St. Patrick and the Serpent

St Patrick and the Serpent

There is a lake in one of the Galtee mountains where there is a great serpent. chained to a rock, and he may be heard constantly crying out, "O Patrick, is the Luan, or Monday, long from us?" For when St.. Patrick cast this serpent into the lake he bade him be chained to the rock till La-an-Luan (The Day of Judgment). But the serpent mistook the word, and thought the saint meant Luan, Monday.

So he still expects to be freed from one Monday to another, and the clanking of his chains on that day is awful to hear as he strives to break them and get free.

In another lake there is a huge-winged creature, it is said, which escaped the power of St. Patrick, and when he gambols in the water such storms arise that no boat can withstand the tumult of the waves.