Hagg Worm


 The hagg worm was a type of flying serpent found in Cumbria, in England. It’s considered a dragon, but most acknowledge it’s quite different from the typical idea of a dragon. They didn’t breath fire like a normal dragon, and they may have been venomous, but it’s never mentioned. These creatures were large hairy, flying snakes. It’s never said whether they flew on feathered or bat like wings, but the more ghoulish option the better. The exact size of these flying serpents is never stated, but they are large enough to swallow magpies in one quick gulp like a swallow catching flies. And large enough to be a threat to people.


You might hear the name hagg and immediately think of hags, those hideous old crones from Scottish legend who would eat children. Although the word hagg is from old English, meaning swamp, and was later applied to both hags and the hagg worms, because that’s where they lived. Specifically, the hagg worms lived in the forested swamps outside of the town of Arnside.


It was said that whenever anyone travelled into the swamps, to cut wood, or for any other reason, they would be harassed and frightened away by these vicious serpents. Going into the woods at night was basically a death sentence. It was believed that the individual hagg worms would each live in specific dead and twisted old trees in the swamp. Whenever the hagg worms became too much of a problem the people of Arnside would burn down one of these twisted old snags, hopefully killing the hagg worm inside and sending a message to the rest of them that the people of Arnside were not their prey.



Sources


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OucneGcf2Ak

https://www.pucaprinthouse.com/mythical-beasts-of-england

https://www.contours.co.uk/fabulous-lake-district-folklore?srsltid=AfmBOorKTx6oX6CpEcWAOEjV8zGV8gew7QLpQiIu83QQjMT1z3yOTSFE


 

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