THE SCENE: This passage depicting a battle between German knights and a dragon could have come straight out of Monty Python.
THE TEXT: When they Didrik and Fasholt had come through the forest, they saw a flying dragon, which was very fierce and a great wonder. It had a big body, big legs, long sharp claws, and big eyes. It flew above the ground, and wherever it touched the ground with its claws, it was as though it had been ploughed. It had an armed man in its throat, from the feet up to the shoulders, and his hands were in its lower jaws. The man was alive, and he saw the two of them riding.
He said to them: “Good lads, help me. This fierce animal took me while I slept by my shield. If I had been awake by my weapons, it would not have injured me.” Didrik and Fasholt leapt from their horses and ran towards the dragon, and they struck it as best they could. Didrik’s sword bit somewhat, but Fasholt’s not at all. The Dragon was big and strong. But it didn’t have the power to fly or to come and defend itself before it had swallowed the man.
When the man who the dragon had swallowed saw that Fasholt’s sword didn’t bite, he said to Fasholt; “Take my sword from the dragon’s jaws. It will cut to pieces anything that touches the edge, if the lad who is holding it is good enough. Fasholt leapt forward with great strength, and took the sword from between the dragon’s jaws. Then the man who was in the dragon said: “My legs are far down the dragon’s throat. Strike carefully so that I am not wounded by my own sword. And do it now, good lad, for the dragon is squeezing me so hard with its jaws that blood is coming from my nose and mouth.”
Then they struck the dragon until it died. Sintram’s sword bit into it like the sharpest shaving knife bites into a beard. And so the man was freed from out of the dragon’s mouth.
– The Saga of Didrik of Bern, 15th Century AD
