly true, you see the man and his wife and the six oldest
sons worked hard, but the youngest son did nothing but lie by the side of the
fire raking through the ashes. His clothes were covered with ashes, and when he
did venture outside the ash blew from him like smoke from a bonfire. His family
called him Assipattle, the ash raker, and his mother and father would look on
him with sad eyes and shake their heads, but his older brothers hated him for
his laziness, and they would kick him as they went out the door to their work.
But Assipattle didn’t mind, because he was a dreamer and he had the heart of a
poet. He told great stories in which he was the hero who killed dragons and
carried off fair maidens, but this only made his brothers hate him even more.
One day a terrible thing happened – the Stoor Worm arrived at the coast of
the land where Assipattle lived. This was the most evil of all the monsters that
plagued mankind; a huge sea serpent that was so big that he had curled himself
right around the world. Whenever he moved he caused tidal waves and
earthquakes, and his foul breath was poisonous, killing every living thing that it
touched. He could sweep whole towns into his great mouth with his huge forked
tongue, and eat all the people that were in them just as easily as it is for us to
blink an eye. What was worse, the Stoor Worm had started to yawn, which did
not mean that he was tired; it meant that he was hungry and needed to be fed.
The king who lived in the great castle on top of the hill gathered together all
his wisest advisers to try to find out what could be done to save the kingdom
from destruction. Not one of them had any idea as to what could be done, but
one of them suggested that they seek the advice of the old wizard who lived on
the slopes of the mountain. The king sent his heralds to fetch the old wizard,
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