The Dragon Bride

Walter Map tells how a Norman noble marries a beautiful woman only to discover she is a dragon who has assumed human form:

Henno with-the-teeth, so called from the bigness of his teeth, found a most lovely girl in a shady wood at noonday near the brink of the shore of Normandy. She was seated alone clad in royal silks, and was weeping silently in suppliant attitude-the fairest of thmgs was she, and even the fairer for her tears. The young man grew hot with the fire that kindled in him. He marvelled that so precious a treasure was unguarded, and like a star fallen from heaven was mourning over the nearness of the earth.
He looked about him, fearing a hidden snare, but finding none, knelt before her humbly and addressed her with respect: “You sweetest and brightest ornament of all the world, whether this desirable radiance of your face belongs to our race, or whether deity has willed to show itself to its worshippers on earth thus fair in bloom thus clad in light, I rejoice, and you too may rejoice that it has befallen you to rest here in my power. What shall I do who have been chosen out to do you service? To you be honour, in that with prophetic instinct you have settled on that spot of all others where you would be received with the best welcome.”
She made answer in such innocent and dovelike voice that you might think a lady angel was speakingone who could deceive at will any angel: “Kind flower of youths, desirable light of men, it was no voluntary foresight that brought me hither, but chance. A ship driven by the violence of a storm bore me, unwilling, to these shores with my father, to be delivered in marriage to the king of the French. When I had disembarked, with only this maid whom you see here (and lo! a maid stood by her), a fair wind succeeded the gale, and the sailors made off under full sail with my father. I know that when they discover my absence they will return m distress. Still, lest wolves or evil men should devour or attack me, I will for the time stay with you if you will give me pledges for yourself and your men to do me no hurt, for it will be safer and wholesomer for me to trust myself to you till the ship returns.”
Renno, no inattentive listener, saw his desires fulfilled, eagerly granted all that was asked, and brought home with the greatest joy of heart his treasure trove, showing to both women all possible kindness. He brought into his home and took to himself in marriage that brilliant pestilence, he committed her to the care of his mother, and she bore him beautiful children.
His mother was assiduous in attending the church, his wife yet more so; the one bountiful to orphans and widows and all who needed bread, the other surpassed her.
In order to bring her evil desire to the wished-for end, she fulfilled every comely duty in the sight of men, except that she shunned the sprinkling of holy water, and by a wary retirement (making the crowd or some business the excuse) anticipated the moment of the consecration of the Lord’s body and blood. Henno’s mother noticed this; her proper suspicion made her anxious and, fearing the worst, she set herself to spy out with the closest watchfulness what it meant.
She knew that the lady entered the church on Sundays after the Asperges and left it before the consecration, and in order to learn the reason she made a little hidden hole looking into the chamber and kept secret watch there. She then saw her at early morning on a Sunday, when Renno had gone out to church, enter a bath and become, instead of a most beautiful woman, a dragon: after a short time she saw her leap out of the bath onto a new cloak which her maid had spread for her, tear it into tiny shreds with her teeth, then return to her proper form and thereafter minister in the same way in every point to her maid. The mother told her son what she had seen. He sent for a priest: they came on the two unawares, and sprinkled them with holy water. With a sudden leap they dashed through the roof, and with loud shrieks left the shelter they had haunted so long.
Marvel not that the Lord ascended to heaven with his body, since he has permitted such abominable creatures to do so, creatures which must in the end be dragged downwards against their will. This lady had a numerous progeny, yet living. Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium, trans. M.R. James, revised C.N.L. Brooke and R.A.B. Myers, (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1983)

Summary

Henno sees a beautiful woman who begs for his help and later marries him. Though she publicly performs good deeds, his mother notices she avoids the sacrament and holy water. The mother spies on her taking a bath and sees her transform into a dragon.

Historical Basis

It's thought Henno-with-the-teeth is Norman baron Hamo (or Haimo) Dentatus, who led a rebellion against Duke William of Normandy in the 1040s, and who was killed in 1047.
Hamo's descendants were numerous, and included Robert of Caen (1090-1147), Earl of Gloucester (and hence his son, Walter map's contemporary, Earl William of Gloucester (1116-1183)) and other Anglo-Norman magnates.

Date of First Recording

1181

Date of Setting

1140s