Wyvern

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Wyvern speared by angels Liber Floridus, 1448

A wyvern or wivern (pronounced /wаɪvərn/) is a legendary winged reptilian creature with two legs often found in mediaeval heraldry. The word is derived from Middle English wyvere, from Old North French wivre "viper".^[1]

The wyvern is regarded as a type of dragon. Wyverns are normally shown as dragons with two legs and two wings.^[2] Sometimes there are eagle's claws on the wingtips. The rest of its appearance can vary, such as appearing with a tail spade or with a serpent-like tail.

[edit] Guivre

The North French cognate is guivre, or vouivre in the Ile-de-France and in Franc-Comtois, portrayed as a serpentine creature with venomous breath.^[3] The guivre was also said to possess a long, serpentine body and a dragon's head; it had horns in its forehead in some accounts, as well.^[4] Locally in France it was known as an extremely aggressive creature that would sometimes attack without being provoked.^[5] They were afraid of naked humans, and when saw them, blushed and looked away.^[5] Documentation points to their residence as being in small bodies of water like pools and lakes, forests, and any damp place.^[5]

[edit] La Guivre

Samson of Dol was present at an encounter between a priest and a small dragon-like creature, known as "La Guivre". Samson had came to visit Saint Suliao with an entourage of followers. Suliao was impoverished but sought to get a meal as best as possible for the group. One priest, uneasy with the low quality of food, took a bread roll and hid it under his robe. Almost instantaneously he started convulsing and Suliao pulled apart his bosom, seeing what the man had done. He admonished the priest, but removed a hideous serpentine creature from the robe. There he exorcised it and then compelled another man to throw it from the roof of a building in Garot.^[6]

In The Drac: French Tales of Dragons and Demons, the vouivre is depicted as a female creature with dazzling, green scales which emanate sound as the vouivre flies. The vouivre is depicted as greedy, her head crowned with pearls and a golden ring about her tail. The beast in this story stayed in a cave for most of her time, then left to bathe only for a few minutes.

[edit] Literary use

In Steve Alten's The Loch the Loch Ness Monster is a guivre which got into Loch Ness through Moray Firth. In the 1989 film La Vouivre, the vouivre was a wood nymph.

[edit] Heraldry and symbolism

Typical heraldic Wyvern

Arthur Charles Fox-Davies describes the wyvern as a dragon with only two legs, usually pictured resting upon its legs and tail, but occasionally shown sejant-erect (i.e. resting on its tail with both claws raised to strike), adding that this is the form most commonly found under the heraldic term dragon in countries other than England.^[7] One notable instance of the wyvern in English heraldry is the supporter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (pictured left below).^[7] Oswald Barron notes that the wyver was in the middle ages a lizard-like dragon, generally with small wings, with little distinction being made between the wyver and the still rarer dragon. The monster in the arms of Drake, blazoned by Tudor (and later) heralds as a wyvern, is clearly a fire-drake or dragon in his origin. It is only with the coming of the Tudors, who bore a dragon as their badge, that it is seen as a four-legged monster with wings and a tail that ends like a broad arrow, distinct from the wyvern. ^[8]

A golden wyvern was featured on the standard of King Harold Godwinson of England and is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.^[9] The wyvern was the emblem of the rulers of Wessex and the word "Wyvern" is associated with the many areas of Wessex, reflected in many county and town coats of arms of the southwest and west of England. The 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division in WWI and WWII and latterly the 43 (Wessex) Brigade of the British Army had a golden wyvern as their symbol, worn on the left shoulder of the uniform. The 43rd Wessex Division, known colloquially as "The Fighting Wessex Wyverns", has worn this badge continuously since 1935.^[10] In the United States military, the distinctive unit insignia and arms of the U.S. 37th Armor Regiment are charged with a legless wyvern,^[11] and a wyvern is prominently featured on the distinctive unit insignia of the 3rd Infantry Division (see image below). A wyvern surmounts the Midland Railway's coat of arms, which adorns the modern frontage of Derby Midland railway station (pictured right below). Sea wyverns - wyverns with fishes' tails - are the crest and supporters of the civic arms of West Dorset District Council.^[12]

Arms of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

The Midland Railway coat of arms at Derby station displays a wyvern crest

Third Infantry Division (US) DUI

[edit] Collegiate heraldry

A wyvern appears in the heraldic arms and crests of a number of schools in Britain, Australia and elsewhere, such as in the crest of the Dragon School, Oxford,^[13] and that of Magdalene College, Cambridge.^[14] A wyvern statant is the crest of Wesley College, Dublin, Ireland.^[15] A wyvern, attributed to the arms of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, is the crest of Queen's College (University of Melbourne) in Australia.^[16] A wyvern crest also sits upon the coat of arms of King's College, University of Queensland, and the Wyvern Society was established by the college foundation to oversee bequests to the college.^[17] The coat of arms of Wesley College, Perth features a golden wyvern in the dexter chief (upper right-hand) quarter.^[18] A wyvern is part of the crest of Newington College in Sydney, Australia, and one of the preparatory schools is named Wyvern House.^[19]

[edit] Cryptozoology

Some cryptozoologists^[20] have interpreted wyverns as surviving pterosaurs, which were extinct around 65 million years ago. There are alleged sightings in remote areas of pterosaur-like creatures such as the Kongamato in Africa.^[21] There is no evidence to support these hypotheses or sightings.

[edit] Mascots and cultural references

The wyvern a frequent mascot, especially in Wales and Wessex, but also farther afield in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, as the rivers Wye and Severn run through Hereford and Worcester respectively. For example, one of the local radio stations is called Wyvern FM.^[22] Also, Vauxhall Motors had a model in its range in the 1950s called the Wyvern. A wyvern is also the mascot of the Korean Baseball Organization team SK Wyverns, established in 2000. The Wyverns won the KBO Championship in 2007 and 2008.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• European Dragon
• Cockatrice
• Basilisk
• Lindworm

[edit] External links

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• Lady Gryphon's Mythical Realm: Wyvern
• Dave's Mythical Creatures and Places: Wyvern
• Dragonsinn: Wyvern Facts

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