MD3PAD 589-591

[Toby G Levy]

        Dixon continues his tale about the Lambton worm.

        The worm grows in the well. The water becomes undrinkable and
some buckets that are let down do not come back up. One morning at
sunrise the worm, grown huge, climbs out of the well. It moves to an
island in the nearby river and starts to consume livestock and pets and
even careless humans.

vw#123: Trebuchet - A medieval catapult for hurling heavy stones.

        Eventually the worm gets so large it can coil completely around
Lambton Castle.  It soon establishes a routine of coiling around the
castle every night.

        Finally John Lambton returns from the crusades.

vw#124: elver - young eel.

        Lambton never made it to the  Holy Land, instead spending his
time in Transylvania. He encounters a gypsy fortune teller who tells him
how the worm is threatening the castle.   He asks for assurances of his
success against the worm and the gypsy brings in a priest who has him
swear an oath that after he successfully kills the worm he would
sacrifice to God the first living thing he happens to see.

Toby