A wyvern ( WY-v?rn, sometimes spelled wivern) is a legendary creature with a dragon's head and wings, a reptilian body, two legs, and a tail often ending in a diamond- or arrow-shaped tip. A sea-dwelling variant dubbed the sea-wyvern has a fish tail in place of a barbed dragon's tail.
The wyvern in its various forms is important to heraldry, frequently appearing as a mascot of schools and athletic teams (chiefly in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada). It is a popular creature in European and British literature, video games, and modern fantasy. The wyvern in heraldry and folklore is not fire-breathing like the four-legged dragon. Sometimes modern fantasy book and media authors have wyverns that are frost-breathing or poison-breathing instead of fire-breathing.
Video Wyvern
Etymology
The usual spelling wyvern is not attested before the seventeenth century as "winged two-footed dragon". It is an alteration of Middle English (attested thirteenth century) wyver, from Old French wivre (cf. French guivre and vouivre), itself from Latin v?pera, meaning "viper", "adder", or "asp".
Maps Wyvern
History
The design of the wyvern is thought to have derived from the figure of the dragon encountered by Trajan's legions in Dacia. It may be the origin of the red dragon of Wales and the golden dragon of the Kingdom of Wessex carried at the Battle of Burford in AD 752.
Distinction from dragons
Wyverns are very similar to dragons, and in many languages, cultures and contexts no clear distinction is made between the two. Since the sixteenth century, in English, Scottish, and Irish heraldry, the key difference has been that a wyvern has two legs, whereas a dragon has four. However, this distinction is not commonly observed in the heraldry of other European countries, where two-legged dragons are entirely acceptable.
In modern fiction
In the modern fantasy genre, there is little differentiation between dragons and wyverns, with two-legged, magical reptilian creatures all likely to be referred to as "dragons" without any differentiation between types. Wyverns, when present as creatures distinct from dragons, tend to appear as less magical and more as dangerous beasts smaller, weaker, and less intelligent than dragons. While a fantasy dragon often has a breath weapon, such as fire, wyverns rarely have such abilities and are more feared for their ferocity and sharp teeth and claws. Wyverns are sometimes associated with poison, either in the form of venomous fangs or poisonous breath, but this trait is not universally represented and may be a more recent addition to the lore based on the gila monster. A wyvern will typically be unable to speak, while a dragon often does have that ability.
The wyvern features frequently in modern fantasy fiction, though its first literary appearances may have been in medieval bestiaries. It appears in many works of fantasy fiction, such as Dungeons & Dragons, Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, Final Fantasy, Magic: The Gathering, Dragon Age, Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.
Fantasy film and gaming often features dragons which are wyvern-like in appearance (with two legs and two wings), as in Reign of Fire (both the film and the video game) or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, Hookfang and Stormfly are both wyvern-like, while all the others are more traditional four-legged dragons.
The wyvern also appears in anime, such as Fairy Tail.
In heraldry
The wyvern is a frequent charge in English heraldry and vexillology, also occasionally appearing as a supporter or crest.
A white (Argent) wyvern formed the crest of the Borough of Leicester as recorded at the heraldic visitation of Leicestershire in 1619: "A wyvern sans legs argent strewed with wounds gules, wings expanded ermine." The term "sans legs" may not imply that the wyvern was "without legs", rather that its legs are not depicted, being hidden or folded under. This was adopted by the Midland Railway in 1845, when it became the crest of its unofficial coat of arms. The company asserted that the "wyvern was the standard of the Kingdom of Mercia", and that it was "a quartering in the town arms of Leicester". However, in 1897 the Railway Magazine noted that there appeared "to be no foundation that the wyvern was associated with the Kingdom of Mercia".
A green Wyvern stands in the emblem of the ancient and historical umbrian city of Terni, the dragon is called by the citizens with the name of Thyrus. Sable wyvern on a white background with endorsed wings forms the coat of arms of the Tilley family.
The kings of Aragon of the House of Barcelona since Peter IV used a wyvern as a crest on their helmets. Nowadays this symbol has been officially adopted as the coat of arms of the Generalitat Valenciana (Valencian Parliament and Government).
The arms of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries depict a wyvern, symbolising disease, being overcome by Apollo, symbolising medicine.
As a logo or mascot
The wyvern is also a fairly popular commercial logo or mascot, especially in Wales and what was once the West Country Kingdom of Wessex, but also farther afield in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, as the rivers Wye and Severn run through Hereford and Worcester respectively. A local radio station was formerly called Wyvern FM. Vauxhall Motors had a model in its range in the 1950s called the Wyvern. The Westland Wyvern was a British single-seat carrier-based multi-role strike aircraft built by Westland Aircraft that served in the 1950s, seeing active service in the 1956 Suez Crisis.
The wyvern is a frequent mascot of athletic teams, colleges and universities, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States, and is the mascot of the Korea Baseball Organization team SK Wyverns, established in 2000.
The wyvern is also the mascot of the 51st Operations Support Squadron at Osan Air Base, with the motto: "breathin' fire!"
The wyvern is the mascot on the shirt of Leyton Orient F.C..
The wyvern is featured as the team mascot for Woodbridge College in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada.
Examples
See also
- Ahool
- Basilisk
- Cockatrice
- European dragon
- Lindworm
- White dragon
References
External links
- Media related to Wyverns at Wikimedia Commons
- The dictionary definition of wyvern at Wiktionary
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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