St David & The Dragon

Once upon a time, in Wales, St David was riding past a village when an old man; a village elder, approached him, asking him for help.

“Please Sir”, he pleaded, “You look like a knight. Can you not help us? Our village is constantly terrorized by a red, scaly, fire-breathing dragon who lives in a cave in the forest”.

But St. David was a peaceful sort of man who didn’t carry a sword and wasn’t used to slaying dragons.

“I will have to pray for help and guidance”, he said, getting down from his horse and kneeling on the ground, “The lord will show me the way”.

And, as St David was praying, a bright flash of light came down from the sky and, suddenly, in front of him, David saw a leek appear.

“A leek?”, thought David, “That’s a very odd thing for God to send”.

But David was a man of faith and, knowing that his god worked in mysterious ways, was sure that the leek must have some purpose.

And so, picking up the leek, he made his way bravely to the cave of the Red dragon.

When St David got to the cave, he was, as most men would be, very frightened of the dragon but still, plucking up all his courage and holding the leek out in front of him, he walked towards the cave.

Suddenly, David saw the great red dragon appear; smoke billowing from its nostrils, its giant, bat like wings flapping and its long, spiky tail swishing and, trembling with fear, he approached it with the leek.

But then, to his horror, St David heard a loud crunching sound.

“Oh no!”, he thought, “The dragon must have got me. I’m sure of it. It’s bitten me”.

But, when St David looked up, he saw that the Dragon had not bitten him at all. It had only bitten the end off of his leek.

St David smiled and his eyes lit up, “This Dragon is a vegetarian. It wouldn’t hurt anyone”, he said.

Then the dragon, seeing that St David was friendly, told him her side of the story; that she had only attacked the village because the villagers would not leave her alone.

“They think I have treasure in my cave”, she explained, “But the only treasure I have is my children and I’m afraid that the greedy villagers might hurt them”.

Hearing this, St David felt very sorry for the dragon and, returning to the village, told off the villagers.

“If you go bothering dragons in their caves then what do you expect to happen?”, he shouted at them.

Then he said that they must all take a present to the dragon to show her that they meant her and her children no harm.

The villagers said that they were poor and had nothing they could give as a gift to the dragon.

But then, looking about, St David saw a field of yellow daffodils growing nearby.

“You can give her those”, he said, pointing to the flowers.

So, then each of the villagers picked a daffodil and they took them as gifts to the dragon and the dragon, very happily, gave them to her children.

And, from that day on, the dragon and the villagers were the very best of friends.