Dragons' World

Lewis Carroll’s 1872 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There features a short poem which has fascinated readers for over a century. The poem, of course, is “Jabberwocky,” a rhyming bit of nonsense which generated a plethora of new words, a number of mysterious creatures, and a good bit of literary criticism. Ironically, Carroll’s original intention was to satirize exactly that sort of over-analysis.The mystery of the jabberwocky itself, however, has inspired many authors. The monster in the poem has “jaws that bite, claws that snatch” and “whiffles through the tulgey woodburbling” as it comes. Carroll’s familiarity with the area of Sunderland has led some to imagine that the Jabberwock was based off the Lambton Worm legend. In this bit of folklore, a young boy named John Lambton skips church in order to spend a relaxing Sunday morning fishing. He ends up catching a strange creature which an old man describes as the devil. Lambton throws the creature in a well, where it is forgottenuntil it grows up, that is. (more…)