The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh

When I was a little girl, I had a book of fairy tales.

And of all the stories in that book—the princesses, castles, witches and enchanted forests—one of the stories that fascinated me most was also one of the strangest.

The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh.

Why this particular story lodged itself so firmly in my childhood imagination, I couldn't have told you then.

It was weird.

It was a little scary.

There was a beautiful princess, a jealous witch-queen, a terrible curse and an enormous serpent-like creature wrapped around a rocky hill.

Apparently, this was exactly the sort of thing little Lisa found irresistible.

Looking back now, though, I think I understand it a little better.

There was something about those old stories—the strange creatures, enchanted landscapes, witches, curses, ancient castles and the possibility that the world might contain things we couldn't quite explain—that captured my imagination.

I think stories like this planted some of the earliest seeds of my lifelong love of folklore, herbs, old traditions, magic and all those mysterious things that seem to exist just beyond the edges of the ordinary world.

So it seems fitting that, all these years later, the Laidly Worm should eventually find her way here, too.

Once Upon a Time at Bamburgh...

The story comes from Northumberland in northern England, around Bamburgh and the rocky outcrop known as Spindleston Heugh.

A king lived at Bamburgh with his children, including his beautiful daughter, Princess Margaret, and her brother, Childe Wynd.

Eventually, Childe Wynd sailed away to seek his fortune.

While he was gone, the king took a new wife.

And unfortunately for Margaret, the new queen was no ordinary woman.

She was a witch.

When the queen arrived at the castle, Margaret welcomed her and handed over the keys to her new home.

But the queen quickly noticed something else.

People admired Margaret.

They spoke of her beauty.

And jealousy took root.

Rather than seeing the young woman as family, the queen saw her as a rival.

And because this is an old fairy tale, she didn't simply sulk about it.

She cursed her.

The Princess Becomes the Worm

Through her magic, the queen transformed Margaret into a hideous creature—the Laidly Worm.

The word worm sounds rather unimpressive to us today, but in old British and northern European stories, a worm or wyrm could mean an enormous serpent or dragon-like creature.

These creatures often belonged to wild places—to hills, caves, ancient stones, wells and the forgotten edges of the landscape.

Margaret crawled away from the life she had known and made her home near Spindleston Heugh.

There, the beautiful princess became something people feared.

But this is where the story becomes much more interesting to me now than it was when I was a child.

Because the monster was never truly a monster.

Beneath the scales and frightening appearance, Margaret was still Margaret.

She was enchanted.

Feeding the Monster

The Laidly Worm became a terror to the surrounding countryside, devouring animals when she was hungry.

Eventually, the people sought help and were given an unusual solution.

Instead of killing the creature, they were told to provide her with the milk of seven cows, placed in a stone trough.

When they did, the Worm drank the milk and stopped terrorizing the countryside.

I love that little piece of the story now.

The villagers certainly protected themselves from her—but they also discovered what she needed.

The frightening creature could be fed.

She could be calmed.

Because somewhere beneath everything the curse had done to her, the princess was still there.

Rowan Against the Witch

Eventually, word reached Childe Wynd that something terrible had happened to his sister.

He decided to return home and rescue her.

And tucked into this part of the tale is one of my favorite little pieces of plant folklore.

His ship was made of rowan wood.

Rowan has a long association in British and European folk tradition with protection, particularly protection against harmful magic and enchantment.

So when the witch-queen learned that Childe Wynd was returning and summoned supernatural forces against his ship, her magic could not stop him.

The rowan protected him.

It's one of those details I appreciate even more now.

The plant isn't simply scenery in the story.

The plant is part of the magic.

When the Knight Meets the Dragon

Eventually, Childe Wynd encounters the terrible creature his sister has become.

And everything about her appearance tells him that he is standing before a monster.

But the Worm speaks to him.

She tells him who she is.

And rather than killing the creature before him, Childe Wynd listens.

To break the enchantment, he must kiss her three times.

So he does.

Once.

Twice.

And finally, a third time.

The spell breaks.

The monstrous form disappears, and Margaret is restored.

Childe Wynd then confronts the queen responsible for the curse, and the old tale gives the witch an appropriately fairy-tale ending of her own.

But it is Margaret's transformation—and her brother's response to it—that stayed with me.

The Monster Was Never the Monster

As a child, I remembered the dragon.

As an adult, I notice the princess.

Because this isn't really a story about defeating a monster.

It's a story about recognizing someone when they no longer look like themselves.

The curse changes Margaret's appearance. It changes her circumstances. It even causes her to behave in frightening ways.

But it doesn't destroy who she is.

Everyone else sees the Worm.

Her brother eventually sees Margaret.

And that gives this strange old fairy tale a surprisingly tender message.

Sometimes the most important question isn't:

How do we destroy the thing that frightens us?

Sometimes it is:

What happened to it?

There is an enormous difference between those two questions.

What an Old Dragon Can Still Teach Us

Life transforms people, too.

Grief can do it.

Fear can do it.

Hardship, betrayal and disappointment can do it.

Sometimes we become defensive. Sometimes we withdraw. Sometimes we grow harder around the edges.

We grow scales.

And sometimes the people around us see only the scales.

That doesn't mean accepting harmful behavior. Even the villagers in this old story had to protect themselves from the Worm.

Compassion and boundaries can exist together.

But perhaps the story asks us to look twice before deciding that what we see on the surface is all that remains underneath.

There is another lesson hiding here as well.

The queen sees Margaret's beauty and believes another person's light somehow diminishes her own.

Childe Wynd sees something frightening and believes the person he loves might still exist inside it.

One responds with jealousy.

The other with recognition.

And only one of them breaks the spell.

Keeping a Little of the Old Magic Alive

Maybe that's why this odd story stayed tucked away somewhere inside me for all these years.

The little girl reading about the Laidly Worm had no idea that someday she would be growing herbs, collecting old keys, making strange little woodland creations and building something called Iron Vixen.

She certainly didn't know she'd eventually be telling the story again.

But here we are.

And perhaps children don't always have to understand why a story speaks to them.

Sometimes something simply catches hold of our imagination and stays there.

Years later, we return to it and discover there was more hiding inside than we realized.

That's part of what I'd like A Fox in the Thistle to become.

Each month, we'll wander somewhere different.

We may follow an old fairy tale, uncover a bit of plant folklore, explore a superstition, meet a strange creature or dust off some nearly forgotten tradition.

Some stories will be beautiful.

Some will be peculiar.

And knowing me, some will probably be a little dark.

I hope, in my own small way, I can help keep a little of this old magic alive—and share some of the stories and traditions that have fascinated people for generations.

Maybe you'll discover something you've never heard before.

Maybe you'll remember something you'd forgotten.

Or maybe, as happened to me with the Laidly Worm, one strange little story will follow you home and quietly wait for you there.

Until you're ready to understand it.

So we'll keep wandering.

Through old stories and forgotten traditions. Through gardens, forests and folklore. Through the things we know are real—and occasionally the things we're not quite so sure about.

And somewhere along the path, I'm fairly certain we'll find a fox waiting for us. 🦊🌿

Lisa
Iron Vixen Herbal Co.