Northern mythology

DANISH TRADITIONS. 207
hold him down. Old folks say that they have seen the
stake in its place, adding that on shaking it to and fro, a
voice was always heard from beneath, crying "
: Pull it
up ! Pull it up
"
!
OF DRAGONS.
About a mile and a quarter from Soro ^ stands Alsted
church, in which there is still to be seen a picture representing
a fight between a bull and a dragon, in commemoration,
as people say,
the churchyard.
taken up his abode near the
of an event which took place in
According to the tradition, a dragon had
church gate, and done great
injury to the people, so that no one could enter the church,
when an ancient wise man gave his advice, that a bull-calf
should be reared with pure sweet milk, and after a certain
time be set to fight with the serpent. At the end of the first
year, the young bull was so strong, that every one thought
it might stand the encounter ;
but on seeing the serpent,
it was so terrified, that it was found necessary to feed it
in the same manner for another year. It was then less
timid, but would not engage in combat until the end of
the third year, when it proved so bold and vigorous that
it instantly engaged in the conflict and killed the dragon.
But the bull was so envenomed that it
was found necessary
to kill it also, and bury it together with the dragon.
There is a tradition nearly similar of a dragon in the churchyard of
Lyngby, a village near Copenhagen.
Two miles from Aalborg are two mounts called Ostbierg
Bakker. Here many years since a dragon had his abode,
and caused great affliction in the neighbourhood. At
length there came a man skilled in the knowledge of
serpents,
who engaged to destroy the dragon. He caused a
'
A town in the west of Seeland, famed for its academv.