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690 TEEES AND ANIMALS.
dragon-quellers, backed by a crowd of others, who spring out of
the exhaustless fount of living legend, wherever time and place
requires them. Frotho, a second Siegfried, overpowers a veno
mous dragon that lay reposing on his treasure, Saxo Gram. p.
20. The beautiful Thora Borgarhiortr had a small l^ngorm given
her, whom she placed in a casket, with gold under him : as he
grew, the gold grew also, till the box became too narrow, and the
worm laid himself in a ring all round it ; soon the chamber was
too small, and he lay round that, with his tail in his mouth, admit
ting none into the room unless they brought him food, and he
required an ox at every meal. Then it was proclaimed, that
whoever slew him should get the maiden for his bride, and as
much gold as lay under the dragon, for her dowry. It was
Ragnar Lodbrok that subdued this dragon, Fornald. sog. 1,
237-8. The rapid growth of the worm has a startling similarity
to that of the fish, p. 578. But, beside the hoarded gold which
the heroes carry off as prize, the adventure brings them other
advantages :
eating the dragon s heart gives one a knowledge of
beasts language, and painting oneself with his blood hardens the
skin against all injury. Both features enter deeply into the
legend of Siegfried (see Suppl.) .
l
Nearly all of this has its counterpart in the beliefs of other
nations. As the Romans borrowed gigas from the Greeks, so
they did draco, for neither serpens nor vermis was adequate
(like our slango and wurm) to express the idea. Now Spdicwv
comes from Sepxeiv to look, illumine, flash out, </>ao? BeSop/ce
expresses illuminating light, and this confirms me in my proposed
explanation of our lint and linni. A fox after long burrowing
struck upon the cave of a dragon watching hidden treasure, ad
draconis speluncam ultimam, custodiebat qui thesauros abditos/
Phaedr. 4, 19. Then the story of the gold-guarding griffins must
be included, as they are winged monsters like the dragons.
In 0. Slavic zmiy m., and zmiya f., signify snake, the one more
a dragon, the other an adder. The Boh. zmek is the fiery dragon
guarding money, zmiye the adder; Serv. zmay dragon, zmiya
adder. Mica, which the zmay shakes off him, is named otresine
zmayeve (dragon s offshake), Vuk p. 534. Once more, everything
1 Which reminds Albrecht in Titurel 3313 17 of a similar tale of Eodolz,
conf. Parz. 518, 18 and Diut. 3, 59.