Lindworm
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Image:Lindwurm Brunnen.jpg A lindworm (called lindorm in Scandinavia and Lindwurm in Germany; the name consists of two Germanic roots meaning roughly "ensnaring serpent") is a large serpent-like dragon from European mythology and folklore. Legends report either two or no legs. In Nordic and German heraldry, the lindworm is the same as a wyvern, even though the folkloric lindworm lack wings. Lindworms were supposedly very large and ate cattle and bodies, sometimes invading churchyards and eating the dead from cemeteries. Ancient Europeans believed Lindworms symbolized war and pestilence. The creature is also called a Lindworm snake. However, it could also be known as the "whiteworm," and the sighting of one was thought to be an exceptional sign of good luck. The shed skin of a lindworm was believed to greatly increase a person's knowledge about nature and medicine.
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Lindworms in tales
Saxo Grammaticus begins his story about Ragnar Lodbrok, a semi-legendary king of Denmark and Sweden, by telling of how a certain Thora Borgarhjort receives a cute baby lindworm, curled up inside of a casket, as a gift from her father the Earl. As the lindworm grows, it eventually encircles the hall of the Earl and takes Thora hostage, demanding to be supplied with no less than one ox a day, until she is freed by a young man in fur-pants named Ragnar, who thus obtains the honorary title of Lodbrok ("fur pants") and becomes Thora's husband.
In the tale of "Prince Lindworm" (also "King Lindworm"), from Scandinavian folklore, a hideous lindworm is born, as one of twins, to a queen, who, in an effort to overcome her childless situation, has followed the advice of an old crone, who tells her to eat two onions. She did not peel the first onion, causing the first twin to be a lindworm. The second twin boy 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. Since his bride must love him willingly and none of the chosen maidens do, he eats each new bride they bring him, this creates a slight problem for the kingdom until a shepherd's daughter who spoke to the same crone is brought to marry him. She is asked by the lindworm to take off her dress, but she insists he shed a skin for each dress she removes. Eventually he is out of skin and underneath is a handsome prince. Some versions of the story omit the lindworm's twin, and the gender of the soothsayer varies.
In Norway and Denmark, lindorm commonly refers to a sea serpent.
In modern Dutch, lintworm refers to a kind of tubeworm.
A famous German lindworm was said to harass the city of Klagenfurt.
The dragon Fafnir from the Völsunga saga is known plainly as "a lindworm" in the Nibelungenlied.
Lindworms and Marco Polo
Marco Polo reported that in the "province of Carajan" (in South East Asia) there existed:
- ... snakes and great serpents of such vast size as to strike fear into those who see them, and so hideous that the very account of them must excite the wonder of those to hear it. ... You may be assured that some of them are ten paces in length; some are more and some less. And in bulk they are equal to a great cask, for the bigger ones are about ten palms in girth. They have two forelegs near the head, but for foot nothing but a claw like the claw of a hawk or that of a lion. The head is very big, and the eyes are bigger than a great loaf of bread. The mouth is large enough to swallow a man whole, and is garnished with great [pointed] teeth. And in short they are so fierce-looking and so hideously ugly, that every man and beast must stand in fear and trembling of them. There are also smaller ones, such as of eight paces long, and of five, and of one pace only. (The Travels of Marco Polo, Ch. XLIX)
While sounding similar to lindworms, most scholars believe that Marco Polo was referring to crocodiles with his "serpents."
Late belief in lindworms in Sweden
The belief in the reality of lindworms persisted well into the 19th century in some parts. The Swedish folklorist Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius collected in the mid 19th century stories of legendary creatures in Sweden. He met several people in Småland, Sweden that said they had encountered giant snakes, sometimes equipped with a long mane. He gathered around 50 eyewitness reports, and in 1884 he set up a big reward for a captured specimen, dead or alive. Hyltén-Cavallius was ridiculed by Swedish scholars, and since nobody ever managed to claim the reward, it resulted in a cryptozoological defeat. Rumours about lindworms as actual animals in Småland rapidly died out (Sjögren, 1980).
References
- Sjögren, Bengt. 1980. "Berömda vidunder", Bokförlaget Settern.
External links
- King Lindorm, translated from: Grundtvig, Sven, Gamle danske Minder i Folkemunde (Copenhagen, 1854--1861).
- Gesta Danorum, Book 9 by Saxo Grammaticus.
- A retelling of Ragnar Lodbrok's story from Teutonic Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie.
- Little Wildrose from The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang.
- Saint George Legends from Germany and Poland
- Lindorm, an article from Nordisk Familjebok (1904-1926), a Swedish encyclopedia now in the Public Domain.