Germanic dragon

Worms, wurms or wyrms (Old English: wyrm, Old Norse: ormʀ, ormr, Old High German: wurm), meaning serpent, are archaic terms for dragons (Old English: draca, Old Norse: dreki, Old High German: trahho) in the wider Germanic mythology and folklore, in which they are often portrayed as large venomous snakes and hoarders of gold. Especially in later tales, however, they share many common features with other dragons in European mythology, such as having wings.

Prominent worms attested in medieval Germanic works include the dragon that killed Beowulf, the central dragon in the Völsung Cycle – Fáfnir, Níðhöggr, and the great sea serpent, Jǫrmungandr, including subcategories such as lindworms and sea serpents.

In early depictions, as with dragons in other cultures, the distinction between Germanic dragons and regular snakes is blurred, with both being referred to as: "worm" (Old English: wyrm, Old Norse: ormʀ, ormr, Old High German: wurm), "snake" (Old English: snaca, Old Norse: snókr, snákr, Old High German: *snako), "adder" (Old English: nǣdre, Old Norse: naðr, Old High German: nātara), and more, in writing; all being old Germanic synonyms for serpent and thereof (compare the English names for the common legless lizard: blindworm, hazelworm, slowworm, deaf adder etc). The descendent term worm remains used in modern English to refer to dragons, such as those similar to snakes or without wings,^[1] while the Old English form wyrm has been borrowed back into modern English to mean "dragon".^[2] The Nordic descendants of Old Norse: ormr, beyond being the common word for snake in Swedish, Norwegian and Faroese, remain a poetic or archaic word for dragons and similar mythological serpentine creatures in Swedish: orm, Icelandic: ormur, and Faroese: ormur.^[3][4][5] A similar theme can be seen in German, with surviving compositions such as Lindwurm and Tatzelwurm etc.

The word "dragon", contemporaneously also appear: Old English: draca, Old West Norse: dreki, Old East Norse: draki, Old High German: trahho, tracho, tracko, trakko, meaning "dragon, sea serpent or sea monster" etc, stemming from Latin: dracō, meaning "big serpent or dragon", itself from Ancient Greek: δράκων (drákōn) of the same meaning.^[7][8][9] The form "dragon", in modern English, stems from Old French: dragon, while the Germanic Old English form survives as drake.^[9][8]

A poem, by 11th-century Icelandic skáld Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, manages to use all four above mentioned terms in a single poem about Sigurd the dragon slayer, based on a fight between a blacksmith and a leather worker, which Arnórsson supposedly composed spontaneously upon request:^[10]

Related are also the French guivre/vouivre (from Old French for "snake") and English wyvern (Middle English: wyver, from wivre), ultimately deriving from Latin: vīpera ("viper").^[12] Other words include Knucker, a dialect word for a sort of water dragon in Sussex, England.

In the 10th century Old English epic poem Beowulf, "the dragon" is referred to as both a wyrm and a draca.^[13][14] In the Middle High German epic poem Nibelungenlied, written around 1200, the unnamed dragon ("Fáfnir") is referred to as a lintrache ("lin-drake", compare lindworm),^[15] which associate professor of German, George Henry Needler (1866–1962), translated as "worm-like dragon".^[16] The Old Norse Eddic poem Fáfnismál, written around 1270, tells an alternate version of the same root story as Nibelungenlied, were the dragon, Fáfnir, is described as flightless and snake-like, and is referred to as an ormr.^[17][18] In the later, late 13th century Icelandic saga, Völsunga saga, Fáfnir is instead described with shoulders, suggesting legs, wings or both, and is referred to as both a dreki and an ormr.^[19] Both of these descriptions are consistent with 11th century depictions of Fáfnir as a runic animal on various picture stones, sometimes being limbless and other times featuring various forms of limbs. Such stones are collectively called Sigurd stones, after Fáfnir's killer, Sigurd, who often acts as the indicator for the motif.

In the later, 14th century Icelandic sagas, Ketils saga hœngs, and Konráðs saga keisarasonar, ormar and drekar are portrayed as distinct beings, with winged dragons sometimes specified as flogdreka (flying dragons).^{[citation needed]} The evolution of wingless and legless worms and lindworms to flying, four-legged romanesque dragons in Germanic folklore and literature is most likely due to influence from continental Europe that was facilitated by Christianisation and the increased availability of translated romances. It has thus been proposed that the description in Völuspá of Níðhöggr with feathers and flying after Ragnarök is a late addition and potentially a result of the integration of pagan and Christian imagery.^[20][21][22]

To address the difficulties with categorising Germanic dragons, the term drakorm (Swedish for "dragon serpent") has been proposed, referring to beings described as either a dreki or ormr.^[23] Irish historian A. Walsh used the term "worm-dragon" in 1922 to describe the runic dragon like ornament found side by side with the Celtic interlaced patterns on the Cross of Cong from 1123.^[1]

There are also dragon-like monsters in Germanic folklore which continue the use of worm or other synonyms in the ambiguous sense of either dragon or snake, such as lindworm (Swedish: lindorm, German: Lindwurm) and sea serpent (Swedish: sjöorm, German: Seeschlange), the latter popularized by Swede Olaus Magnus through his Carta marina (1539) and A Description of the Northern Peoples (1555), in the latter describing a sea serpent found in Bergen, Norway. Olaus gives the following description of a Norwegian sea serpent:

Those who sail up along the coast of Norway to trade or to fish, all tell the remarkable story of how a serpent of fearsome size, from 200 feet [60 m] to 400 feet [120 m] long, and 20 feet [6 m] wide, resides in rifts and caves outside Bergen. On bright summer nights this serpent leaves the caves to eat calves, lambs and pigs, or it fares out to the sea and feeds on sea nettles, crabs and similar marine animals. It has ell-long hair hanging from its neck, sharp black scales and flaming red eyes. It attacks vessels, grabs and swallows people, as it lifts itself up like a column from the water.^[24][25]

• An unnamed dragon is the third and last of the central monsters in Beowulf, ultimately fighting and killing the hero after whom the poem is named.^[13]
• Fáfnir is a widely attested dragon that has a prominent role in the Völsung Cycle.^[19] Fafnir took the form of a dragon after claiming a hoard of treasure, including Andvaranaut, from his father. He was later killed by a Völsung (typically Sigurð), who in some accounts hid in a pit and stabbed him from underneath with a sword.^[26][27]
• Jörmungandr, also known as the Midgard Serpent, is described as a giant, venomous beast and the child of Loki and Angrboða.^[22][28][29]
• Níðhöggr is a dragon attested in the Eddas that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil and the corpses of Náströnd.^[18][29]
• The Gesta Danorum contains a description of a dragon killed by Frotho I.^[30] The dragon is described as "the keeper of the mountain." After Frotho I kills the dragon, he takes its hoard of treasure.^[30] The Gesta Danorum describes another dragon fight where a dragon is slain by Friðleifr and it is similar to the story of Frotho I.^[30][31]
• King Lindworm, of Scandinavian folklore, features a lindworm as one of the main characters.
• Stoor worm, a gigantic evil sea serpent of Orcadian folklore.

Furthermore, there are many sagas with dragons in them, including Þiðreks saga, Övarr-Odds saga, and Sigrgarðs saga frækna.^[32]

Among local legends and tales:

• Klagenfurt lindworm, Austria
• Knucker of Lyminster, England
• Lagarfljót Worm, Iceland
• Lambton Worm, England
• Storsjöodjuret, Sweden
• Worm of Linton, Scotland

The association between dragons and hoards of treasure is widespread in Germanic literature, however the motifs surrounding gold are absent from many accounts, including the Sigurð story in Þiðreks saga af Bern.^[33]

In the Völsung Cycle, Fáfnir was a dwarf who, upon claiming a hoard of treasure, including the ring Andvaranaut, transforms into a dragon. Fáfnir's brother, Regin reforges the sword Gram from broken shards and gives it to the hero Sigurð who uses it to kill the dragon by waiting in a hole until the worm slithers over and exposes his underbelly. While dying Fáfnir speaks with Sigurð and shares mythological knowledge. Sigurð then cooks and tastes the dragon's heart, allowing the hero to understand the speech of birds who tell him to kill Regin, which he does and then takes the hoard for himself.^[18] In Beowulf, it is Sigmund (the father of Sigurð in Old Norse tradition) who kills a dragon and takes its hoard.^[13]

In Beowulf, the dragon that the poem's eponymous hero is awoken from the burial mound in which it dwells when a cup from its hoard is stolen, leading it to seek vengeance from the Geats. After both the dragon and Beowulf die, the treasure is reinterred in the king's barrow.^[13] The Old English poem, Maxims II, further states:

In Ragnars saga loðbrókar, Thóra, the daughter of a Geatish earl, is given a snake by her father which she puts on top of a pile of gold. This makes both the snake and the treasure grow until the dragon is so large its head touches its tail.^[36] The image of an encircled snake eating its own tail is also seen with Jörmungandr.^[29] The hero Ragnar Lodbrok later wins the hand of Thóra and the treasure by slaying the dragon.^[36] The motif of gold causing a snake-like creature to grow into a dragon is seen in the Icelandic tale of the Lagarfljót Worm recorded in the 19th century.^[37]

A motif could potentially be recorded in later Nordic folklore, were it is said that which lies under a lindworm will grow at the rate of the snake, thus they brood over treasure to get richer. A quote from Fru Marie Grubbe by Danish author Jens Peter Jacobsen (1876), here given in its Swedish (1888), and English (1917), translation, due to availability. The English translation, while fairly direct, does not use the word lindworm (Swedish: lindorm), instead opting to translate it as serpent and reptile.

Dragons with poisonous breath, or rather, breathing "atter", an old Germanic word for morbid fluid, including snake venom, are believed to predate those who breathe fire in Germanic folklore and literature, consistent with the theory that Germanic dragons developed from traditions regarding wild snakes, some of whom produce venom.^[19] The Nine Herbs Charm describes nine plants being used to overcome the venom of a slithering wyrm. It tells that Wōden defeats the wyrm by striking it with nine twigs, breaking it into nine pieces.^[40]

In Eddic poetry, both Fáfnir and the sea serpent Jörmungandr are described as having attery breath.^[18] In Gylfaginning, it is told that during the final battle at Ragnarök (the end of the word), Thor will kill Jörmungandr; however, after taking nine steps, he will be in turn killed by the worm's atter.^[29] A similar creature from later Orcadian folklore is the attery stoor worm which was killed by the hero Assipattle, falling into the sea and forming Iceland, Orkney, Shetland and the Faroe Islands. As in the English tale of the Linton worm, the stoor worm is killed by burning its insides with peat.^[41]

Beowulf is one of the earliest examples of a fire-breathing dragon, yet it is also referred to as attorsceaðan, lit. 'the atter scathe' (infinitive) or 'the atter scather'. After burning homes and land in Geatland, it fights the eponymous hero of the poem who bears a metal shield to protect himself from the fire. The dragon wounds him but is slain by the king's thane Wiglaf. Beowulf later succumbs to the dragon's atter and dies. The other dragon mentioned in the poem is further associated with fire, melting from its own heat once slain by Sigmund.^[13] Both fire and venom are also spat by dragons in the Chivalric saga Sigurðr saga þögla and in Nikolaus saga erkibiskups II, written around 1340, in which the dragon is sent by God to teach an English deacon to become more pious.^[19]

In Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, Tolkien argued that the only dragons of significance in northern literature are Fáfnir and that which killed Beowulf. Similarly, other scholars such as Kathryn Hume have argued that the overabundance of dragons, along with other supernatural beings, in later riddarasögur results in monsters serving only as props to be killed by heroes.^[42]

During the second half of the Germanic Migration Period, periodically called the Vendel Period (c. 540–790), spanning the late 6th century to the cusp of the Viking Age in the late 8th century, Germanic helmet finds overwhelmingly show that most helmets were decorated with dragon heads. Most common was for a dragon head to be placed between the brow protection of said helmets, with a comb spanning over the helmet as its body, but some helmets also feature dragon heads or thereof on the outer edges of the brow protection. Archeological finds of such helmets have been made in both Scandinavia and the British isles, showing a common material connection between the cultures.^[43][44]

• 
  Dragon head on the Hellvi helmet eyebrow (550–600)
• 
  Central brow dragon head on the Vendel XIV helmet (560–575)
• 
  Central and outer brow dragon heads on the Vendel I helmet (580–630)
• 
  Central brow dragon heads on the Sutton Hoo helmet (613–635)
• 
  Central and right brow dragon head on the Coppergate Helmet (8th century)

Longships known as "dragons" (Old Norse: drekar) were ships used by the Norse in the Medieval period that predominantly featured carved prows in the shape of dragons and other animalistic creatures.^[22][45][46] One version of the Icelandic Landnámabók states that the ancient Heathen law of Iceland required any ship having a figurehead in place on one's ship "with gaping mouth or yawning snout" to remove the carving before coming in sight of land because it would frighten the landvættir.^[47]

Stave churches are sometimes decorated by carved dragon heads which has been proposed to have originated in the belief in their apotropaic function.^[20][48]

Medieval depictions of worms carved in stone feature both in Sweden and the British Isles. In Sweden, runic inscriptions dated to around the 11th century often show a lindworm bearing the text encircling the remaining picture on the stone.^[49] Some Sigurð stones such as U 1163, Sö 101 (the Rasmund carving) and Sö 327 (the Gök inscription) show a Sigurð thrusting a sword through the worm which is identified as Fáfnir.^[50] The killing of Fáfnir is also potentially pictured on four crosses from the Isle of Man and a now lost fragment, with a similar artistic style, from the church at Kirby Hill in England.^[51][52][53]

The fishing trip described in Hymiskviða in which Thor catches Jörmungandr has been linked to a number of stones in Scandinavia and England such as the Altuna Runestone and the Hørdum stone.^[54][55][56]

• 
  Sigurðr killing Fáfnir, from the Jurby cross on the Isle of Man.
• 
  Lindworm from the U 871 runestone.
• 
  U 1163, the Drävle runestone, showing Sigurðr slaying Fáfnir at the top.
• 
  Jörmungandr on the Altuna Runestone.
• 
  Uppland Runic Inscription 227, showing 3 Runic dragons in Urnes style.

From around the 12th century, stave churches started being erected, in Norway mostly. Such are infamous for their many wooden carvings of both Christian and Viking Age motifs, depiction varius mythological creatures, such as dragons.^[57]

Wooden carvings from the Hylestad Stave Church of scenes from the Völsunga saga include Sigurð killing Fáfnir, who is notably shown with two legs and two wings.^[58]

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  Urnes Stave Church pillars
• 
  Urnes Stave Church dragons
• 
  Urnes Stave Church dragon

• Hyrrokkin, a gýgr in Norse mythology who uses snakes as reins
• Ormhäxan, a picture stone from Gotland depicting a woman with snakes
• Runic dragon, Germanic dragons acting as the runic sling on runestones

• "Beowulf on Steorarume [Beowulf in Cyberspace]: Bilingual Edition (OE text & translation)". heorot.dk. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
• "Fáfnismál – heimskringla.no". heimskringla.no. Archived from the original on 23 February 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2022.