Region: Germany and ScandinaviaTime Period: References in Literature: None Sources: Yellow Fairy Book pgs 9-20
(This is only a brief summary of the tale.)Tale:
There was once a dragon who came from the north and laid waste to the countryside. Its eyes would draw victims in to be eaten so it didn't have to move until the food supply (animal and human) was depleted. The wise men learned that it could only be defeated by the man wearing King Soloman's signet ring, but no one knew its locations, nor how to read its magical inscription.
One man went in search to the east for the ring and came across a magician who gave him a 9-herb potion so that the man could understand the birds.
The birds led him to a beautiful bathing witch at a secret pool. She invited him back to her home with its many treasures and the next morning she invited him to live there forever. Eventually, she showed him the magical ring, including how she used it and what happened when it was on each finger. She even let him try it, and he first went invisible then turned into a bird and flew back to the magician.
The magician told him how to defeat the dragon and the man went to the King who had everything prepared. The youth, with a raven's advice, went to battle. First, he went forward on an iron horse, speared its lower jaw and charmed it to the ground. Three days and nights it struggled until exhaustion. The man finished it off with a boulder repeatedly to the head.
There was much rejoicing and he married the King's daughter. But the dragon carcus rotted and caused such a smell and such pestilence that it killed hundreds and emptied the town. The man went back to the magician but was intercepted by the witch who took him prisoner in a magically-secured cave. It took the magician, King, and princess 7 years to find and release him.
He was made king and lived happily.Further Reading:
Yellow Fairy Book