THE SCENE: Try-hard dragon slayers have a lot to learn from Sam, the mighty man who killed a dragon with one blow of his ox-headed mace.
THE TEXT: Only I was able to defeat the dragon that emerged from the River Kashaf, massive as a mountain, broad as a valley, filling the earth with the foam from its lips, terrifying the world’s inhabitants. Its spittle burned vultures’ wings, its venom scorched the earth; it snatched monsters from the sea and eagles from the air; the earth was emptied of people and flocks, every living thing retreated before it. When I saw that no one dared oppose it, I emptied my heart of fear and bound on my sword in God’s name. Seated on my massive mount, my ox-headed mace on my saddle, my bow slung over my shoulder, my shield at the ready, I attacked like a ravening monster: everyone who heard that I would try my mace against this dragon bade me farewell as if I went to my death.
I approached and saw it was like a great mountain, with its hair trailing on the ground, its tongue like a black tree, its gullet breathing fire, its eyes like bowls of blood. It caught sight of me and roared and came forward in fury. I felt there was a fire burning before me, the world swam like a sea before my eyes, smoke rose up to the clouds. The ground trembled at its roar, the earth swam with its poison. I too roared, like a lion, and shot a diamond-tipped arrow, pinning one side of its mouth shut with the tongue still hanging out. Another arrow pinned the other side of its mouth, and a third went into its gullet. Blood bubbled up from its entrails, and, invoking God’s power, I struck my ox-headed mace down on its head. I smashed it as I would an elephant’s, and poison flowed from the wound like the river Nile.
The river Kashaf brimmed with blood and turned yellow, and the earth was at peace again and could rest. The world witnessed this combat; afterwards I was known as “Sam who kills with one blow,” and they showered me with gold and jewels. When I came back from that battle my armor had been burned from my body and I was left naked, my horse’s barding has been stripped away, and for years the countryside there was covered with nothing but burned thorns and scrub.
– The Shahnameh, Abolqasem Ferdowsi, 10th Century AD
