Legends of the Lambton Worm began to take shape around the 14th and 15th centuries, but since the Crusades are mentioned, it probably happened a couple of centuries earlier.
In the city of Durham in the north-east of England there was a rich Lambton estate and in those years a young heir to the estate named John was growing up there.
He was a wayward child who was so cocky for those times that he even skipped church services, and instead ran away on a fishing trip.
John also missed going to church that Sunday afternoon, and took his fishing rod and went to the river. But on his way he met a beggar old man who told him to go to church, "otherwise there will be a big trouble."
But the guy did not listen to the old man and sat down to fish. However, he never caught anything until the service in the church was over. And only when the people began to disperse, John finally got a bite.
But when he pulled the catch out of the water, instead of a fish, a strange creature was sitting on the hook, resembling a long, slippery body like an eel, and its head like a large worm or salamander. On each side of his head there were ten gill holes, which in turn made him look like a lamprey.
In different legends, the size of the creature was indicated differently, according to some it was the size of a finger, according to others it was almost a meter. Sometimes it was indicated that he had small legs, and sometimes he was called not a worm, but a snake.
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All in all, it was something that John had never met before. When John took the find home to show his family, the same old beggar met again on his way and he told John that he had caught the Devil. The frightened guy immediately threw the creature into the first well and then happily forgot about it for several years.
As John grew up, he went on a crusade to the holy land, and while he was away, strange things began to happen in Durham. Apparently, the calf thrown into the well grew up and now it did not have enough frogs and tadpoles as food. He managed to get out of the well, and soon livestock began to disappear from the peasants in the vicinity.
When people began to look for the one who kills their animals, they stumbled upon a small hill with horror, around which lay a huge worm or snake. In the city of Fatfield, which is not far from Durham, there is now a hill called Worm hill and claims to be the place where this creature had a den.
The worm was so huge that it wrapped its body around the hill 3-4 times (some legends even speak of 10 rings) and it ate not only sheep, but also children. With such a size, it cost him nothing to kill and eat adults, but his victims everywhere mentioned only small children.
The worm especially liked milk and for the sake of it he even attacked cows and tried to suck milk from their udders. Once a huge worm crawled right to the walls of Lambton Castle and John's elderly father barely bought off the monster with the help of a large trough of milk, milked from 9 best cows. After drinking the milk, the worm crawled away from the castle.
This creature was regularly attacked by armed peasants and many times they managed to injure him or cut off part of his body. But the worm seemed to be immortal, each time it recovered very quickly from any injury. In addition to peasants, knights also tried to ride on the worm, but he killed them with blows of his powerful tail.
When young John Lambton returned from the Crusade seven years later, he found his homeland in great desolation. The peasants have lost almost all of their livestock. John decided to go and kill the monster, but first he was advised to seek advice from a nearby witch. The witch first told John that this worm was his fault and that he grew out of the creature that John had caught in the river and then thrown into the well.
All the legends about the Lambton worm are not very logical in this place. This creature would just as well have grown up in a river, and since it was able to breathe out of water for a long time, it would just as well get out of the river onto land and attack the peasant sheep.
Another question is how this incredible monster even got into the river. According to the legends, it was not a demon or a ghost, but a creature of flesh and blood and he must have parents. But if in these places previously nothing was heard about such monsters, it means that it came here from somewhere outside or something extraordinary happened.
Some cryptozoologists believe that this Worm was a mutant that simply could not stop growing and at the same time grew very quickly. Many reptiles are known to grow throughout their lives, such as turtles, crocodiles and some snakes.
And rapid growth implies a large expenditure of energy and this could explain why this creature was constantly hungry and often killed many large animals. One rat is enough for an ordinary python to eat nothing for a month. The same Serpent Worm killed much more often.
Back to John Lambton and the witch. After reproaches, the witch advised John to strengthen his armor with spearheads and said that the worm should be killed inappropriately in the river (where he also liked to spend time). Also, the witch told John, after killing the Worm, to kill another living creature, the first one that he sees, otherwise a curse will fall on the entire Lambton family.
John went to the river and when he found a worm there, he fought with him. The battle was exhausting, but at one point John managed to cut the worm in half with his sword and half of the creature's body was immediately carried away by the current. The remaining half tried to squeeze John in the rings, but soon became weak and died. In subsequent years, nothing like this was seen in these parts again.
Unfortunately, the first living thing that John met after the battle was his own father and John was unable to kill him. Later, he stabbed a dog with a sword, but the curse still fell on his family and the next seven generations of Lambtons invariably died a violent death.
Some of the subsequent Lambtons did not actually die a natural death, and this is a historical fact. A certain Robert Lambton, probably John's son, judging by the years of his life, drowned in the river, in 1644 William Lambton died at the Battle of Marston Moore, and on June 26, 1761 Henry Lambton died right in his carriage while she was crossing the Lambton Bridge …