Lindworm

Official artwork

## Reference

**Lindworms** are a cryptid that appear in Half-Off Ragnarok.

## Appendix Entry

**Lindworm** (*Lindorm lindorm*). These massive relatives of the skink have been found in Europe, Africa, and North America, which makes them extremely well-distributed armored killing machines. They tend to pair off at maturity, and while adult lindworms will have very little territorial overlap, they are constantly aware of the location of their mate and any juvenile offspring still being tolerated in the area. Lindworms are very difficult to kill, more's the pity.

## About

Lindworms are the largest surviving subfamily of non-saurian giant reptiles. The lindworm resembles an eighteen-foot-long armor-plated skink with small or absent forelimbs. They can be found in numerous climates worldwide, and as such come in several varieties and colors including blue, green, or electric yellow underbellies and tails.

Females are generally larger than the males and have more pronounced hindlegs that they use to burrow out dens. The female gives birth to around four offspring in the spring before coming out of hibernation. If she wakes up before the babies flee, she will eat them.

They are also cold-blooded, carnivorous, aggressive, and territorial. They tend to eat their prey whole, and have also been known to eat large man-made objects like mining equipment and firearms. They are mostly solitary, but keep territory close to their mate and will defend a mate when it is in danger.

Ecologically, their role seems to be keeping down the numbers of unfavorable prey populations such as swamp ghouls. They will hunt pretty much anything in their path. Their destructive nature has led groups like the Grecian lamia to attack them, not just the Covenant of St. George. As such, most regional variations are believed long extinct.

Complete destruction of the body is the only known way to guarantee that a lindworm is truly dead.

## In the Series

* Alex Price fights off a lindworm in the woods near Columbus, Ohio. Later, its mate attacks Alex and Shelby Tanner.

## In Popular Culture

The **lindworm** (*worm* meaning snake), also spelled **lindwyrm** or **lindwurm**, is a mythical creature in Northern and Central European folklore living deep in the forest that traditionally has the shape of a giant serpent monster.

According to legend, everything that lies under the lindworm will increase as the lindworm grows, giving 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 another beast (as in the fairy tale The Frog Prince), and a bad one, a dangerous man-eater which will attack humans on sight. A lindworm may swallow its own tail, turning itself into a rolling wheel, as a method of pursuing fleeing humans.

In 1885, a folklorist named Olaf Hylten-Cavalliuscollected forty-eight first-person accounts of sighting a lindworm, including from a member of the Swedish Parliment. He was the last recorded scientist to take the sightings seriously; there have been no credible lindworm sightings since.

## References

1. ↑ Audiobooks narrated by Ray Porter
2. ↑ Appendix Field Guide: Books 3, 4
3. ↑ Half-Off Ragnarok Ch. 1
4. ↑ Half-Off Ragnarok Ch. 15
5. ↑ Lindworm- Wikipedia
6. ↑ Coleman, Loren and Jerome Clark (1999). *Cryptozoology A-Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Ness Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature.* New York: Fireside. ISBN 978-068486025