Wyrm (dragon)

Worm, wurm or wyrm (, , ''ormr'', ), meaning serpent, are archaic terms for dragons (, , ) 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.

Origin, appearance and terminology

Etymology

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" (, , , ), "snake" (, , , ), "adder" (, , ), 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, while the Old English form ''wyrm'' has been borrowed back into modern English to mean "dragon". The Nordic descendants of – , , , , – beyond being the common word for snake in Faroese, Norwegian and Swedish, in Danish and Icelandic instead being more ambiguous with invertebrate worms, remain a poetic or archaic word for dragon and similar mythological serpentine creatures. A similar theme can be seen in German, with surviving compositions such as and etc.

The word "dragon", contemporaneously also appear: , Old West Norse: , Old East Norse: , , , , , meaning "dragon, sea serpent or sea monster" etc, stemming from , meaning "big serpent or dragon", itself from (''drákōn'') of the same meaning. The form "dragon", in modern English, stems from , while the Germanic Old English form survives as ''drake''.

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:

Related are also the French guivre/vouivre (from Old French for "snake") and English wyvern (, from ), ultimately deriving from ("viper"). Other words include Knucker, a dialect word for a sort of water dragon in Sussex, England.

Written corpus

In the 10th century Old English epic poem Beowulf, "the dragon" is referred to as both a and a . In the Middle High German epic poem Nibelungenlied, written around 1200, the unnamed dragon ("Fáfnir") is referred to as a ("lin-drake", ie, lindworm), which associate professor of German, George Henry Needler (1866–1962), translated as "worm-like dragon". 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 . 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 and an . 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 , "flying dragon" (). 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.

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''. 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.

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 (, ) and sea serpent (, ), 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:

List of Germanic dragons in legend

* 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.
* is a widely attested dragon that has a prominent role in the Cycle. 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 Sigurd), who in some accounts hid in a pit and stabbed him from underneath with a sword.
* , also known as the Midgard Serpent, or the "Midgard worm" (), is described as a giant, venomous beast and the child of Loki and Angrboða.
* is a dragon attested in the Eddas that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil and the corpses of Náströnd.
* The ' contains a description of a dragon killed by Frotho I. The dragon is described as "the keeper of the mountain." After Frotho I kills the dragon, he takes its hoard of treasure. The Gesta Danorum describes another dragon fight where a dragon is slain by Friðleifr and it is similar to the story of Frotho I.
* 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.

Among local legends and tales:
* Klagenfurt lindworm, Austria
* Knucker of Lyminster, England
* Lagarfljót Worm, Iceland ()
* Lambton Worm, England
* Selma (lake monster), Norway (, "Seljord worm").
* Storsjöodjuret, Sweden
* Worm of Linton, Scotland

Common traits and roles

Guarding treasure

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 Sigurd story in '' Þiðreks saga af Bern''.

A motif could potentially be an old myth in Germanic 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. Here follows a revolving quote from ''Fru Marie Grubbe'', by Danish author Jens Peter Jacobsen (1876), given in its Swedish (1888), and English (1917), translation, due to availability. Of note; the segment is very spontaneous, used as a parable in an otherwise unrelated story. The English translation, while fairly direct, does not use the word lindworm (), instead opting to translate it as serpent and reptile, indicating that the English translator was unfamiliar with the myth being referenced.

In the Völsung Cycle, ', was a dwarf, who, upon claiming a hoard of treasure, including the ring Andvaranaut, transforms into a dragon to protect and brood over it. Fáfnir's brother, Regin, reforges the sword Gram from broken shards, and gives it to the hero Sigurd, who uses it to kill the dragon by hiding in a hole in its path to drink water, waiting until the worm slithers over and exposes his underbelly. While dying, Fáfnir speaks with Sigurd and shares mythological knowledge. Sigurd 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. In Beowulf, it is Sigmund (the father of Sigurd in Old Norse tradition) who kills a dragon and takes its hoard.

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. The Old English poem, Maxims II, further states that the dragon was left in or on the mound, potentially as to increase its grave goods (, "frood, treasure proud", could potentially indicate this):

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. The image of an encircled snake eating its own tail is also seen with Jörmungandr. The hero Ragnar Lodbrok

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