Myth of the Week · Switzerland
The dragons of Mount Pilatus for kids: Switzerland's dragon mountain
· P.Sean Tales
Some towns have storks on their roofs. The town of Lucerne in Switzerland had dragons on its mountain. For hundreds of years people said the dragons lived up on Mount Pilatus.
People in old Lucerne wrote down what they saw. On summer evenings a long shape with wings would leave one rock, glide on the warm air and land on another one. People said it made a sound like a sail filling with wind. The town wasn't scared of its dragons. It was kind of proud of them.
The favorite Pilatus story is about a cooper, a man who made barrels. One fall he was up on the mountain gathering wood and he slipped into a deep hole in the rocks. At the bottom was a cave, and in the cave were two sleepy dragons getting ready for winter. There was no way to climb out, so he just tried to be a polite guest.
He stayed all winter. The dragons kept him warm, and the story says he lived by licking the water off the cave walls the same way the dragons did. When spring came the first dragon flew out, and the cooper grabbed its tail and rode it out into the daylight. He landed softly outside Lucerne. People told this one as a true story for centuries and even gave it a year, 1420.
There's one more story. One summer night a farmer near Lucerne watched a dragon fly over from Pilatus and saw something drop from it into his field. It was a round smooth stone, and it was warm. The town doctors called it a dragon stone and said it could help with fevers and poison. The town kept it as a treasure and lent it out for cures.
Did you know? The Dragon Stone of Lucerne still exists. You can go see it in a museum in Lucerne today.
Color the legend yourself
The dragon of Pilatus, the cooper's winter and the Dragon Stone are all in Myths & Legends of Switzerland, along with William Tell, Barry the rescue dog and the Tatzelwurm.
Or start free: grab the free coloring pages.
You can find them in our book: Myths & Legends of Switzerland.