#linnormr

[dwollfieldnotes]

Lindworm/Lindorm

Scandinavian Folk-Lore: Illustrations of the Traditional Beliefs of the Northern Peoples by William A. Craigie (1896)

-Live in waste-places [wastelands? Like places where people don't or can't live] -May wrap themselves around churches and not budge -Start out life small, indistinguishable from normal snakes -One had brindled scales -Grow very quickly by drinking milk. Will spare the person who gave them milk as a youngling when they're an adult -Eat cattle and horses and people -Dig up corpses from churchyards to eat -In addition to their usual fare, they may eat all sorts of plant material: young shoots, grass, wooden crosses, etc. [this one instance was done by a lindorm wrapped around a church, so perhaps it couldn't/wouldn't go out to hunt?] -Do not like tobacco -Strong enough to strike a stone with its tail and leave a furrow -Burrow underneath the ground, sometimes under churches [semi-fossorial, like most snakes] -Not immune to heavy ordnance or a mad, three-year old bull -Blood is poisonous and liable to kill their slayer if it's spilled heavily

Folktales of Norway by Reidar Thoralf Christiansen (1964)

-One was exorcised by flame, thirty ells long (112.5 ft) -Lived alongside numerous other large, ugly snakes underneath the parishes in Trondheim -Had a black mane -Not immune to fire, however, as it perished after devouring the Lapp that had lured it into the ring of flames

[dwollsadventures]

KNOW YOUR DRAGONS

I lied, just a little tongue-in-cheek picture for Smaugust. It’s obviously supposed to be a jab at a very infamous picture I’m sure everyone looking at this is familiar with. When it comes to folklore and mythology, there is no set standard for what one thing is supposed to look like. Even when dealing with something as unique as the Fafnir there are different variations upon the central idea based on time, place, and the artist in question. 

EDIT: Alright, maybe I should have explained this better. In the aforementioned "chart" it assigns specific names of dragons to specific body plans. I switched this up by deliberately changing around the body shapes of the dragons in question, since there is no correct body plan for any one type of dragon. I choose these five because of my familiarness with them and drew them like how I like to draw their folkloric/mythological counterparts (substituting the generic dragon for a drakon). These five are far from the only types of dragons out there, it's just their names are often used in conjunction with a specific body-layout. As in the apocryphal chart, they list a set of characteristics that "define" the dragon. For instance, under wyvern it lists two legs and two wings, saying this defines a wyvern. In parody of this I put down traits associated with the dragons (at least, the Scandinavian version of the drake and the literary lindworm) that would better define them, like the drakon's sleeplessness or the wyvern's origins in the bestiary vipera, the only snake said to give birth to live young. And, while I do tend to draw certain dragons in certain ways, like having two-winged and two-legged wyverns and snakey lindworms, these aren't the rules I apply to how I draw/write dragons. The rules guiding them are not biological nor sensible. A legless wyvern may give birth to a four-legged one, it's just how they do. In some cases, like the Greek drakons, there is a very strong trend towards a serpentine body, but it's not a set in stone rule.

[dwollsadventures]

The other game I've been playing is Pokemon Let's Go, because I'm a chump when it comes to Pokemon. Eevee and Pikachu are alright, I guess, but reptiles are where it's at! Walking along with my Arbok and Rhyhorn feels so awesome. It was cool in HGSS, but seeing them walk along with me in 3D (and getting to ride them!!) feels so much more fulfilling. (Even if the battle animations are a little stale). It'd be cool if they implemented it into Sword and Shield, but considering how much the company's whipping their employees into yearly releases, it's probably not going to happen any time soon. 

Anyways, why is that lass/lad walking with a lindworm? Firstly, because I wanted to draw a lindworm. I've been drafting their myth stuff entry, though I don't think I'll post it any time soon. They're the native dragons of Scandinavia and Germany, but are far from bog-standard snake-dragons. In their homelands they have tons of mystical traits, like the ability to sit on a pile of gold and multiply each piece, all the while growing in tandem. In Sweden, whiteworms, a morph of lindworm, are good luck when they're seen, and their shed skin has magical properties. In Norway they've also got some sort of relationship with sea serpents, possibly being the same species... Interestingly their name doesn't mean land-worm. It comes from Old High German lint "snake" and wurm "serpent". A lot of the time they're also just called ormur, or "serpent/worm", although in English it might be better to translate it as wyrm. They can also be called lyngormr, meaning "heath worm". Secondly because during quarantine I came up with an idea for a pokemon-esque game where you capture and bond with (and actually bond with, less fighting) mythical creatures. I will spare you the exhaustive details... I'm starting to think being cooped up for two weeks is doing stuff to my brain...

If you're thinking, 'wow it looks like there should be a lot of movement in that drawing. maybe it was animated at one point?' I hate you and I hate animation.

[dwollsadventures]

TyrantisTerror Prompt: Lindworm

The description given for the lindworm is a dragon with only forelimbs. But this appears to only be true where heraldry is concerned. The lindworm is of German and Scandinavian origin, and is usually serpentine. Some writings make a clear distinction between the Latin-derived drak and the native linnormr. 

These creatures are otherwise known as trollsnakes in some writings, not because of their relationship to trolls (though, both are connected to the jotnar of old), but for their nature as a mystical being. Troll, as a prefix, is often added to words as a means of communicating their magical connotations. For example, "trollmann" in English is wizard, as is the Swedish "trollkarl". It's no mistake to see that lindworms are often talked about in conjunction with trolls, being among the main forces of malevolent magic in Scandinavia. The Swedish lake serpent Storsjöodjuret was even said to be the product of a troll's cauldron.

But the most intriguing story which highlights their supernatural nature has to be "Driving Out The Snakes", paraphrased here fromFolktales of Norway: 

Way back when, the churches of Trondheim were infested with numerous snakes, all huge and ugly. The parishers agreed to seek the help of a Finn [Lapplander], known for his skill in magic, to get rid of them. He agreed to do it, and he directed everyone to a large clearing in the forest, where in the middle a single, big fir tree stood. The folk chopped off all the limbs and piled them around it. Once that was done, the Finn scaled the tree, after setting the ring of branches alight. Then, he stood on top of the tree and began chanting his spells. Every snake darted out from under the churches at once, trying to kill the Finn, but the perished in the fire. All until the last one, a lindworm, thirty ells long with a mane came from the church, went right over the fire, and grabbed the Finn in its maw. But, before it could escape, the fire had caught it and killed them both. Since then, no one's seen snakes in Trondheim.  

[dwollsadventures]

What's this, you say? RE-WORKING LINDWORMS WHICH YOU SAID YOU WERE MODERATELY HAPPY WITH???

No, actually, just fleshing out their designs. In order to separate the Nordic/Germanic dragons from their Southern counterparts, I gave them longer, beak-like mouths because they looked cool and gnarly. But, because everything I think everything I make is terrible, I wanted to play with this a little more. The beak bois and their ripped skin make a pretty cool look. Also between now and when I last drew them I studied up a bit more on Scandinavian folklore for my D&D campaign, and found an interesting detail that I must have blocked out of my mind: lindworms and sea serpents often had manes. Specifically the lindworm in "Driving out the Snakes" from Folktales of Norway was described with a black mane. I imagine lindworms and their relatives, being such long-lived and ancient monsters, might develop patches of algae (perhaps even its own species entirely? evolved to live specifically in the skin of dragons?) as they get older and stop moving around as much. Similarly, sea serpents often had red manes, found in a few other sea monsters in the area. This could be the same thing, or maybe their heads just get red as time goes on, I'm a little undecided. Sea serpents are also a whole lot closer to their cousins than before, as while the mosasaur/basilosaurus look was technically more streamlined and accurate for a large sea-monster, it made them look boring. Speaking out which, the dreki was given the same treatment, becoming more lizard-like. Unlike lindworms, they aren't very suited for the colder climates, and therefore don't get to live as long. The more South you go, the more people there are, and when there are more people, there's a greater risk of getting slain. So dreki are smaller and shier, spending the days in their burrows and mounds and nights sneaking around looking for prey. Unless they're one of the big boys, who've survived years upon years of human attacks, and don't give a flaming shit about humans with pointy sticks. Sorry for the botched coloring job, not in the best mindset for that atm.