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the creature, the girl took it home to show to her parents. Immediately her mother and father realized it was a wyvern and commanded Maud to take it back to where she had found it because it would cause trouble in the village. The indignant Maud pretended to obey but instead hid the infant dragon in a safe place in the forest. There she nurtured her "pet" with milk, playing with it and watching it try to fly. The dragon grew vastly each month, eventually taking on an emerald hue and developing thick, powerful wings.
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The story of the dragon remains part of
Mordiford's culture: it is continually mentioned in modern records of the town. A portrait of the dragon – depicting it as a green wyvern – appeared on the wall of the main church of the village until the church was repaired and renovated in 1811. Supposedly it
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The name
Garston corresponds to a local well-to-do family – one that the local parish records note that made charitable bequests to the local church in the 16th and 17th centuries. Paul Newman speculates that the slayer's identity as a convict was added to the serpent version of the tale to make it
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in this account – was found by a little girl from
Mordiford named Maud, who had desperately wanted a pet. While wandering the forest adjacent to her village one day, Maud had found a small bright creature with a snout and small, translucent wings prowling around a small group of flowers. Excited by
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In the legend, after reaching maturity, the dragon's hunger could not be satisfied with milk anymore—it now had an enormous hunger for meat. Soon, it began to plague the local farms, killing their livestock, especially cows and sheep, and farmers were intolerant. These men tried to stop the
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The townspeople in the tale grew exhausted of the constant attacks from the dragon and desperate, sought help from the noblemen of
Mordiford. A man from the local Garstone family set out in full armour to end the beast's life forever, finding the beast nearly camouflaged into the forest's many
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plants. The dragon almost instantly released a blast of fire, Garstone barely deflecting it. He aimed a lance at the wyvern's throat, releasing it and fully penetrating through the dragon. Maud, insane with rage and grief, burst from the surrounding forest and came to mourn her past pet.
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In another account, the
Mordiford Dragon was more serpentine and lived in Haugh Wood for some years. The poisonous creature terrorized the area to the point where it decreased the working population of the town. Eventually a local convict offered to kill the creature if he were given a
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where the serpent drank its water and concealed himself in the barrel. Once the dragon arrived at the river, the convict shot an arrow through a hole in the barrel, piercing the creature's heart. But as the dragon died, its poison flowed into the barrel, killing the convict as well.
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A local group has created the
Mordiford Dragon Trail, which tells the story of the Maud and the Dragon with the help of statues on a 1.4 mile walk around the village. The Mordiford Dragon Trail opened in 2022 and begins on The Lower Green with an information board.
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beast by extermination, but it soon feasted upon them, finding human flesh delicious. Maud implored the beast during her visits afterward to stop its rampage. Still the beast, now fully mature, killed everything in its way except for Maud, its only friend.
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Helps to
Hereford history, civil and legendary, in an account of ... The Mordiford Dragon and other subjects
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considered it "heathenish." A reproduction of this painting of the dragon is displayed inside the church.
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from the River Lugg, believing that the animals were "the seed of the dragon" and that if they weren't
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Journey into South Wales: through the counties of ... Hereford in the year 1799
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There are multiple accounts of the dragon that have it take different forms.
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Supposedly, as late as 1875, a pair of old women could be seen killing
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The Hill of the Dragon: An
Enquiry into the Nature of Dragon Legends
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Some verses from 1670 refer to the dragon in the
Mordiford church:
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Hereford, cathedral and city: a handbook for the public buildings
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The
Hereford guide: containing a concise history of the city
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One version of the legend explains that the dragon – a
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213:In Eastwood it by Garston's hand was slaine,
211:Prodigious monster which our woods did range
50:introducing citations to additional sources
363:. Bath: Kingsmead Press. pp. 148–151.
221:into a "local villain-makes-good story."
215:A truth which old mythologists maintaine
40:Relevant discussion may be found on the
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209:This is the true Effigy of that strange
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117:was said to reside just outside the
447:Picturesque views on the river Wye
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416:St George and other dragon tales
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466:- 1868 (images earlier - 1696)
386:. New York: Barnes and Noble.
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430:by James Dacres Devlin - 1848
192:Holyrood Church in Mordiford
533:English legendary creatures
166:The Convict and the Serpent
125:, at the confluence of the
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507:The Mordiford Dragon Trail
382:Dragons: A Natural History
482:by William Camden - 1695
246:The dragon and daughter
528:Herefordshire folklore
474:by Joseph Jones - 1858
409:Dragons of the Marches
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197:was removed because a
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378:Shuker, Karl (1995).
355:Newman, Paul (1979).
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61:"Dragon of Mordiford"
502:, compendium - 1865
440:William Jenkins Rees
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459:History from Marble
230:ritually sacrificed
145:Maud and the Wyvern
115:Dragon of Mordiford
341:, p. 149-150.
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137:Differing Accounts
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517:Categories
252:References
177:River Lugg
127:River Lugg
72:newspapers
479:Britannia
131:River Wye
123:Mordiford
42:talk page
240:See also
129:and the
349:Sources
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494:- 1802
454:- 1797
442:- 1808
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199:rector
173:pardon
151:wyvern
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