Tradition: German Mythology
Alternative Names: Dragon of the Mountain Spring
Category: Dragon
The Myth
High in the Alpine mountains there was a spring whose water no human or animal could safely drink. A terrible dragon lived beside it, and its poisonous breath was deadly to anyone who approached the spring. The creature’s presence had made the water useless to the people of the surrounding region.
When Saint Narcissus, the holy bishop of Girona, came to Augsburg, the Devil approached him and demanded a soul—a living being whose body he could kill and whose soul he could take for himself. Narcissus agreed, but only after making the Devil swear that he would immediately kill whoever was placed in his power.
The bishop then sent the Devil into the high Alpine mountains. There, he told him, he would find a spring from which nobody could drink because a terrible dragon guarded it. The monster’s poisonous breathing killed all who came near the water. Narcissus commanded the Devil to kill the dragon and seize its soul.
The Devil was horrified by the command. He cried out with the terrible voice of a fierce lion, lamenting that the bishop had trapped him by his own oath. He had sworn to kill the creature given into his power, and if he refused, the bishop’s terms would condemn him to the depths of Hell.
Bound by his oath, the Devil went to the mountain spring and killed the dragon. With the monster dead, the deadly spring was freed from its curse and its water became available for the benefit of humanity, remaining so thereafter.
Sources
“Der Teufel und der Drache.” SAGEN.at – Traditionelle Sagen aus Deutschland (Bayern). Reproduced by SAGEN.at.
https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/deutschland/bayern/teufel_drachen.htm