A popular tale of an enormous and frightening lizard reverberates around the city even today, five hundred years later. No one quite knows the truth.
The legend of the lizard of Jaen, whose first reference was recorded in 1628, is alive and well in the city, with a popular saying, a musical competition and many parts of the old town named after the Lagarto de Jaen.
The legend says that a lizard of enormous proportions appeared to a group of locals near the fountain of Magdalena. The people were so frightened that they wouldn’t return to the fountain so a solution had to be found.
The legend now seems to have three different outcomes, depending on who’s telling the story.
The Soldier and the mirrors
A group of neighbours asked a soldier to help them. He dressed in armour that shone like mirrors, and when he approached the cave, the sun, reflecting in the armour blinded the lizard. This allowed the soldier to slay the dragon with his sword.
The Prisoner and the bread
A condemned prisoner pleaded for his pardon in exchange for killing the lizard. The desperate locals agreed to let him try. The prisoner asked for a horse, a sack of bread and a bag of gunpowder to do his deed. At night the prisoner went to the caves and left a trail of bread. The lizard awoke and began to follow the bread trail, the prisoner now on horseback led it to the Plaza de San Ildefonso. Here he threw down the bag of gunpowder instead of bread, which the greedy lizard swallowed and exploded instantly!
Read more: http://spain-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/legends_of_myths_of_spain#ixzz0Pllf8VUU
Today is: Sunday, Feb 05, 2012