Stoor Worm

 



The Stoor worm was a giant sea serpent from Orkadian legend. It was said to live at the beginning of time and its death was responsible for the creation of the Orkney Islands. The stoor worm was gigantic. It’s head the size of a mountain. It’s forked tongue could wipe entire coastal villages into the sea. It’s body was thousands of miles long. Everything about the stoor worm was epic.


The stoor worm had the ability to control storms and cause earthquakes. It could cause the seas to heave and tidal waves to crash onto land just by moving about. The stoor worm also have poisonous breath, which would cause a toxic fog to roll over the land, killing crops and live stock.


There is a legend that in old pagan times the northern shore of Scotland was tormented by the Stoor worm. The king was advised that the only way to appease the serpent was to sacrifice seven virgin women to it each week. The king accepted this heavy price and the sacrifices were made. Each week the stoor work would approach the shore, its mouth wide agape. The virgins would then be pushed off a cliff into the monster’s mouth. After a while the people complained that there were hardly any women left. The advisor told the king that he must sacrifice his own daughter, Princess Gem-de-Lovely next. The king couldn’t bare to sacrifice his daughter, but he couldn’t risk the stoor worm bringing destruction to the land either. The king called on all heroes who could slay the stoor worm, and offered them the princess’s hand in marriage, a magical sword and all the gold in his treasury. 30 heroes of great renown came to the king’s call, and each one of them on seeing the stoor worm fled without slaying it.


One day Assipattle, a young farm boy, went to the castle and said he could slay the stoor worm. The king and all his men laughed at Assipattle, but promised him the same prize if he actually pulled it off. Assipattle gathered up burning hot peat from his house’s fireplace and went off in a small row boat to the serpent. The stoor worm opened its mountain sized mouth and swallowed up Assipattle in his row boat. Deep within the monster’s stomach Assipattle held the burning peat against the serpent’s flesh. It caught on fire and started burning the stoor worm from the inside. The stoor worm vomited up Assipattle, who drifted safely to the beach. The stoor worm writhed and belched up black smoke. The people came to the cliff side to watch the monster die. It churned the sea with it’s writhing and blotted out the sun with its black breath. The people worried it would be the end of the world. The stoor worm’s teeth became the Orkney and Shetland islands and its skull became Iceland. The king kept his promise to Assipattle, rewarding him with the princess, the sword and all his treasure.


 Sources


https://folklorescotland.com/assipattle-and-the-mester-stoor-worm/

https://strangeandtwisted.com/blogs/stories/the-stoor-worm-scotlands-colossal-nightmare-from-the-deep?srsltid=AU7gw4Uf97h4w-vWi2bmGdci1HRs0nZGZz0ukMBkLgIxR5ql6c-hZfHS

https://spookyscotland.net/stoor-worm-mester-stoor-worm/

https://monster.fandom.com/wiki/Mester_Stoor_Worm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoor_worm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assipattle_and_the_Stoor_Worm


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