The Lambton Worm

Origin and context

This retelling follows William Henderson's Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders (1879), chapter VIII, pages 287–292. Henderson did not collect the story himself. He explains that about thirty years before he wrote, Sir Cuthbert Sharpe, a friend of the historian Surtees and his assistant on the History of the Palatinate, gathered every detail he could from old residents around Lambton and printed it in the Bishoprick Garland, a little collection of Durham legends, songs and ballads issued in only 150 copies. Henderson drew freely on that rare book. He sets the scene on the Wear, north of Lumley, and describes Worm Hill as an oval hill on the north side of the river, about a mile and a half from old Lambton Hall. The date he leaves vague: “some say about the fourteenth century”, and he admits it is uncertain. The Lambton family is real; Henderson calls it very ancient, with a pedigree reaching back to the twelfth century. Sharpe added an entry from an old manuscript pedigree naming John Lambton, “that slewe ye worme”, as a knight of Rhodes. Henderson notes that nine generations lead from that knight to an eighteenth-century Lambton who died in 1761, and that local people watched to see whether the curse would hold to the end; his own mother passed on her mother's memory of the long, anxious wait and the awe that followed.

Characters

• The heir of Lambton: A careless young heir who fishes up the worm one Sunday, later comes home from the wars, kills it in spiked armour and breaks his vow. An old manuscript pedigree names the worm-slayer John Lambton.
• The worm: A creature fished out of the Wear that grows into a monster. It coils round Worm Hill, must be given the milk of nine cows every day and can join itself together again after being cut in two.
• The old stranger: A dignified old man passing by, who looks into the well, likens the creature to an eft with nine holes on each side of its mouth and doubts that it means anything good.
• The old lord of Lambton: The heir's father, left alone at Lambton Hall. When he hears the bugle he forgets the plan and runs out to embrace his son, becoming the first living thing to meet him.
• The old steward: A servant at Lambton Hall, a man of years and experience, who suggests filling the courtyard trough with milk to keep the worm quiet.
• The wise woman: She scolds the heir, then has him stud his armour with spearheads and vow to kill the first living thing he meets on his way home, or no lord of Lambton will die in his bed for nine generations.
• The hound: A favourite dog chosen to be the first creature to meet the victorious knight. He kills it after his father's embrace, but too late to keep the vow.

Versions of the legend

A soldier abroad, a crusader or a knight of Rhodes

Henderson's main account says only that the repentant heir went off to the wars in a distant country. He then adds that some authorities have him sailing as a crusader to the Holy Land. The old manuscript pedigree quoted by Sharpe gives yet another label, calling the worm-slayer a knight of Rhodes.

The fight as a local poet saw it

At the moment of combat Henderson breaks off his prose to quote lines by an unnamed local poet. The verses add touches the prose never mentions: the worm speeds down the middle of the stream like a streak of living light, the water around it glows in rainbow colours, the rock shakes as if in an earthquake when the worm strikes, and flakes of fire fall around the knight, who holds his ground even though, the poet admits, his blood runs cold.

A worm with ears, legs and wings

Henderson mentions two old stone figures that had stood until recently at Lambton Castle. One seemed to show the hero, with studded armour, sword and defeated monster just as the story describes, except that the carved worm has ears, legs and even a pair of wings. The other was a female figure without clear features; Henderson suggests, cautiously, that it might have been meant for the wise woman. He also notes that the trough said to have held the worm's daily milk was still shown at Lambton Hall, and that Surtees remembered being shown there, when young, a piece of tough material like bull's hide, presented as part of the worm's skin.

Meaning and symbolism

Henderson does not interpret the Lambton story on its own, but in the review that closes his chapter on worms and dragons (pages 302–303) he weighs the explanations offered for such tales. Some writers, he reports, saw the dragon as a disguised memory of a cruel tyrant; others as a recollection of huge real animals that once threatened people; others as pure allegory of the struggle between good and evil. Henderson himself thought the last two views could be held together: the story expresses the victory of truth over error, while the monster's shape is borrowed from huge animals that were once far more familiar to people than they are now. He also explains the local word: in the North of England dragons were called worms, from the Norse ormr, a serpent or dragon. Within the tale itself, the wise woman blames the heir for bringing the scourge on his home and helps him only once she sees that he is truly sorry; even so, the broken vow leaves his family paying a price.

Can you visit the place?

The National Trust's Lambton Worm walk at Penshaw Monument turns the story into a trail. According to the Trust's page, it is a moderate route of 11 stages and 2.6 miles (4.16 km), taking about an hour and a half, that starts and finishes at the bottom of Penshaw Hill, just off the A183. The Trust mentions free parking off Chester Road (A183) and limited parking at the foot of the hill. The route climbs Penshaw Hill, where a nearby viewpoint may give a glimpse of the top of Lambton Castle among the trees, then passes through the village of Cox Green and follows a riverside path along the Wear. It includes steps, stiles, slopes and uneven ground, and dogs must be kept on a lead where livestock is grazing. The trail places the worm's coils around Penshaw Hill, adding that some people believe it was Worm Hill in nearby Fatfield instead. Henderson names Worm Hill but not Fatfield; the Tyne and Wear Historic Environment Record (no. 7852) lists Worm Hill at Fatfield and links it to the legend, while noting that some connect the story with Penshaw Hill. Check the Trust's page for current details before setting out.