Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 33 



when we have supposed the church of Linton to have been 

 founded, was clearly of Teutonic origin, it will be proper to con- 

 fine our general notices of the dragon to such as may be gleaned 

 among the early records of that people or of its different sub- 

 families. With regard to its name, it was called sometimes in 

 Norse, ormr, in Anglo-Saxon, vyrm or wyrm, in old German, 

 wurm, in the Gothic, vaurms, as in our own local dialect, worm. 

 In the ' Nibelungenlied' it is termed lintrache, lintdrache; and in 

 1 Siegfriedslied/ lintwurm. There is something like a tautology in 

 this, for, in the old Norse, linni also signifies a serpent ; while in 

 the same language it is sometimes styled lyng-ormr (heath- worm), 

 in token of its frequently inhabiting heaths or desert places*. 

 In modern German it is lindwurm, as in the Danish and Swedish 

 ballads it is lindorm ; though in the latter the monster thus named 

 is sometimes confounded with the hvita orm, a creature not only 

 harmless, but popularly believed to be possessed of singularly 

 precious endowments f. The name ling-orm, or ljung-orm, be- 

 comes then reserved for the more destructive animal. 



It was ordinarily described as breathing forth poison and fire, 

 as if its formidable dimensions could not alone excite sufficient 

 terror. When winged, it was particularly entitled to the name 

 of dragon ; but wings were only occasionally ascribed to it. The 

 impenetrability of its scales was one of its unfailing attributes, 

 hence it was by thrusts in its throat that fatal wounds were 

 usually inflicted ; when the champion, beyond even the credit of 

 his victory, might secure to himself the power of understanding 

 the language of animals, by eating of its heart, and an unyielding - 

 temper to his weapons, and invulnerableness to himself, by 

 smearing with its blood. In our own romance of Merlin, we are 

 told that— 



" The mouthe he haclde grinninge, 



And the tonge out-plattinge, 



That out kest sparkes of fer, 



Into the skies thot flowen cler. 



This dragoun hadde a longe taile, 



That was wither-hooked, sans fade." 



But as Guy of Warwick slew a dragon in Northumberland, for 

 King Athelstan, his romance becomes a better local authority, 

 and it fortunately provides us with the following description : — 



" He is as black as any coal, 

 Rugged as a rough foal : 

 His body, from the navel upward, 

 No man can pierce, it is so hard. 



* Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 652-5, 2nd edition, 

 t Svenska Folk-Visor, utgifne af Geijer och Afzelius, D. iii. pp. 121- 

 239; D. ii. pp. 71-252. 



B.N.C. VOL. III. N" I. D 



