Lindworm
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In mythology, a lindworm (or lindorm) is a large serpent-like dragon. It is virtually the same as a wyvern, but has no wings. Legends report either two legs or no legs.
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 in Scandinavia, it could also be known as the "whiteworm," and the sighting of one was believed to be an exceptional sign of good luck. Its shedded skin was thought able to greatly increase a person's knowledge about nature and medicine.
Marco Polo reported seeing Lindworms on the steppes of Central Asia. He described them as, "Swifter than it looks. Easily able to take down a man on a galloping horse." They were sighted most frequently in Germany and the Americas.
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. 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 he eats each new bride they bring him, this creates a slight problem for the kingdom until a shepherd's daughter is brought to marry him, and through her courage, saves the day. Some versions of the story omit the lindworm's twin.
External links
- King Lindorm (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/snake.html#lindorm), translated from: Grundtvig, Sven, Gamle danske Minder i Folkemunde (Copenhagen, 1854--1861).
- Gesta Danorum, Book 9 (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/DanishHistory/book9.html) by Saxo Grammaticus.
- A retelling of Ragnar Lodbrok's story (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/tml/tml35.htm) from Teutonic Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie.
- Little Wildrose (http://www.storytellingwiki.net/index.php?LittleWildrose) from The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang.
- Saint George Legends from Germany and Poland (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/stgeorge3.html)
- Lindorm (http://runeberg.org/nfbp/0351.html), an article from Nordisk Familjebok (1904-1926), a Swedish encyclopedia now in the Public Domain.