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{{Short description|Dragon or serpent monster in Nordic mythology}} {{for|the popular motif found on runestones in 11th-century Sweden|Runic animal}} {{Infobox mythical creature |name = Lindworm |AKA = Lindwurm, lindwyrm, lindorm |image = John Bauer, 1911 (cropped, no signature).jpg |image_size = 250px |caption = [[Sweden|Swedish]] lindworm drawn by Swedish illustrator [[John Bauer (illustrator)|John Bauer]], 1911. The Swedish lindworm lacks wings and limbs. |Folklore = [[Mythical creature]], [[legendary creature]] |Grouping = [[Monster]] |Sub_Grouping = [[Dragon]] |Family = [[Germanic dragon|Worm (dragon)]], {{ILL|Whiteworm (mythology)|sv|Vitorm}}, [[Basilisk]], [[Guivre]], [[Vouivre]], [[Wyvern]], [[Sea serpent]]s, [[Jörmungandr]] |Region = [[Northern Europe]], [[Western Europe]], [[Central Europe]] |First_Attested = [[Viking Age]]<ref name="ungafakta.se"/> }} The '''lindworm''' (''worm'' meaning [[snake]], see [[germanic dragon]]), also spelled '''lindwyrm''' or '''lindwurm''', is a [[mythical creature]] in [[Northern Europe|Northern]], [[Western Europe|Western]] and [[Central Europe]]an [[folklore]] that traditionally has the shape of a giant serpent monster which lives deep in the forest. It can be seen as a sort of [[dragon]]. In [[Central Europe]] and beyond, it is often depicted as a serpent with forelimbs, often also with wings and sometimes even hindlimbs, but in some traditions, especially [[Swedish folklore]], it is foremost limbless; however, the various traits are generally just considered variation within the "species", and a lindworm is not defined by limbs or lack thereof. A broad definition is any [[western dragon]] with heavy serpentine features. According to legend, everything that lies under a lindworm will increase as the lindworm grows. This belief gave rise to tales of dragons that [[Broodiness|brood]] over treasures to become richer. Legend tells of two kinds of lindworm: a good one, associated with luck, often a cursed prince who has been transformed into the beast (compare to "[[The Frog Prince]]" and "[[Beauty and the Beast]]" stories), and a bad one, a dangerous [[Man-eating animal|man-eater]] that will attack humans on sight. A lindworm may swallow its own tail, turning itself into a rolling wheel, to pursue fleeing humans (compare [[ouroboros]] and [[hoop snake]]).<ref name="ungafakta.se"/> The head of the 16th-century lindworm statue at Lindwurm Fountain ({{ill|Lindwurmbrunnen|de|Lindwurmbrunnen (Klagenfurt)}}) in [[Klagenfurt]], Austria, is modeled on the skull of a [[woolly rhinoceros]] found in a nearby quarry in 1335. It has been cited as the earliest reconstruction of an extinct animal.<ref name="Mayor2000">{{cite book |author=Mayor, Adrienne |title=The first fossil hunters: paleontology in Greek and Roman times |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |location=Princeton, N.J |year=2000 |isbn=0-691-08977-9 }}</ref><ref>''Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London''. [[Academic Press]]. 147-148. 1887.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.visitklagenfurt.at/en/discover-and-experience/worth-seeing/290-lindwurmbrunnen.html |title=Lindwurm Fountain |publisher=Tourism Information Klagenfurt am Wörthersee |access-date=June 1, 2019 }}</ref> == Etymology == '''Lindworm''' derives from [[early medieval]] [[Germanic languages]] ([[Old High German]]: ''lintwurm'', [[Old Low German]]: ''lindworm'', [[Middle Dutch]]: ''lindeworm'', [[Old Norse]]: ''linnormr'', [[Old Swedish]]: ''lindormber'') of uncertain origin, possibly from a [[Proto-Germanic]] form akin to “[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/linþawurmiz|linþawurmiz]]”. The name compounds Germanic ''lind'' with ''worm'', the latter meaning "snake, dragon" (see [[Germanic dragon]]). The meaning of the prefix ''lind'' is also uncertain, perhaps it is from the Proto-Germanic adjective ''*linþia-,'' meaning "flexible", or perhaps it is from the Old Danish/[[Old Saxon]] ''lithi'', Old High German ''lindi'', "soft, mild" (Middle High and Low German ''linde'', German ''lind'', ''(ge)linde''), Old English ''liðe'' (English ''lithe'', "agile"), alternatively something akin to [[Old Swedish]] ''linde'' (modern Swedish ''linda''), existing as prefix ''lind-'' and ''linn-'', meaning "to wind", "to turn coils around something". The term occurs in [[Middle High German]] as ''lintwurm'' and Old Swedish as ''lindormber'' (modern Swedish ''lindorm'', modern Danish ''lindorm''), meaning "lind-snake".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hellquist |first1=Elof |title=Svensk Etymologisk Ordbok |date=1922 |publisher=C. W. K. Gleerups Förlag |location=Lund |page=411 |url=https://runeberg.org/svetym/#l |access-date=13 October 2020}}</ref> 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.)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cleasby |first1=Richard |last2=Vigfusson |first2=Guđbrandr |title=An Icelandic-English Dictionary |date=1957 |publisher=Clarendon |location=Oxford |url=http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html |page=90}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Þiðreks saga af Bern |url=https://heimskringla.no/wiki/%C3%9Ei%C3%B0reks_saga_af_Bern_-_Upphaf_Sigur%C3%B0ar_sveins |access-date=13 October 2020}}</ref> == Portrayals == [[File:Urnes stavkirke - an10071204164102.jpg|thumb|Lindworm or dragon carving at [[Urnes Stave Church]], Norway]] [[File:Boj z zmajem (panjska končnica) (+20 brightness, +40 contrast).png|thumb|Slovenian serpent dragon, essentially a limbless lindworm.]] Lindworm portrayals vary across countries and the stories in which they appear. === Swedish lindworm (lindorm) === 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 fin]]s or a horse-like [[Mane (horse)|mane]]; for this reason, they are sometimes called a "mane snake" ({{langx|sv|manorm}}). For defence and attack, lindworms can spit a foul milk-like substance that can blind enemies.<ref name="ungafakta.se">{{cite web |title=Lindormar |url=http://www.ungafakta.se/kunskapsbanken/svenska-oknytt/material/Svenska%20oknytt,%20Lindormar.pdf |access-date=2022-08-07 |publisher=ungafakta.se }}</ref> Lindworm eggs are said to be laid under the bark of ''[[Tilia cordata|linden trees]]'' ({{langx|sv|lind}}). Once hatched, lindworms slither away and make a home in a pile of rocks.<ref name="ungafakta.se"/> When fully grown, they can become extremely long. To counter this, during hunting they swallow their own tails to become a [[wheel]] and roll at extremely high speeds to pursue prey. This practice earned them the nickname "wheel snake" ({{langx|sv|hjulorm}}).<ref name="ungafakta.se"/> ==== Late belief in lindworms in Sweden ==== A belief in the reality of the ''lindorm'', a giant limbless serpent, persisted well into the 19th century in some parts. In the mid-19th century, the Swedish [[folklorist]] [[Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius]] (1818–1889) collected stories of legendary creatures in Sweden and met several people in [[Småland]], Sweden, who said they had encountered giant snakes, sometimes with a long mane. He gathered around 50 eyewitness reports and in 1884 offered a cash reward for a captured specimen, dead or alive.<ref>G. O. Hyltén-Cavallius, ''Om draken eller lindormen, mémoire till k. Vetenskaps-akademien'', 1884.</ref> He was ridiculed by Swedish scholars, and because no one ever claimed the reward, the effort resulted in a [[cryptozoology|cryptozoological]] defeat. Rumours of the existence of lindworms in Småland soon abated.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Meurger |first=Michel |author-link=:fr:Michel Meurger |title=The Lindorms of Småland |journal=Arv: Nordic Yearbook of Folklore |volume=52 |year=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fa0SAQAAIAAJ&q=stollenwurm |pages=87–9|isbn=9789122016731 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Berömda vidunder|author=Sjögren, Bengt|date=1980|publisher=Settern|isbn=9175860236|location=[Laholm]|oclc=35325410}}</ref> === Central European lindworm (lindwurm) === [[File:Klagenfurt Lindwurmbrunnen 02 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Winged four-legged lindwurm fountain in [[Klagenfurt]]]] 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://runeberg.org/nfbp/0351.html |title=lindworm |publisher=Nordisk familjebok |access-date=July 1, 2019 }}</ref> === Lindworm offshoots (guivre, vouivre, wyvern) === [[File:Paolo Uccello 047b (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Vouivre]] or [[wyvern]] being lanced by [[Saint George]].]] {{main|Guivre|Wyvern}} 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 [[canon (fiction)|canonically]] a full-fledged dragon. These terms are ultimately derived from Latin ''vīpera'' "adder, poisonous snake". == In heraldry == {{See also|Biscione}} According to the 19th-century English archaeologist [[Charles Boutell]], a lindworm in heraldry is basically "a dragon without wings".<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Aveling |editor1-first=S. T. |title=Heraldry, Ancient and Modern: Including Boutell's Heraldry |date=1892 |publisher=W. W. Gibbings |location=London |page=139 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CTsaAAAAYAAJ&q=lindworm&pg=PA139}}</ref> A different heraldic definition by German historian [[Maximilian Gritzner]] was "a dragon with four feet" instead of usual two,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gritzner |first=Adolf Maximilian Ferdinand |author-link=Maximilian Gritzner |date=1878 |title=Heraldische Terminologie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbJs52C53IsC |journal=Vierteljahrsschrift für Heraldik, Sphragistik und Genealogie |volume=6 |pages=313–314 |access-date=April 24, 2022}}</ref> so that depictions with - comparatively smaller - wings exist as well.<ref>{{cite book |last=Havas |first=Harald |date=2021 |title=Orte - Eine Sammlung skurriler und unterhaltsamer Fakten |publisher=[[Ueberreuter|Carl Ueberreuther]] |chapter=Linder Wurm |isbn=9783800082100 |lang=de}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=April 2022}} <gallery heights="150" widths="150"> 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]]. </gallery> == In tales == <!-- This section is linked from [[Shapeshifting]] --> [[File:Klagenfurt 2018(1) 06 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|16th-century lindworm statue in [[Klagenfurt]], 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.<ref>J. Rappold, ''Sagen aus Kärnten'' (1887).</ref> The shed skin of a lindworm was believed to greatly increase a person's knowledge about nature and medicine.<ref name="Lindorm">{{cite web|url=https://runeberg.org/nfbp/0351.html |title=645-646 (Nordisk familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 16. Lee{{Snd}} Luvua) |date=22 January 2018 |website=runeberg.org }}</ref> A serpentine monster with the head of a "[[salamander (legendary creature)|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 [[County Durham|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]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/meft/meft43.htm |title=The Lambton Worm|publisher= sacred-texts.com|access-date=June 1, 2019}}</ref> The sighting of a "whiteworm" once was thought to be an exceptional sign of good luck.<ref name="Lindorm"/> [[File:Lissitzky Cold synagogue Mogilev dragon 01.jpg|thumb|A painting of the city of Worms and the Lindworm, as depicted in the story by [[Juspa Schammes]]. The painting was displayed in [[Cold Synagogue, Mogilev]].]] A German folk legend, written in the 17th-century by [[Juspa Schammes]], tells that the origin of the name of the city of [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] is rooted in a tale involving lindworm: This creature, resembling a [[snake]] and a [[worm]], arrived in the city of Germisa and terrorized its inhabitants. Every day, the people held a lottery to determine which of them would be sacrificed to the lindworm in order to spare the city from destruction. Eventually, the lot fell on the queen. One of the city's heroes refused to allow her to sacrifice herself and offered to replace her on the condition that if he survived, she would marry him. The queen agreed, and he donned iron armor. After the lindworm swallowed him, he cut his way out from the inside and killed it. He married the queen, became king, and renamed the city to Worms to commemorate this tale.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eidelberg |first=Shlomo |title=R. Juspa, Shammash of Warmaisa (Worms). Jewish Life in 17th Century Worms |publisher=Magnes Press |year=1991 |isbn=9652237620 |location=Jerusalem |pages=82–84}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.astonishinglegends.com/astonishing-legends/2018/9/24/tatzelwurm|title=Tatzelwurms |date=24 September 2018 |publisher=Astonishing Legends |access-date=June 1, 2019}}</ref> [[File:The pink fairy book (1897) (14597454479).jpg|thumb|right|The maiden amidst the Lindorm's shed skins. Illustration by [[Henry Justice Ford]] for [[Andrew Lang]]'s ''[[The Pink Fairy Book]]'' (1897).]] In the 19th-century tale of "Prince Lindworm" (also "[[King Lindworm]]")<ref>Grundtvig, Svend. ''Gamle danske minder i folkemunde: folkeæventyr, folkeviser''. Kjøbenhavn, C. G. Iversen. 1854. pp. 172-180.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.worldoftales.com/European_folktales/Norwegian_folktale_3.html|title= Prince Lindworm• |publisher= European folktales |access-date=July 1, 2019}}</ref> Because none of the chosen maidens are pleased by him, he eats each one until a shepherd's daughter who spoke to the same crone is brought to marry him, wearing every dress she owns. The lindworm tells her to take off her dress, but she insists that he shed a skin for each dress she removes. Eventually, his human form is revealed beneath the last skin. Some versions of the story omit the lindworm's twin, and the gender of the soothsayer varies. A similar tale occurs in the 1952 novel ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'' by [[C. S. Lewis]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/05/22/the-lindworm/ |title=The Lindworm|publisher=Paris Review |last=Stein|first=Sadie|date=May 22, 2015 |access-date=June 1, 2019}}</ref> The tale of Prince Lindworm is part of a multiverse of tales in which a maiden is betrothed or wooed by a prince enchanted to be a snake or other serpentine creature ([[Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index|ATU]] 433B, "The Prince as Serpent"; "King Lindworm").<ref>Jan M. Ziolkowski. 2010. “Straparola and the Fairy Tale: Between Literary and Oral Traditions.” Journal of American Folklore 123 (490). p. 383. doi:10.1353/jaf.2010.0002</ref><ref>Thompson, Stith. ''The Folktale''. [[University of California Press]]. 1977. p. 101. {{ISBN|0-520-03537-2}}</ref> In a short Swiss tale, a Lindworm terrorises the area around [[Grabs, Switzerland|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.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/st_gallen/lindwurm_grabs.html |title="Der Lindwurm", Sagen des Kantons St. Gallen|publisher= Werner Hausknecht & Co. St. Gallen |last= Kuoni|first= Jacob|date= 1903 |access-date=June 13, 2021}}</ref> In another tale, a cowherd falls into a cave where a Lindworm lives. Instead of eating him, the Lindworm shares his food source, a spring of liquid gold. After seven years, they are discovered by a Venetian who hauls up the Lindworm and ties it up. The cowherd releases the Lindworm, who kills the Venetian and then leaves. When the cowherd goes home, no one recognizes him and he no longer likes human food.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/st_gallen/lindwurm_gamidaur.html |title="Der Lindwurm in Gamidaur", Sagen des Kantons St. Gallen|publisher= Werner Hausknecht & Co. St. Gallen |last= Kuoni|first= Jacob|date= 1903 |access-date=June 29, 2021}}</ref> == See also == * [[Little Wildrose]] * [[The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh]] * [[Tulisa, the Wood-Cutter's Daughter]], Indian tale about a Serpent Prince * [[Norse dragon]] == References == {{reflist}} == External links == *[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/snake.html#lindorm King Lindorm], translated from: Grundtvig, Sven, ''Gamle danske Minder i Folkemunde'' (Copenhagen, 1854—1861). *[https://web.archive.org/web/20040604074721/http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/DanishHistory/book9.html Gesta Danorum, Book 9] by Saxo Grammaticus. *[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/stgeorge3.html Saint George Legends from Germany and Poland] *[https://runeberg.org/nfbp/0351.html Lindorm], an article from [[Nordisk Familjebok]] (1904–1926), a Swedish encyclopedia now in the Public Domain. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070622022752/http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=883 Lindormen], a ballad in Swedish published at the [[Mutopia project]]. {{Heraldic creatures}} {{German folklore}} [[Category:Germanic dragons]] [[Category:Creatures in Norse mythology]] [[Category:German legendary creatures]] [[Category:Dutch legendary creatures]] [[Category:Scandinavian legendary creatures]] [[Category:English legendary creatures]] [[Category:Northumbrian folklore]] [[Category:Scandinavian folklore]] [[Category:Swedish folklore]] [[Category:Norwegian folklore]] [[Category:Danish folklore]] [[Category:Legendary serpents]] [[Category:ATU 400-459]] [[Category:Coelodonta]]
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