Christine O’Keeffe’s New Year’s Legends

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Saint Sylvester and the Leviathan

New Year’s Eve is known as the Eve of Saint Sylvester (Sylvesterabend) in Austria.Legend has it that Saint Sylvester killed an evil monster dragon called the Leviathan in 1000 AD. 1000 AD was widely predicted to be Judgment Day and Leviathan was supposed to rise, fight the Behemoth and be killed. He did rise and was vanquished. Leviathon was a serpent-dragon so large that its multicolored coils encircled the earth. He had shiny scales and fed on other dragons. (1, 2)

Here is a poem in Scottish Gaelic about him:: Mar gharbh-leibhìatan nan cuantan, faodh aon bhuille de èarra dochann is bàs thoirrt air móran.
Like great Leviathon of the oceans, one blow from his tail can bring destruction and death to thousands. (3)