Jilocasin

Story by Montse Sant

During the reign of Charlemagne, there lived in the region of Gascony a very old and wise dragon called Jilocasin, who was a poet. Every so often, Jilocasin would abandon his comfortable and spacious dwelling and take a human form to visit the King's court. There he was a well-known and respected troubadour, and he made the most of these brief sojourns to sing his verses and listen to the creations of the other poets. Then he would return to his home in Gascony, where he could compose in peace and lead a quiet life far from the world.

The Tale

One day, he was traveling through the forest of Gascony disguised as a troubadour, when he heard a desperate cry for help. Without losing a moment he ran in the direction of the screams and came across a poor woman who was trying to defend herself against some bandits. Jilocasin changed back into a dragon and with two blows he finished off the ruffians. The woman had fainted from her injuries, and the dragon lifted her onto his back and flew swiftly back to his dwelling.

Jilocasin's servants took care of the lady, whose clothes, although they were torn and dirty, were those of a woman of high rank.

On undoing the bundle which the woman clasped to her breast, they found a baby only a few weeks old slumbering peacefully, oblivious to everything.

Thanks to the care and attention of the servants, the woman soon came to, and Jilocasin took on his human shape to visit his protégée. The lady expressed her gratitude and told him her story. She had been widowed within two years of marriage, and her family had forced her to marry her cousin, an unscrupulous man who was interested only in inheriting the title and wealth of her deceased husband.

The wedding was celebrated in haste, before the mourning period prescribed by law had been observed.

"But I was pregnant by my first husband, something which my cousin did not know," explained the woman, weeping. "When the baby was born, six months after the forced wedding, my husband tried to seize the baby to prevent him threatening his inheritance. Fearing for the life of my son, I ran away, but the villain pursued me with his henchmen, and he almost succeeded in killing the child. Fortunately, you saved us, and now my life belongs to you."

Touched by the grief and beauty of the woman, Jilocasin offered her support and shelter in his house.

Time passed, and the dragon-troubadour and the lady became inseparable. The beautiful fugitive was aware of Jilocasin's true identity, but she was so taken by his kindness and amiability that it did not affect her love for him. Meanwhile, the dragon found in her the understanding and friendship he had always sought. Jilocasin and the lady would go for long walks together, and sometimes the dragon would carry her on his back and they would visit far-off lands. Together they rode, loved, and sang the verses which the dragon-poet composed. They spent three happy years in this way.

To complete her happiness, the woman became pregnant. They were both looking forward to the birth of their son, but the lady died in childbirth. Jilocasin was inconsolable. He had lost an irreplaceable companion, the only woman who loved him as he was.

Faithful to her memory, the dragon cared for the two boys without making any distinction between his adopted son and his own son. He taught them the highest principles and, in time, presented them at court to be made knights.

The two brothers, who chose to be called the Knights of the Dragon, were famous for their nobility and honor, and they finally avenged their mother's memory by capturing the castle which their villainous uncle had stolen from them.

Where the Story Comes From

The version on this page is Montse Sant's retelling from The Book of the Dragon, a collection of dragon tales and lore written by Sant and illustrated by the Argentine fantasy artist Ciruelo Cabral.

Jilocasin is sometimes described as a traditional legend, but we have not been able to trace the story to any medieval text or recorded folk tradition older than Sant's book. Unlike tales such as Krakus and Smok or Beowulf, which have well-documented sources, Jilocasin is best read as a modern literary legend written in the style of a medieval romance. It may draw on older material, but the evidence for that isn't available.

The Setting: Charlemagne's Gascony

The story is set in Gascony, a region of southwestern France between the Garonne River and the Pyrenees, during the reign of Charlemagne. Charlemagne ruled the Franks from 768 and was crowned emperor in 800, dying in 814. His court and his knights became the subject of a huge body of medieval legend, the "Matter of France," which includes the Song of Roland.

Placing a troubadour at Charlemagne's court is poetic license. The troubadours, poet-musicians who composed in the Occitan language of southern France, appeared about three centuries after Charlemagne. The earliest troubadour whose work survives is William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, who lived from 1071 to 1126. Their golden age came in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the world of Eleanor of Aquitaine, which is also the setting of another dragon-troubadour story on this site, The Dragon Prince. Storytellers have always mixed eras freely, and the tale uses Charlemagne as shorthand for "long ago, in the age of knights."

A Different Kind of Dragon

Jilocasin turns the usual European dragon story on its head. In most Western dragon legends, the dragon is the villain. It hoards gold, devours maidens, and waits for a knight like Saint George to kill it. Here the dragon is the rescuer, the poet, the loving partner, and the father who raises knights. The human cousin who steals a widow's inheritance is the real monster.

Several themes run through the story:

Shape-shifting. Jilocasin moves between dragon and human form at will. Shape-changing dragons are common in East Asian tradition, where Chinese dragons often take human form, but are less common in European folklore.
Love that sees past appearances. The lady knows exactly what Jilocasin is and loves him anyway. That is the opposite of The Dragon Prince, where the wife's horror at seeing her husband's true form ends their marriage.
Chosen family. Jilocasin raises his stepson and his own son as equals. The brothers take the name "Knights of the Dragon," honoring the father who shaped them.
Wisdom and art. Jilocasin is old, wise, and creative. This fits the long tradition of dragons as ancient, intelligent beings, an idea that also runs through modern fantasy.

Readers who enjoyed Jilocasin may like other stories of kind or misunderstood dragons, such as the Cuélebre, a cursed girl waiting for someone to see past her scales. Good-hearted dragons are also a staple of modern fantasy and games. In Dungeons & Dragons, for example, the metallic dragons are generally good-aligned and some are known for taking human shape, a modern invention but very much in Jilocasin's spirit. Game masters looking to use a dragon like this in a campaign can find ideas in our tips for using dragons in fantasy RPGs.

If you liked this story, consider buying The Book of the Dragon by Montse Sant and Ciruelo Cabral.

Sources and Further Reading

Montse Sant, The Book of the Dragon, illustrated by Ciruelo Cabral (Sterling, 2012).
H. J. Chaytor, The Troubadours (Cambridge University Press, 1912). Read at Project Gutenberg.
Thomas Bulfinch, Legends of Charlemagne (1863). Read at Project Gutenberg.