White Dragon
by Karin S. Heigl
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Versions: English, German, Icelandic and the Author’s notes |
When ice and fire met, a dragon came into being. She was mighty and magnificent, with eyes like fire and white as a glacier. She was the most powerful and beautiful being on earth. She lived in the glaciers before all time, and ate ice, rock and fire.
One day, as man came to life, she saw men speak and laugh with one another, and her heart sank. She had been alone over the centuries and spoken with no one. One day she looked at the village by the sea and saw one man, tall, and he sang with a sweet voice while he worked.
At night, when he was herding the sheep together, she descends and talks to him. The man hears a voice both sweet and powerful, and he turned around but sees no man. He went home but could not forget the voice that had been so lovely.
One night, she came back and hereupon they talked and sang together many times. She was very dear to the man, but not did she say who she was. Thus, one night, the man came with a light, and when he laid eyes on the dragon he dropped dead with fright.
The dragon flew away, crying and, as she flew over mountain and sea, she fell to the earth in grief and has not woken again. But when she exhales, fog comes. In this manner the Snæfellsjökull came into being, white and bright as the dragon’s wings, and some folk say to this day, that something odd was in the glacier.
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[Author’s note] Snæfellsjökull is a myth-enshrouded glacier on the peninsula Snæfellsnes in West Iceland. It is often covered in fog.
© 2017 by Richard Ong
Copyright © 2016 by Karin S. Heigl
