Fire Dragon of Maltschül

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Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: Maltschül Fire Dragon, Buchs Dragon
Category: Dragon

The Myth

Beneath the Red Plate on the Maltschül Alp lives a fiery dragon. The creature is said to appear only before a flood.

In 1762 and again in 1764, a fiery man was seen riding through the Buchserbach gorge upon the dragon. Soon afterward, the waters rose violently, sweeping away houses and barns and devastating fields and meadows.

Another tradition tells that the dragon lived on the Alp of Buchs, where it breathed fire and smoke and lured cattle toward a rocky plate. The animals would then slip from the rock and fall into the dragon’s reach, becoming its prey.

Whenever the dragon appeared, the stream was said to burst its banks and bring destructive floods. According to later tradition, the dragon is now dead and lies buried beneath the rock where it once dwelled.

Sources

“Der feurige Drache.” SAGEN.at – Traditionelle Sagen aus der Schweiz (Kanton St. Gallen). Reproduced by SAGEN.at.
https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/st_gallen/feurige_drache.html

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