There was an old village in Scotland,
All around murky forests did sway;
Inside a house in the village,
A beautiful maiden lay.
Her shining black locks fell down to her waist,
Her eyes each shone like the moon.
Her radiance was famous everywhere yet
To but one man she was immune.
Sir Gideon, he loved her also;
At her sight his heart would swell
To two times its natural size and shape,
His fair sweet Annabelle.
And yet each day he lived in fear
Of losing her, for he was poor.
If he had no money she could not love him,
Of that he knew for sure.
Searching for treasure he dug up
Every burrow, lifted each stone;
He found gold jewellery and silver crowns
But Annabelle was left alone.
She wept for him and would not eat,
But slowly her heart grew colder.
For she hadn’t wanted gold or rubies
Only a husband to hold her.
Foolish Gideon’s loot piled higher and higher;
He counted the coins in pleasure.
Annabelle would adore him he thought to himself,
As soon as he showed her the treasure.
But the more his riches collected,
The more he was obsessed
With protecting his fortune from plunderers;
He guarded it with zest.
Every hour of the day he prowled
The entrance to his cave,
Where glistened in the darkness he thought
The keys to the woman he craved.
He had once heard of a wizard
Who sometimes travelled these parts;
With powerful magic and sorcery
Bent mean’s wills or broke their hearts.
Sir Gideon swore he would find this magician
‘If it is the last thing I do,
I’ll track down this man and get me a spell
To guard my treasure true.’
He rode for days through forest and marsh
Through ravine and valley and bog,
Until one misty morning he spied
A figure through the fog.
‘I know why you’ve come’ said a voice through the gloom,
‘You want a spell for protecting
Your hoarded treasure for sweet Annabelle,
For scoundrels and thieves deflecting.
‘I’ll give you a spell and a powerful one
Stronger than all my charms;
Your treasure well-guarded will always be
Till your love lies helpless in your arms.
Now prepare Sir Gideon! Kneel down here!’
Gideon did, his head was bowed,
The magician declared his spell to the wind,
In a strange language loud.
Immediately Sir Gideon felt its effects;
A shuddering shot through his core.
His arms and legs were expanding,
Sir Gideon was a knight no more.
His limbs bristled with shining green scales,
He towered above the ground.
Smoke circled from his nostrils,
He cleared a chasm in a bound.
A fearsome dragon stalked back to his cave
With a dragon’s body and mind,
Gnashing jaws had appeared in front
A thrashing tail behind.
Gone was Gideon and his love for Annabelle,
All that was left was a beast;
With one aim in mind, to guard his treasure;
The flesh of thieves was his feast.
A hundred knights dared face the dragon,
A hundred knights ripped to shreds
A hundred knights’ families mourned for their sons,
And slept without peace in their beds.
Sir Gideon the dragon, the hideous monster
Terrorized the town;
Any man, woman or child he saw
Without thinking he took them down.
Now it happened one day that Annabelle,
Was alone by the frozen stream,
When she looked up to see in the distance
A gust of curling steam.
Curious she mounted the hill,
Her frail figure fading,
Was the last her mother saw of her
Into the winter mist wading.
She came upon a deep dark cave,
Which seemed bottomless and black;
Though in her heart she was afraid,
She refused to retreat back.
A rumble in the darkness,
A crunching of knee-deep bones,
The smoke around her thickened,
Flame red shone the ancient stones.
A great green dragon emerged from its den,
Its nose flaring with human scent;
A thunderous roar exploded the cave,
The maiden’s cry the air rent.
Gideon, blind to his old lover’s face,
Stormed forth to meet his foe.
With his strong fore-arms and fiery breath,
He struck her down with one blow
With mighty teeth he tore at her body,
He broke her with his jaws,
Till limp she lay, bleeding and dead,
Clutched in her lover’s claws.
As soon as her body, shattered and red,
Fell onto the monster’s arm,
His wild tail ceased thrashing
And his crazy eyes became calm.
For there lay his love helpless in his arms,
Murdered, but there all the same
A shuddering shot again through his core;
The terrifying beast was now tame.
Iron scales went clattering to the floor,
The dragon’s eyes were now blue.
His body, once more fragile
Was once more human too.
Aghast he looked down with trembling hands,
At the corpse which was Annabelle;
Though confused he knew his dragon self
Had done this, that much he could tell.
Just one tear trickled down the knight’s face
As he buried her underground,
Though is soul screamed out as he lowered her down,
He did not make a sound
‘Here lies fair Annabelle’ the gravestone read,
‘On December 13th deceased
Beautiful, kind, loving and pure
Since you could not in life, rest in peace.’
Sir Gideon put a flower at her head,
And kissed her one last time;
As he threw the last handful of dirt
He heard the church bells chime.
No-one ever found Lady Annabelle
Or her suitor Sir Gideon
But after that day no dragon ever roared
And in the cave sunlight now shone.
