The Monster of Utrecht: the Basilisk
In June 1453 three vergers were carried dead from the Dom crypt at Utrecht, all without wound, all with the same frozen expression of fright. The fourth, a glazier with a mirror, returned alive — and brought the basilisk dead, rolled in a sheet.
1 The cock’s egg
The basilisk tradition: a cockerel of seven years lays one yolkless egg. If a toad hatches it, a basilisk emerges — small as a lizard, with cock’s comb and serpent’s tail, whose gaze kills. In the Dom crypt at Utrecht, verger Jan Spaen had on a May morning 1453 found such an egg in a corner where no chickens could go. From fear he left it. In June three vergers — Jan, Hendrik, Pieter — were found dead in the crypt on different days, with no explanation. Only then did the chapter understand: the basilisk had hatched.
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