Monday 27 January 2014

The Dornoch Dragon and Nessie

Over at Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog, I stumbled upon a reference to my book "The Water Horses of Loch Ness". The subject in question was the Dornoch Dragon which was reputed to have terrorised that Highland town in the 13th century.

The point of referencing that story in my book was to highlight the difference but co-existence of dragon and kelpie stories in the folklore of Highland times. The Loch Ness Monster is a Kelpie, but it is no Dragon. You can go over to Beachcombing's website to get the story.

But what interests me is not so much the story but the source. I picked up on the story from a letter to The Scotsman newspaper on the 1st January 1934. The author of the letter was a Mr. David Murray Rose. 

Mr. Rose had previously sent a letter to the same newspaper mentioning some pre-1933 references to a strange beast in Loch Ness. These are important references but they have been dismissed by sceptics because he does not state his sources. Now for those who think Nessie is merely a media creation of the 1930s, such pre-1930s references are inconvenient and the sooner they are debunked away the better. Now I admit he does not state his sources, but I accept they exist. This week's article on the Dornoch Dragon has reinforced that view.

The article ends with doubts being cast upon the veracity of Rose's account and again poor old David Murray Rose is in the dock. But then help came along in the shape of Mr. Borky (who I believe also frequents this blog). Borky informed Beachcombing that there is indeed an earlier source for the story and refers us to the Folklore Journal, volume six, published in 1888. You can find a link to it here.

So David Murray Rose is vindicated in this letter to The Scotsman and therefore I would suggest that he is also trustworthy in his other letter on the Loch Ness Monster. Of course, the task is to find these original sources and that is not a simple task if they have not reached the scanners of Google Books yet.

I examined Mr. Rose's research material in Edinburgh when I was researching my book. Suffice to say, my two days there was not enough to cover the vast volume of boxes there. Indeed, trying to read his pencilled handwriting was no easy task either! If I ever retire, I hope to revisit them.

On a side note, I noticed that the 1888 Folklore Journal stated the following:

The dragon killed by St. Gilbert (before-mentioned) must have been a salamander, since it was born from a fire which has lasted seven years. It lived in fire, and its breath burnt all the forests of the Highlands : onlv a man who should see it before it saw him had power to slay it, St. Gilbert dug a hole and hid himself in it, so as to get the first sight of it. 

Interestingly, the Loch Ness Monster was also reputedly referred to as "The Salamander" in the 19th century. Is there a connection here between dragon and kelpie?  As it turns out, folklore has an interesting view of the salamander. The old Gaelic dictionary of animal names say this:

SALAMANDER. — Corr or corra-chagailte ; Teighiollas ; Urchuil or urcuil. 
Fire-form, sometimes fire-bird. 
A belief exists, or existed, that one of these nondescript creatures grew in any fire that was kept burning continuously or incessantly for seven years, hence the reason for extinguishing all furnaces periodically within that period ; it need hardly be added that the reason is of a more utilitarian and prosaic nature in cities. 

Of Sir Robert Gordon, the Third Baronet of Nova Scotia, it is said of his wizardry:

He is said to have fitted up a forge, and here night after night for seven long years he sat watching the glowing embers, until at length his patience was rewarded by the appearance of a live salamander. From this creature he tortured many an unearthly secret.

Perhaps not the salamander of modern day theories, but I wonder if the two were connected?

And finally, I also stumbled upon this piece from 1907:

The Adder as a swimmer — I do not suppose that the adder which was discovered swimming across Loch-Ness knew what it was attempting. Apart from the doubt whether snakes have long sight, it is obvious that a creature whose eyes are always close to the ground must have a very near horizon, and can, therefore, have no notion of the width of a large piece of water. - (to P. C. Inverness.) 
 

Snakes swimming across Loch Ness? You learn something every day! The sceptics can add that to their list of misidentifications!


23 comments:

  1. interesting stuff. what are your thoughts on the Duncan Campbell account from 1527 of a"terrible beast-issuing out of the water early one morning about mid summer..."

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    1. The story is real enough (in terms of being in the ancient literature) but the location was not Loch Ness. Might have been Gairloch, not sure.

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    2. As it happens I've been looking at some local history books on the Dornoch area fairly recently. Now, while there's a tradition about dragons scorching local woods there's also a story about witches scorching them at this time. I've also been getting into stuff about comets' effect on Earth, so with acknowledgements to Messrs Klube, Napier, Baillie et al I'd like to suggest that dragons = comets = witches (flying through the sky on broomsticks). Now all we need is to find the "scorchio" stone that fell to Earth in the Camore Woods. (The hapless crone who took the blame for the event was probably found hundreds of years ago.)

      *AnonStg*

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  2. I feel I should apologize. Borky hasn't posted here since I confessed to having a burning crush on him; I think I scared him off. I'm the Lwaxana Troi of the Interwebs; my love and adoration can be a bit... much.

    Yours in Nessiana,

    Storm

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    1. Apology accepted, just don't scare off any more readers! :)

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  3. GB,any news about these photographs?
    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=631839443517857&id=537100722991730

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  4. Ahhh! Very exciting to at last have proof Rose wasn't just making up stories, at least in this letter's case. I had a good feeling there were genuine sources behind his reports, and now even more so. Great detective work once again GB!

    While I'm excited for accounts that seem to align with my own premise on the nature of "Nessie", I think in this Dornoch case the use of the term "salamander" is coincidental, triggered because fire was involved.

    Let's look at the chronology in the tale itself. This "terrible dragon" was known to have "infested" the lochs to the west. So real or legendary, it wasn't a new neighbor, stories had grown up around it, and it was associated with at least one loch -- possibly Loch-an-Treel that being near. (Reminds one of Ted Holiday's observation that all European dragons were associated with rivers and lakes.)

    Then the Wood burns down, possibly preceded by fires seen in the sky as per the comet fragments idea contributed by *AnonStg*.

    Who do the locals blame? Why the Nessie-like beastie they've already seen and talked about for some time, of course! Gilbert goes out, finds one of the miserable animals perhaps cut-off from it's home in Loch-an-Treel by the fire (it picked the wrong day to come ashore for a crawl in the adjacent Wood), and Gilbert then proceeds to dispatch the disorientated animal rather easily. Or simply finds it dead and takes credit. Of course as the story is retold in later years, centuries actually, it converges with the tale of Sigurd slaying Fafnir, adopting all the forensic details of the killing of the more famous Norse dragon. Giving us Gilbert = Sigurd.

    Only what poor beast stood in for Fafnir??? It's probably way too late being seven centuries old, but someone should still get that permit and have a look under the "Stone of the Beast"! Probably wouldn't be anything left of a giant aquatic salamander though -- their skeletons are like cartilage, and don't preserve at all well.

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    1. Nicely put, Steve. Yes, the salamander reference may be more down to effect than morphology. But then again, this was the interpretation of the 1888 journal. One wonders what the original story teller thought?

      An english translation of Loch-An-Treel would also be desirable.

      An excavation would be very interesting!

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    2. It's true that this is some time before the "witch craze", so perhaps that's an argument for the scapegoat having four feet rather than two.
      Looking again at the text:
      "this dragon who burnt all the fir-woods in Ross, Sutherland, and the Reay, of which the remains, charred, black and half decayed, may now be found in every moss. Magnificent forests they must have been, but the dragon set fire to them with his fiery breath, as he rolled over the whole land. Men fled from before his face, and women fainted when his shadow crossed the sky-line. He made the whole land a desert. And it came to pass, that this evil spirit, whom the people called "the Beast," and Dhu guisch (of the black firs), came nigh to Dornoch, as near as to Lochfinn…"
      it seems to suggest a wider disaster, which may have come from the sky. Some people think that something of this sort may have happened across significant parts of Britain around 540 AD/CE. Maybe the tradition is combining this with a more modest later event? And if there were any earthly "dragons" living in more extensive lochs and bogs further west then one or two of them could have headed towards Dornoch when their environment was disrupted.
      I haven't read Holiday, partly because I'm not inclined to reach for supernatural explanations for Nessie and her kind, but I think that it could be interesting to see how his researches relate to the 44 years of scientific / historical ideas proposed since he wrote.

      *AnonStg*

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    3. Was there not some super-volcano event around the Dark Ages times?

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    4. There seems to have been a major eruption in Indonesia at this time, but who's to say that cometary activity didn't trigger that?

      Dendrochronologist Mike Baillie quotes from 6th century British writer and cleric Gildas, who talks of "...a fire of righteous vengeance [which] blazed from sea to sea" and "burnt up almost the whole surface of the island, until its red and savage tongue licked the western ocean". (Maybe an exaggeration, but...) Then he goes on to have fun with the Arthurian dragon-related stuff.

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    5. Ah, "Catastrophe" by David Keys - that was the book.

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  5. *AnonStg*, Holiday's book "The Great Orm of Loch Ness" predates his supernatural writings -- he's still all science and historical research at that point. Probably heavier on the historical parts than any book until GB's, so it'll be an enjoyable read. The main premise is an exploration of the invertebrate hypothesis he favored up until that time, but the digressions especially into historical reports and written records of alleged dragons and dragon slayings is really fun stuff.

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  6. Just so I'm clear - are you guys suggesting that all the ancient Scottish folklore tales about kelpies and dragons all over the place actually support the concept of a biological flesh and blood unknown animal in Loch Ness?

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    1. Some (not all) are consistent with modern stories. They don't support the biological concept, just the "big, unknown thing" concept.

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    2. Yes, but unfortunately in hundreds of lochs, not just L Ness. Kind of spoils it a bit don't you think?

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    3. Hundreds? Something tells me you have not done your due diligence on this subject.

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  7. There are tales of kelpies all over Scotland, you should know that, Rowlie!

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    1. If you wish to take this subject seriously, read my book.

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    2. Ok I'll buy it. I'm a scientific person, so I open my mind to all sources of information. I'm still 99.99% certain there's no Nessie though. Do you offer any discount to sceptics buying your book? :-)

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    3. I've been wanting to ask for a while - are there any plans to make your book available as an e-book for kindle?

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    4. Ah, yes. Good question, Martin. i thought about it and then thought no. I must be a paper book person!

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    5. Sorry, I sold my last spare copies at the Nessie Symposium!

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