Category talk:Lindworms in heraldry

Wings?

Many of these have wings. Are they miscategorized or is the English description wrong? Rocket000 (talk) 20:30, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

In Scandinavian heraldry, lindworms ("Lindorm" to use the Danish term), are indeed winged and distinguished from dragons (drage) by the number of legs; the lindorm has two legs, the dragon has four. Notably, a lindorm featured as part of the Royal Coat of Arms of Denmark as symbol of a medieval claim until removed in 1972. Norwegian heraldry is influenced by Danish heraldry, and it seems rather odd to classify the Scandinavian material as "wyverns" since this term is not used in Scandinavia, and since the words "lindworm" and "lindorm" are so identical that they must be derived from each other. German heraldry also features the "Lindwurm" beast, and may follow the same practice as Scandinavia, e.g. the coat of arms of Klagenfurt in Austria which features a beast looking strongly similar to the Scandinavian beasts and officially described as a "Lindwurm". In Danish heraldry, it is very common to confuse the lindworm (lindorm) and the dragon (drage). The winged beasts should remain part of the "lindworm" category. 89.150.160.26