The Loch Ness Monster

[gordi]

I noticed on the map that Kenzo shared earlier...



...a reference to "The Dundee Dragon"?
Well, there's actually a well known folk-tale about that one - if you'd like to hear it?

I found out about it when I came across a big bronze "Scary Dragon" sculpture in Dundee city centre...

OK, Many years ago, a farmer lived in a small village (Pittenden?) to the Northside of Dundee with his NINE daughters (don't ask!! LOL).
Upon needing fresh water, he sent one of his daughters out to the well to get some, but she was taking ages to come back so he sent another daughter out to hurry her up.
When she didn't come back either, he sent another and then another until all of his daughters were now gone.
Perplexed; he went out after them, and following their path (down to the well) found their mangled, half-eaten corpses scattered all around a grotesque but sleeping Dragon!

Horrified, he ran back to the village for help, where a young man called Martin - the boyfriend of his eldest daughter - gathered some of the men-folk together and they hurried back up the hill to the spot by the well, engaging and badly injuring the Dragon in a terrible fight.

The Dragon tried to flee but the men pursued on horseback and finally caught up with it, where Martin delivered the fatal blow to the cries of "Strike Martin! Strike Martin!"

There stands to this day, on the spot where The Dragon fell... an ancient Pictish stone with a carving of a Man on horseback battling a "serpent", now known as "Martin's Stone" and the entire area is actually called: "Strathmartine", which is either a corruption of "Strike Martin!" or more likely "Martin's Valley" (Strath generally meaning "a mountain valley around...").

The "Nine Maidens" are celebrated in various local landmarks and businesses, and the Dragon has been adopted as a sort of city emblem for Dundee.


I found a picture of the Dragon Sculpture in Dundee's city centre!



Now, I have no idea whether the story has any basis in fact, and I presume that it was probably "made up" to entertain adults over a dram, or to frighten kids to go to bed, or maybe just to try and explain the strange carving on the ancient stone... but there is the nagging question...

Why would the ancient Picts go to all the trouble of erecting a standing stone to adorn it with an image of a man on horseback battling a serpent, if it didn't represent... something?

G