The Dragon of Wantley - His Rise, His Voracity and His Downfall - A Romance

The Dragon of Wantley details the legend of a dragon-slaying knight on Wharncliffe Crags in South Yorkshire. The ballad explains how the knight, Moore of Moore Hall, acquires a custom suit of spiked Sheffield armour and manages to best the dragon with a powerful kick to the dragon's "arse-gut," explained as being its only vulnerable spot with the dragons dying breaths. A popular tale in the 18th and 19th century, this text has been chosen for publication with the aim of immortalising this classic legend so that can be enjoyed today with the same enthusiasm as it has been in the past. Owen Wister was an American writer and the father of western fiction. Originally published in Thomas Percy's 1767 Reliques of Ancient Poetry, this scarce text is republished here with an introductory biography of the author.