The Dragon from the Roche-Maurice Legend

The castle of La Roche-Maurice is located in Brittany in an area where, as the story goes, a dragon used to terrorize people and devour cattle.

To keep the dragon as quiet as possible, it was decided that some of the people living nearby would be regularly led to the monster’s lair where they would be abandoned to their fate. It so happened that one day the son of the local king was chosen to be among the next victims.

Struck by despair, the king decided to throw himself into the river, but as he was about to drown two travelers who were passing by heard his cries and saved him. These travelers turned out to be saints on their way from Constantinople to England. When they heard the king’s story, they offered to set out to subdue and kill the dragon, which they did, against the promise that the king would build a church and raise his son according to the Christian faith.

The caption reads in the original French: La légende de la Roche-Morice.