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59-422: His main role in the sagas is as the father of Þóra Borgarhjǫrtr who gave his daughter one or two small lindworms which grew so big that he had to promise her to the man who could slay the serpent(s). Ragnar Lodbrok took on himself to liberate the girl and became her husband. Bósi and Herrauðr's saga works as a prequel describing the origin of the lindworm. In Krákumál , the dying Ragnar Lodbrok sings that

118-1035: A Proto-Germanic form akin to “ linþawurmiz ”. The name compounds Germanic lind with worm , the latter meaning "snake, dragon" (see Germanic dragon ). The meaning of the prefix lind is also uncertain, perhaps it is from the Proto-Germanic adjective *linþia-, meaning "flexible", or perhaps it is from the Old Danish/ Old Saxon lithi , Old High German lindi , "soft, mild" (Middle High and Low German linde , German lind , (ge)linde ), Old English liðe (English lithe , "agile"), alternatively something akin to Old Swedish linde (modern Swedish linda ), existing as prefix lind- and linn- , meaning "to wind", "to turn coils around something". The term occurs in Middle High German as lintwurm and Old Swedish as lindormber (modern Swedish lindorm , modern Danish lindorm ), meaning "lind-snake". In Old Icelandic ,

177-505: A wyvern but move like a mole lizard : they slither like a snake and use their arms for traction. There exist several related offshoots of the winged lindworm outside Northern and Central Europe, such as the French guivre , and to some extent the British wyvern . The French guivre , earlier vouivre , are more dragon-like than the traditional lindworms while the British wyvern is canonically

236-709: A family of giant, primitive, python-like snakes, was around until 50,000 years ago in Australia, represented by genera such as Wonambi . Recent molecular studies support the monophyly of the clades of modern snakes, scolecophidians, typhlopids + anomalepidids, alethinophidians, core alethinophidians, uropeltids ( Cylindrophis , Anomochilus , uropeltines), macrostomatans, booids, boids, pythonids and caenophidians. While snakes are limbless reptiles, evolved from (and grouped with) lizards, there are many other species of lizards that have lost their limbs independently but which superficially look similar to snakes. These include

295-463: A full-fledged dragon. These terms are ultimately derived from Latin vīpera "adder, poisonous snake". According to the 19th-century English archaeologist Charles Boutell , a lindworm in heraldry is basically "a dragon without wings". A different heraldic definition by German historian Maximilian Gritzner was "a dragon with four feet" instead of usual two, so that depictions with - comparatively smaller - wings exist as well. An Austrian tale from

354-413: A home in a pile of rocks. When fully grown, they can become extremely long. To counter this, during hunting they swallow their own tails to become a wheel and roll at extremely high speeds to pursue prey. This practice earned them the nickname "wheel snake" ( Swedish : hjulorm ). A belief in the reality of the lindorm , a giant limbless serpent, persisted well into the 19th century in some parts. In

413-642: A minor component of the North American fauna, but during the Miocene, the number of species and their prevalence increased dramatically with the first appearances of vipers and elapids in North America and the significant diversification of Colubridae (including the origin of many modern genera such as Nerodia , Lampropeltis , Pituophis , and Pantherophis ). There is fossil evidence to suggest that snakes may have evolved from burrowing lizards, during

472-410: A more famous earl than Herröðr had never steered his longship into a harbour [1] . Bósi and Herrauðr's saga tells that Herrauðr was the son of king Ring of Östergötland and the nephew of Gautrekr , the king of Västergötland . Herrauðr's grandfather was Gauti, a son of Odin . Herrauðr's father Ring preferred his illegitimate son Sjóðr to Herrauðr. When Herrauðr's best friend Bósi was outlawed,

531-586: A person's knowledge about nature and medicine. A serpentine monster with the head of a " salamander " features in the legend of the Lambton Worm , a serpent caught in the River Wear and dropped in a well, which 3–4 years thence, terrorized the countryside of Durham while the nobleman who caught it was at the Crusades . Upon return, he received spiked armour and instructions to kill the serpent, but thereafter to kill

590-414: A positive cladistical correlation, although some of these features are shared with varanids. Genetic studies in recent years have indicated snakes are not as closely related to monitor lizards as was once believed—and therefore not to mosasaurs, the proposed ancestor in the aquatic scenario of their evolution. However, more evidence links mosasaurs to snakes than to varanids. Fragmented remains found from

649-632: A rolling wheel, to pursue fleeing humans. The head of the 16th-century lindworm statue at Lindwurm Fountain ( Lindwurmbrunnen  [ de ] ) in Klagenfurt , Austria, is modeled on the skull of a woolly rhinoceros found in a nearby quarry in 1335. It has been cited as the earliest reconstruction of an extinct animal. Lindworm derives from early medieval Germanic languages ( Old High German : lintwurm , Old Low German : lindworm , Middle Dutch : lindeworm , Old Norse : linnormr , Old Swedish : lindormber ) of uncertain origin, possibly from

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708-515: A short tail remains of the caudal vertebrae. However, the tail is still long enough to be of important use in many species, and is modified in some aquatic and tree-dwelling species. Many modern snake groups originated during the Paleocene , alongside the adaptive radiation of mammals following the extinction of (non-avian) dinosaurs . The expansion of grasslands in North America also led to an explosive radiation among snakes. Previously, snakes were

767-424: A spear and approached the serpent which blew poison at him. Ragnar protected himself with his shield and his clothes and stuck the spear through its heart. He then cut off the serpent's head, and when the people found out what had happened, he married Þora. In Gesta Danorum , book 9, Herodd is the king of Sweden. One day when he hunted in the woods, he found some adders that he gave to his daughter Tora. She raised

826-472: A spear. Lindworm The lindworm ( worm meaning snake , see germanic dragon ), also spelled lindwyrm or lindwurm , is a mythical creature in Northern , Western and Central European folklore that traditionally has the shape of a giant serpent monster and lives deep in the forest. It can be seen as a sort of dragon . According to legend, everything that lies under a lindworm will increase as

885-420: Is a finer one, barely visible; the cavities are connected internally, separated only by a membrane with nerves that are extraordinarily attuned to detecting temperature changes between. As in the overlapping vision fields of human eyes, the forward-facing pit on either side of the face combined produces a field of vision: a pit viper can distinguish between objects and their environments, as well as accurately judge

944-415: Is adapted for burrowing and its stomach indicates that it was preying on other animals. It is currently uncertain if Tetrapodophis is a snake or another species, in the squamate order, as a snake-like body has independently evolved at least 26 times. Tetrapodophis does not have distinctive snake features in its spine and skull. A study in 2021 places the animal in a group of extinct marine lizards from

1003-472: Is associated with DNA mutations in the Zone of Polarizing Activity Regulatory Sequence (ZRS), a regulatory region of the sonic hedgehog gene which is critically required for limb development. More advanced snakes have no remnants of limbs, but basal snakes such as pythons and boas do have traces of highly reduced, vestigial hind limbs. Python embryos even have fully developed hind limb buds, but their later development

1062-455: Is based on morphological characteristics and mitochondrial DNA sequence similarity. Alethinophidia is sometimes split into Henophidia and Caenophidia , with the latter consisting of "colubroid" snakes ( colubrids , vipers , elapids , hydrophiids , and atractaspids ) and acrochordids, while the other alethinophidian families comprise Henophidia. While not extant today, the Madtsoiidae ,

1121-454: Is not universal (see Amphisbaenia , Dibamidae , and Pygopodidae ). Living snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica, and on most smaller land masses; exceptions include some large islands, such as Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, and the islands of New Zealand, as well as many small islands of the Atlantic and central Pacific oceans. Additionally, sea snakes are widespread throughout

1180-511: Is part of a multiverse of tales in which a maiden is betrothed or wooed by a prince enchanted to be a snake or other serpentine creature ( ATU 433B, "The Prince as Serpent"; "King Lindworm"). In a short Swiss tale, a Lindworm terrorises the area around Grabs . "It was as big as a tree trunk, dark red in colour and, according to its nature, extraordinarily vicious". It was defeated by a bull that had been fed milk for seven years and had hooks attached its horns. A girl, who had committed an offense,

1239-618: Is potent enough to cause painful injury or death to humans. Nonvenomous snakes either swallow prey alive or kill by constriction . The English word snake comes from Old English snaca , itself from Proto-Germanic * snak-an- ( cf. Germanic Schnake 'ring snake', Swedish snok 'grass snake'), from Proto-Indo-European root * (s)nēg-o- 'to crawl to creep', which also gave sneak as well as Sanskrit nāgá 'snake'. The word ousted adder , as adder went on to narrow in meaning, though in Old English næddre

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1298-572: Is relatively poor because snake skeletons are typically small and fragile making fossilization uncommon. Fossils readily identifiable as snakes (though often retaining hind limbs) first appear in the fossil record during the Cretaceous period. The earliest known true snake fossils (members of the crown group Serpentes) come from the marine simoliophiids , the oldest of which is the Late Cretaceous ( Cenomanian age) Haasiophis terrasanctus from

1357-788: Is stopped by the DNA mutations in the ZRS. There are about 3,900 species of snakes, ranging as far northward as the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and southward through Australia. Snakes can be found on every continent except Antarctica, as well as in the sea, and as high as 16,000 feet (4,900 m) in the Himalayan Mountains of Asia. There are numerous islands from which snakes are absent, such as Ireland , Iceland , and New Zealand (although New Zealand's northern waters are infrequently visited by

1416-480: The Brávellir , they set off to find Hleið together with Bósi's foster-mother Busla and his brother Smiðr. They rescued Hleið and kidnapped Edda, the king's daughter. King Harek died trying to stop them. Herrauðr became the new king of Östergötland, while Bósi ascended the throne of Bjarmaland together with his queen Edda. Herrauðr and his queen Hleið had a daughter, Þóra Borgarhjǫrtr. When the vulture's egg hatched, there

1475-471: The Cretaceous Period . An early fossil snake relative, Najash rionegrina , was a two-legged burrowing animal with a sacrum , and was fully terrestrial . Najash , which lived 95 million years ago, also had a skull with several features typical for lizards, but had evolved some of the mobile skull joints that define the flexible skull in most modern snakes. The species did not show any resemblances to

1534-553: The Jurassic and Early Cretaceous indicate deeper fossil records for these groups, which may potentially refute either hypothesis. Both fossils and phylogenetic studies demonstrate that snakes evolved from lizards , hence the question became which genetic changes led to limb loss in the snake ancestor. Limb loss is actually very common in extant reptiles and has happened dozens of times within skinks , anguids , and other lizards. In 2016, two studies reported that limb loss in snakes

1593-624: The Jurassic period, with the earliest known fossils dating to between 143 and 167  Ma ago. The diversity of modern snakes appeared during the Paleocene epoch ( c.  66 to 56 Ma ago, after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event ). The oldest preserved descriptions of snakes can be found in the Brooklyn Papyrus . Most species of snake are nonvenomous and those that have venom use it primarily to kill and subdue prey rather than for self-defense. Some possess venom that

1652-504: The Tatzelwurm is a wingless biped, and often identified as a lindworm. In legends, lindworms are often very large and eat cattle and human corpses, sometimes invading churchyards and eating the dead from cemeteries. In the 19th-century tale of "Prince Lindworm" (also " King Lindworm ") from Scandinavian folklore , a "half-man half-snake" lindworm is born, as one of twins, to a queen, who, in an effort to overcome her childlessness, followed

1711-529: The West Bank , dated to between 112 and 94 million years old. Based on genomic analysis it is certain that snakes descend from lizards . This conclusion is also supported by comparative anatomy , and the fossil record. Pythons and boas —primitive groups among modern snakes—have vestigial hind limbs: tiny, clawed digits known as anal spurs , which are used to grasp during mating. The families Leptotyphlopidae and Typhlopidae also possess remnants of

1770-479: The slowworm , glass snake , and amphisbaenians . Leptotyphlopidae Gerrhopilidae Typhlopidae Xenophidiidae Anomalepididae Aniliidae Tropidophiidae Xenopeltidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Boidae Bolyeridae Xenophidiidae Uropeltidae Anomochilidae Cylindrophiidae Acrochordidae Xenodermidae Pareidae Viperidae Homalopsidae Colubridae Lamprophiidae Elapidae The fossil record of snakes

1829-434: The yellow-bellied sea snake and the banded sea krait ). The now extinct Titanoboa cerrejonensis was 12.8 m (42 ft) in length. By comparison, the largest extant snakes are the reticulated python , measuring about 6.95 m (22.8 ft) long, and the green anaconda , which measures about 5.21 m (17.1 ft) long and is considered the heaviest snake on Earth at 97.5 kg (215 lb). At

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1888-403: The 13th century tells of a lindworm that lived near Klagenfurt . Flooding threatened travelers along the river, and the presence of the lindworm was blamed. A duke offered a reward to anyone who could capture it and so some young men tied a bull to a chain, and when the lindworm swallowed the bull, it was hooked like a fish and killed. The shed skin of a lindworm was believed to greatly increase

1947-502: The Cretaceous period known as dolichosaurs and not directly related to snakes. An alternative hypothesis, based on morphology , suggests the ancestors of snakes were related to mosasaurs —extinct aquatic reptiles from the Cretaceous —forming the clade Pythonomorpha . According to this hypothesis, the fused, transparent eyelids of snakes are thought to have evolved to combat marine conditions (corneal water loss through osmosis), and

2006-581: The Hox gene expression in the axial skeleton responsible for the development of the thorax became dominant. As a result, the vertebrae anterior to the hindlimb buds (when present) all have the same thoracic-like identity (except from the atlas , axis , and 1–3 neck vertebrae). In other words, most of a snake's skeleton is an extremely extended thorax. Ribs are found exclusively on the thoracic vertebrae. Neck, lumbar and pelvic vertebrae are very reduced in number (only 2–10 lumbar and pelvic vertebrae are present), while only

2065-523: The Indian and Pacific oceans. Around thirty families are currently recognized, comprising about 520 genera and about 3,900 species . They range in size from the tiny, 10.4 cm-long (4.1 in) Barbados threadsnake to the reticulated python of 6.95 meters (22.8 ft) in length. The fossil species Titanoboa cerrejonensis was 12.8 meters (42 ft) long. Snakes are thought to have evolved from either burrowing or aquatic lizards, perhaps during

2124-765: The Lindworm, who kills the Venetian and then leaves. When the cowherd goes home, no one recognizes him and he no longer likes human food. Snake Snakes are elongated, limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes ( / s ɜːr ˈ p ɛ n t iː z / ). Like all other squamates , snakes are ectothermic , amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales . Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads ( cranial kinesis ). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of

2183-430: The advice of an old crone who instructed her to eat two onions. As she did not peel the first onion, the first twin was born a lindworm. The second twin 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. Because none of the chosen maidens are pleased by him, he eats each one until a shepherd's daughter who spoke to

2242-527: The ears. Some primitive snakes are known to have possessed hindlimbs, but their pelvic bones lacked a direct connection to the vertebrae. These include fossil species like Haasiophis , Pachyrhachis and Eupodophis , which are slightly older than Najash . This hypothesis was strengthened in 2015 by the discovery of a 113-million-year-old fossil of a four-legged snake in Brazil that has been named Tetrapodophis amplectus . It has many snake-like features,

2301-491: The egg and reconciled with his son and Bósi. Herrauðr and Bósi then departed for the Battle of Brávellir to fight for Harald Wartooth and survived the immense battle. Gudmund of Glæsisvellir who wanted to find his sister promised her to Siggeir, the son of Harekr the king of Bjarmaland, if he could find her. The Bjarmians invaded Östergötland, killed king Ring and took Hleið back to Bjarmaland. When Herrauðr and Bósi returned from

2360-614: The external ears were lost through disuse in an aquatic environment. This ultimately led to an animal similar to today's sea snakes . In the Late Cretaceous , snakes recolonized land, and continued to diversify into today's snakes. Fossilized snake remains are known from early Late Cretaceous marine sediments, which is consistent with this hypothesis; particularly so, as they are older than the terrestrial Najash rionegrina . Similar skull structure, reduced or absent limbs, and other anatomical features found in both mosasaurs and snakes lead to

2419-485: The forest. They are said to be dark in color with a brighter underside. Along the spine, they are said to have either fish-like dorsal fins or a horse-like mane ; for this reason, they are sometimes called a "mane snake" ( Swedish : manorm ). For defence and attack, lindworms can spit a foul milk-like substance that can blind enemies. Lindworm eggs are said to be laid under the bark of linden trees ( Swedish : lind ). Once hatched, lindworms slither away and make

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2478-437: The head, between the nostrils and the eyes. In fact the pit looks like an extra pair of nostrils. All snakes have the ability to sense warmth with touch and heat receptors like other animals ;however, the highly developed pit of the pit vipers is distinctive. Each pit is made of a pit cavity and an inner cavity, the larger one lies just behind and generally below the level of the nostril, and opens forward. Behind this larger cavity

2537-541: The lindworm grows. This belief gave rise to tales of dragons that brood over treasures to become richer. Legend tells of two kinds of lindworm: a good one, associated with luck, often a cursed prince who has been transformed into the beast (compare to the Frog Prince and Beauty and the Beast stories), and a bad one, a dangerous man-eater that will attack humans on sight. A lindworm may swallow its own tail, turning itself into

2596-591: The mid-19th century, the Swedish folklorist Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius (1818–1889) collected stories of legendary creatures in Sweden and met several people in Småland , Sweden, who said they had encountered giant snakes, sometimes with a long mane. He gathered around 50 eyewitness reports and in 1884 offered a cash reward for a captured specimen, dead or alive. He was ridiculed by Swedish scholars, and because no one ever claimed

2655-545: The modern burrowing blind snakes, which have often been seen as the most primitive group of extant forms. One extant analog of these putative ancestors is the earless monitor Lanthanotus of Borneo (though it is also semiaquatic ). Subterranean species evolved bodies streamlined for burrowing, and eventually lost their limbs. According to this hypothesis, features such as the transparent , fused eyelids ( brille ) and loss of external ears evolved to cope with fossorial difficulties, such as scratched corneas and dirt in

2714-513: The next living thing he saw. His father arranged that after the lindworm was killed, a dog would be released for that purpose; but instead of releasing the dog the nobleman's father ran to his son, and so incurred a malediction by the son's refusal to commit patricide . Bram Stoker used this legend in his short story Lair of the White Worm . The sighting of a "whiteworm" once was thought to be an exceptional sign of good luck. The knucker or

2773-569: The other end of the scale, the smallest extant snake is Leptotyphlops carlae , with a length of about 10.4 cm (4.1 in). Most snakes are fairly small animals, approximately 1 m (3.3 ft) in length. Some of the most highly developed sensory systems are found in the Crotalidae, or pit vipers—the rattlesnakes and their associates. Pit vipers have all the sense organs of other snakes, as well as additional aids. Pit refers to special infrared-sensitive receptors located on either side of

2832-515: The other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung . Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca . Lizards have independently evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs at least twenty-five times via convergent evolution , leading to many lineages of legless lizards . These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule

2891-451: The pelvic girdle, appearing as horny projections when visible. Front limbs are nonexistent in all known snakes. This is caused by the evolution of their Hox genes , controlling limb morphogenesis . The axial skeleton of the snakes' common ancestor, like most other tetrapods, had regional specializations consisting of cervical (neck), thoracic (chest), lumbar (lower back), sacral (pelvic), and caudal (tail) vertebrae. Early in snake evolution,

2950-587: The reward, the effort resulted in a cryptozoological defeat. Rumours of the existence of lindworms in Småland soon abated. In Central Europe the lindworm usually resembles a dragon or something similar. It generally appears with a scaly serpentine body, a dragon's head, and two clawed forelimbs, sometimes with wings. Some examples, such as the 16th-century lindworm statue at Lindwurm Fountain in Klagenfurt , Austria, have four limbs and two wings. Most limbed depictions imply that lindworms do not walk on two limbs like

3009-514: The same crone is brought to marry him, wearing every dress she owns. The lindworm tells her to take off her dress, but she insists that he shed a skin for each dress she removes. Eventually, his human form is revealed beneath the last skin. Some versions of the story omit the lindworm's twin, and the gender of the soothsayer varies. A similar tale occurs in the 1952 novel The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis . The tale of Prince Lindworm

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3068-507: The snakes with whole oxen until they had grown so large that they terrorized the entire country side. Horrified, Herrod promised his daughter to anyone who could kill the serpents. Ragnar Lodbrok donned some furry clothes to protect himself and went to Sweden. There he threw himself in cold water and let the frost make the water into an icy protection of his clothes. At the palace, he met two large snakes who attacked him. Shielded by his clothes he managed to kill them by piercing their hearts with

3127-402: The term linnormr was used to translate German sources to produce Þiðreks saga (an Old Norse chivalric saga adapted from the continent from the late 13th c.) Lindworm portrayals vary across countries and the stories in which they appear. In Nordic folklore , specifically Swedish folklore , lindworms traditionally appear as giant forest serpents without limbs, living between rocks deep in

3186-546: The two friends set off to spend some years pillaging as Vikings. Back in Östergötland, Sjóðr forced Bósi's father to pay money in compensation for Bósi's crime, so when Sjóðr and Bósi met in Wendland the two started fighting and Sjóðr was killed. When the two friends returned to Östergötland, Ring refused to reconcile with Herrauðr and instead he incarcerated Herrauðr and Bósi and intended to execute them. Through magic and threats, Busla, Bósi's foster-mother, prevailed on Ring to send

3245-435: The two young men on a dangerous quest instead of executing them. They were to find a vulture's egg inscribed with golden letters. The two young men went to Bjarmaland and killed the vulture guarding the temple of Jumala and the priestess Kolfrosta. They also saved the priestess-to-be, Hleið, the sister of Guðmundr of Glæsisvellir . Hleið was happy to be saved and became Herrauðr's wife. Back in Östergötland, Ring accepted

3304-416: Was a lindworm inside and it soon encircled Þóra Borgarhjǫrtr's bower. Herrauðr promised his daughter to the man who could slay the serpent and it was Ragnar Lodbrok who liberated her. In the tale of Tale of Ragnar's sons , Herrauðr is the earl of Götaland and one of Ragnar Lodbrok's vassals (this fits Bósi and Herrauðr's saga as Sigurd Hring who was victorious at the Battle of Brávellir had died and

3363-496: Was succeeded by his son Ragnar). Herrauðr's daughter Þóra Borgarhjǫrtr was very beautiful. He had given her a lindworm, but after some time, it had encircled her bower and threatened anyone who approached it, except for her servants who fed it with an ox every day. At his symbel , Herrauðr promised his daughter to the man who could kill the serpent. When Ragnar heard of this, he went to Västergötland and dressed himself in shaggy clothes that he had treated with tar and sand. He took

3422-417: Was tasked with bringing the bull to the Lindworm. After the beast was defeated, the enraged bull threw itself off a cliff, but the girl survived. In another tale, a cowherd falls into a cave where a Lindworm lives. Instead of eating him, the Lindworm shares his food source, a spring of liquid gold. After seven years, they are discovered by a Venetian who hauls up the Lindworm and ties it up. The cowherd releases

3481-570: Was the general word for snake. The other term, serpent , is from French, ultimately from Indo-European * serp- 'to creep', which also gave Ancient Greek ἕρπω ( hérpō ) 'I crawl' and Sanskrit sarpá ‘snake’. All modern snakes are grouped within the suborder Serpentes in Linnean taxonomy , part of the order Squamata , though their precise placement within squamates remains controversial. The two infraorders of Serpentes are Alethinophidia and Scolecophidia . This separation

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