Knucker
The Knucker is a snake-like water dragon from sagas in the southern county of Sussex . The name comes from the Old English nicor , which means " water demon " and denotes a dragon in Beowulf or can be found in German in Nixe and Nöck .
He lives in so-called Knuckerholes , the local name for spring ponds that occur in flat land. They are often six meters in diameter and, according to legend, are endlessly deep. This is due to a geological peculiarity of a region south of the ridge of the South Downs in the south of England , especially around the villages of Lyminster , Lancing , Shoreham-by-Sea and Worthing in Sussex. The limestone in this area is interspersed with sinkholes through which the groundwater comes to the surface.
The water in these small ponds is of constant temperature, cold in summer and not freezing over in winter, and the water level hardly fluctuates. When the air temperature is frosty, a thin mist forms over the water, which has contributed to the formation of legends about the Knucker. Most of these ponds have been drained over time, at least at Lyminster there is still such a knuckle hole.
The Knucker is considered a vicious and aggressive dragon that eats the cattle and even residents of the surrounding villages. The local tales are about how he is defeated:
- In the most famous version, the King of Sussex promises his daughter's hand to the one who kills the Knucker. Then a roaming knight kills the dragon and marries the princess. He then settled in Lyminster, where a tombstone called Slayer's Slab ("stone of the dragon slayer ") is said to bear witness to him.
- Another version is about the clever farm boy Jim Pulk or Jim Puttock from the village of Wick in West Sussex . He bakes a large, poisoned cake, takes it to the Knuckerhole in a horse-drawn cart and lays it ready for the dragon. The Knucker comes out, eats the cake with horse and cart and dies. Then the boy comes back and cuts off the head of the dead dragon. In a variant of this story, Jim Pulk also dies shortly afterwards because he did not wash his hands after baking a cake, and the Slayer's Slab in Lyminster was put in his honor.
- A third version replaces the poisoned cake with an English pudding , a hard-to-digest and tough pastry. The Knucker gets severe abdominal pain after consumption and requires medicine. Jim claims he has one behind his back; as the knucker sticks out his neck, Jim cuts off his head with the sword that he had hidden behind his back.
literature
- Jacqueline Simpson: British Dragons. Wordsworth Editions in association with the Folklore Society, Ware 2001, ISBN 1-84022-507-6 .