Bisterne Dragon


The Bisterne Dragon is a legend from the New Forest in England. The story takes place primarily in Bisterne, but also features Burley and Lyndhurst, and is one of the area's most famous pieces of folklore.

Legend

The local tradition is that a dragon had his den at Burley Beacon, about east of Bisterne, at Burley. There are several versions of the tale, one being that the creature "flew" every morning to Bisterne, where it would be supplied with milk. In order to kill the dragon, a valiant knight built a hide, and with two dogs lay in wait. The creature came as usual one morning for its milk, and when the hut door was opened the dogs attacked it, and while thus engaged the knight took the dragon by surprise, the dogs dying in the affray. The dragon slayer himself, says another version of the tale, only succeeded by covering his armour with glass, and a popular telling of the story has it that the fight raged throughout the forest, with the dragon finally dying outside the village of Lyndhurst, his corpse turning into a hill. Though the knight had defeated the dragon he had been mentally broken by the battle, and after thirty days and thirty nights he went back to Boltons Bench to die alone atop it, his yew-wood bow falling on the ground beside his body and eventually sprouting into the yew tree which can still be seen today.

Topography

The alleged scene of the fight in Bisterne is still called "Dragon Fields"; while over the front of Bisterne Manor in a carving of the Berkeley and Betteshorn arms dated 1652, the beacon and dragon may be seen. Boltons Bench at Lyndhurst is a well known local landmark, still with yew trees growing atop it, and is featured as the main symbol for the village. The inn of Bisterne was called the Green Dragon. Other local inns which may reflect this tradition include the Green Dragon at Brook, to the northeast, and the Green Dragon at Alderbury, to the north.
It is possible the dragon had some foundation in fact, and that it was a wild beast living in and around the New Forest. The Bisterne Dragon is mentioned several times in the novel The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd.