Lindworm

according to Danish painter Niels Skovgaard (1910) Lindworm derives from early medieval Germanic languages, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, first appearing in English as lintworm in 1423. The name compounds Germanic lind with worm, the latter meaning "snake, dragon"; however, the earliest known form of the word is ('lin-dragon'), found in Nibelungenlied, only later appearing as , , , , , Old Swedish: lindormber. The actual origin is uncertain, possibly from a Proto-Germanic form akin to . The meaning of the prefix lind is uncertain, perhaps it is from the Proto-Germanic adjective , meaning "flexible", or perhaps it is from the Old Danish/Old Saxon lithi, Old High German , "soft, mild" (Middle High and Low German , German ), Old English (English lithe, "agile"), alternatively something akin to Old Swedish linde (modern Swedish ), existing as prefix lind- and linn-, meaning "to wind", "to turn coils around something". In Old Icelandic, the term linnormr was used to translate German sources to produce Þiðreks saga (an Old Norse chivalric saga adapted from the continent from the late 13th c.) == Swedish lindworm (lindorm) ==

in Norway, show winged bipedal chimera designs more in line with Central European lindworms and conventional dragons In Nordic folklore, specifically Swedish folklore, lindworms traditionally appear as giant forest serpents without limbs, living between rocks deep in the forest. They are said to be dark in color with a brighter underside. Along the spine, they are said to have either fish-like dorsal fins or a horse-like mane; for this reason, they are sometimes called a "mane snake" (). For defence and attack, lindworms can spit a foul milk-like substance that can blind enemies. Lindworm eggs are said to be laid under the bark of linden trees (). Once hatched, lindworms slither away and make a home in a pile of rocks. He was ridiculed by Swedish scholars, and because no one ever claimed the reward, the effort resulted in a cryptozoological defeat. Rumours of the existence of lindworms in Småland soon abated. == Central European lindworm (lindwurm) ==

In Central Europe the lindworm usually resembles a dragon or something similar. It generally appears with a scaly serpentine body, a dragon's head, and two clawed forelimbs, sometimes with wings. Some examples, such as the 16th-century lindworm statue at Lindwurm Fountain in Klagenfurt, Austria, have four limbs and two wings. Most limbed depictions imply that lindworms do not walk on two limbs like a wyvern but move like a mole lizard: they slither like a snake and use their arms for traction. File:WMK - Grüner Lindwurm.jpg|Wingless four-legged lindworm on a German relief (1566) File:Klagenfurt Lindwurmbrunnen 02 (cropped).jpg|Winged four-legged lindworm fountain in Klagenfurt (16th-century) File:Musaeum Hermeticum 1678 p 353 Dragon.png|Winged fore-legged Lindworm in Musaeum Hermeticum (1678) == Lindworm offshoots (guivre, vouivre, wyvern) ==

or wyvern being lanced by Saint George. There exist several related offshoots of the winged lindworm outside Northern and Central Europe, such as the French guivre, and to some extent the British wyvern. The French guivre, earlier vouivre, are more dragon-like than the traditional lindworms while the British wyvern is canonically a full-fledged dragon. These terms are ultimately derived from Latin vīpera "adder, poisonous snake". == In heraldry ==

According to the 19th-century English archaeologist Charles Boutell, a lindworm in heraldry is basically "a dragon without wings". A different heraldic definition by German historian Maximilian Gritzner was "a dragon with four feet" instead of usual two, so that depictions with - comparatively smaller - wings exist as well. File:DEU Wurmannsquick COA.svg|Wingless limbed lindworm in the arms of the small Bavarian town of Wurmannsquick File:AUT Klagenfurt COA.svg|Winged and limbed lindworm in the arms of the city of Klagenfurt File:Wappen at sipbachzell.png|Wingless and four-limbed lindworm in the arms of the city of Sipbachzell File:John Vinycomb - Lindworm, 1906.gif|Wingless bipedal lindworm as a jousting helmet decoration == In tales ==

, Austria, featuring wings and limbs. An Austrian tale from the 13th century tells of a lindworm that lived near Klagenfurt. Flooding threatened travelers along the river, and the presence of the lindworm was blamed. A duke offered a reward to anyone who could capture it and so some young men tied a bull to a chain, and when the lindworm swallowed the bull, it was hooked like a fish and killed. The shed skin of a lindworm was believed to greatly increase a person's knowledge about nature and medicine. A serpentine monster with the head of a "salamander" features in the legend of the Lambton Worm, a serpent caught in the River Wear and dropped in a well, which 3–4 years thence, terrorized the countryside of Durham while the nobleman who caught it was at the Crusades. Upon return, he received spiked armour and instructions to kill the serpent, but thereafter to kill the next living thing he saw. His father arranged that after the lindworm was killed, a dog would be released for that purpose; but instead of releasing the dog the nobleman's father ran to his son, and so incurred a malediction by the son's refusal to commit patricide. Bram Stoker used this legend in his short story Lair of the White Worm. The sighting of a "whiteworm" once was thought to be an exceptional sign of good luck. The knucker or the Tatzelwurm is a wingless biped, and often identified as a lindworm. In legends, lindworms are often very large and eat cattle and human corpses, sometimes invading churchyards and eating the dead from cemeteries. for Andrew Lang's The Pink Fairy Book (1897). In the 19th-century tale of "Prince Lindworm" (also "King Lindworm") from Scandinavian folklore, a "half-man half-snake" lindworm is born, as one of twins, to a queen, who, in an effort to overcome her childlessness, followed the advice of an old crone who instructed her to eat two onions. As she did not peel the first onion, the first twin was born a lindworm. The second twin is perfect in every way. When he grows up and sets off to find a bride, the lindworm insists that a bride be found for him before his younger brother can marry. In a short Swiss tale, a Lindworm terrorises the area around Grabs. "It was as big as a tree trunk, dark red in colour and, according to its nature, extraordinarily vicious". It was defeated by a bull that had been fed milk for seven years and had hooks attached its horns. A girl, who had committed an offense, was tasked with bringing the bull to the Lindworm. After the beast was defeated, the enraged bull threw itself off a cliff, but the girl survived.{{cite web|url= http://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/st_gallen/lindwurm_grabs.html In the Astrid Lindgren book Brothers Lionheart, the dragon Katla has a mortal enemy in the form of a lindworm named Karm. While Katla is the pet of Dark Lord Tengil, Karm lives under a waterfall. In the end scene of the book, they fight each other into the death. == See also ==