But yet more mindful of his honor dear,
Than of the grievous smart, which him did wring,
From loathed soil he can him lightly rear,
And strove to loose the far infixed sting:
Which when in vain he tried with struggling.
Inflamed with wrath, his raging blade he heft,
And struck so strongly, that the knotty string
Of his huge tail he quite a sunder cleft,
Five joints thereof he hewed, and but the stump him left.

Book 1, Canto 11