And again in the same poem (cant. iii. 26. Hoole’s translation):
“Hugo appears with him, his valiant son
Who plants his conquering snakes in Milan’s town.”
Dante also refers in “Purgatorio” to this celebrated device.
Arms of Whitby Abbey.
The “three coiled snakes,” which appear in the arms of Whitby Abbey, Yorkshire, really represent fossil ammonites, which are very plentiful in the rocky promontories of that part of the English coast, and on that account were no doubt adopted in the arms of the Abbey, and afterwards of the town of Whitby.
The arms are: Azure three snakes coiled or encircled two and one, or.
Popular legend, however, ascribes their origin to the transformation of a multitude of snakes into stone by St. Hilda, an ancient Saxon princess. The legend is referred to by Sir Walter Scott in “Marmion”:
“How of a thousand snakes each one
Was changed into a coil of stone
While Holy Hilda prayed.”
It is, however, more than likely that the arms suggested the legend of the miracle.