Assipattle and the Stoor Worm

Long ago, on a farm in the far north of Scotland, there lived a boy called Assipattle. He was the youngest of seven brothers, and he liked to lie by the fire, poking the warm ashes and telling himself stories. In all his stories he was a hero, but his big brothers just laughed at him.

Now, in the sea near that land lived the Stoor Worm, the biggest sea serpent there ever was. It was so long that it could wrap itself around the whole country. Every morning when it woke, it gave a huge yawn, and great waves crashed over the fields and farms. The people were very frightened, and the king did not know what to do.

“Whoever can send the Stoor Worm away,” said the king, “shall have my kingdom, and my magic sword too.” Many brave knights came to try, but when they saw the Stoor Worm, they turned around and went home.

That night, Assipattle got up from beside the fire. He took an iron pot, and in it he put a glowing lump of peat from the fire, all smoky and warm. Then he slipped down to the shore and rowed a little boat through the dark, all the way to the Stoor Worm’s great head.

As the sun came up, the Stoor Worm opened its mouth for its morning yawn. In rushed the sea, and in rushed Assipattle in his little boat! Down and down he sailed, along the Stoor Worm’s long, dark throat. At last, deep inside, he leaned out of his boat and tipped the smoky peat out of his pot.

The smoke curled up and tickled the Stoor Worm all the way down inside. “Ah, ah, ah-choo!” sneezed the Stoor Worm, and it began to cough and cough. With an enormous cough, it shot Assipattle and his boat right back out onto the shore.

The Stoor Worm coughed so hard that its teeth flew out across the sea. Where they landed, they became little islands, and today we call them Orkney and Shetland. Then the tired old Stoor Worm curled itself up tight, and it fell into a long, long sleep. Its great curled body became the land far to the north that we now call Iceland, and it never troubled anyone again.

Everyone cheered for Assipattle, and even his brothers had to agree that he was a hero. The king gave him the magic sword, and Assipattle married the king’s daughter, Gem-de-lovely. And on winter evenings, he still liked to sit by the fire and tell stories, but now his stories were true.