page_title: Wyvern
hierarchical_section_title: Wyvern
caption_attribution_description: English: A Welsh text of the Laws of Hywel Dda, including a number of illustrations. The manuscript contains 115 folios made from parchment, and the wooden cover dates from the Middle Ages.
context_page_description: A wyvern is a legendary bipedal winged dragon, usually depicted with a tail ending in a diamond- or arrow-shaped tip. As bipeds, wyverns often possess only two legs and no arms or front appendages.
  The wyvern in its various forms is important to heraldry, frequently appearing as a mascot of schools and athletic teams. It is a popular creature in European literature, video games, and modern fantasy. The wyvern in heraldry and folklore is rarely fire-breathing like the four-legged dragon. Sometimes modern fantasy book and media authors portray wyverns that are frost-breathing or poison-breathing instead of fire-breathing.
context_section_description: A wyvern (/ˈwaɪvərn/ WY-vərn, sometimes spelled wivern) is a legendary bipedal winged  dragon, usually depicted with a tail ending in a diamond- or arrow-shaped tip.  As bipeds, wyverns often possess only two legs and no arms or front appendages. 
  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 literature, video games, and modern fantasy. The wyvern in heraldry and folklore is rarely fire-breathing like the four-legged dragon. Sometimes modern fantasy book and media authors portray wyverns that are frost-breathing or poison-breathing instead of fire-breathing.
caption: A wyvern from a fourteenth-century manuscript in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth: this example has a second head at the end of its tail.
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