Knucker

The Knucker is a water dragon of Sussex folklore that lived in the Knucker Hole, a deep pool at Lyminster, and was killed either by a knight or by a local lad with a poisoned pie.

The Story

At Lyminster, near Arundel in West Sussex, a spring-fed pond called the Knucker Hole was said to be bottomless. Villagers once tied the church's bell-ropes together and lowered them in, the story goes, without touching the bottom. In it lived a dragon, the knucker, which came out to seize cattle and people across the marshes.

There are two main endings. In one, the King of Sussex offers his daughter's hand to whoever kills the beast, and a knight (sometimes a wandering stranger) slays it and marries the princess. In the other, a local farm lad called Jim Pulk (or Puttock) bakes a huge poisoned pie, carts it to the pool, and lets the dragon eat pie, cart, and horses. When the knucker dies, Jim cuts off its head. Some say he then wiped his hand across his mouth, swallowed some of the poison, and died himself.

Appearance and Powers

The sources say little about its looks beyond calling it a dragon or great serpent, though Evershed's 1866 account has it flying through the air. It was a creature of water and marsh, rising from its pool to hunt. The word "knucker" is usually traced to Old English nicor, a water monster, the same word used for sea beasts in Beowulf. In Sussex dialect, "knucker hole" became a general term for such springs.

Origins and Sources

The earliest printed account found so far is Samuel Evershed's article in the Sussex Archaeological Collections (1866), which tells only the version in which a young hero kills the dragon and wins the princess; the pie ending was recorded later. In Lyminster church an old carved grave slab, the "Slayer's Slab," is pointed out as the hero's tomb, though it is simply a medieval cross-marked slab that the legend adopted. Jacqueline Simpson's Folklore of Sussex collected the different versions.

Legacy

The Knucker Hole still exists, and the legend is a staple of Sussex folklore walks. The pie ending, a humble trick instead of a knightly fight, gives the tale its local flavor. More English dragons are listed under Western dragons.

Related

• Bisterne Dragon: The Bisterne Dragon is a dragon of New Forest folklore that lived on Burley Beacon, drank milk delivered daily at Bisterne, and was killed by a knight named Berkeley with the help of two dogs.
• Mordiford Wyvern: The Mordiford Wyvern is a dragon of Herefordshire folklore, raised from a hatchling by a village girl named Maud, which grew into a man-eating monster and was killed near the River Lugg.
• Beowulf's dragon: Beowulf's dragon is the fire-breathing, treasure-guarding dragon of the Old English epic Beowulf, which ravages the land of the Geats after a cup is stolen from its hoard and dies fighting the aged hero.
• Western Dragons
• Dragon Legends

Sources and Further Reading

• Samuel Evershed, "Legend of the Dragon-Slayer of Lyminster," Sussex Archaeological Collections 18 (1866)
• Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore of Sussex (Batsford, 1973)
• Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson, The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends (Penguin, 2005)

Cite this entry: “Knucker,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/knucker.