Fictional worms

Although more usually used to describe the common earthworm the word "worm" derives from Old Norse "orm" and Anglo-Saxon "'wyrm", meaning "serpent" or "dragon". Such legends have persisted for over a millennium and form the basis of a host of modern fictional representations of similar beasts, including works by Terry Pratchett, Stephen R Donaldson and Frank Herbert.

The "worm" is usually depicted as a scaled, wingless creature. It resembles a giant snake but often has poisonous breath, as opposed to fire breathing, winged and four legged dragons. It sometimes is given the property of being able to reassemble itself when cut into pieces. They were often associated with the guarding of treasure or maidens and sacred wells, hills, caves and springs.

These multihued dragons were sometimes "seen" streaking across the sky, particularly in thunderstorms, although ball lightning may be a more scientific explanation of their manifestation.

Nidhogg (the 'Dread Biter') and Midgard's Worm were two of the most famous "Worms" in Viking mythology. At the 'still point of the turning world' the Vikings believed the ash tree Yggdrasil bore the weight of the universe. One of its three roots stretched over the underworld Niflheim where the dragon Nidhogg gnawed at it in an attempt to destroy creation - hence its name 'The Dread Biter'. This legend was later used by fantasy writer Terry Pratchett.

Midgard's Worm or Jorungard's Worm lay in the sea with its tail in its mouth, encircling the lands of the world and creating the oceans. If the Worm's tail was ever removed from its mouth disaster would befall the earth and in legend Midgard's Worm met its end at Ragnarok when it dies fighting, and killing, the thunder god Thor. This story forms the basis of a novel, "The Worm of the World's End", by Stephen R Donaldson.

Several places in Great Britain, once occupied by Viking raiders, owe their names to the supposed resemblance they bore to this fictional beast. Worm's Head on the Gower peninsula in Wales was thought to resemble a sleeping dragon [http://www.fookes.com/gallery/gower03.html] . There are many legends in the north east of England relating to gigantic 'worms' which terrorised the local area before being slain by a hero. The Lambton Worm, Sockburn Worm and Worm of Linton are among the best known of these. The North East was raided and occupied by the vikings for centuries during the Dark Ages and these legends may refer to heroes fighting the invaders, personified as monsterous Viking worm dragons. The Durham historian Hutchinson believed the legend of the Sockburn worm, for example, referred to a Viking raider who plundered the Tees valley before being repulsed. The notion of the Sockburn worm itself was used by Lewis Carroll as the basis of his nonsense rhyme `Jabberwocky'.

Other worms, based on the concept of the friendly 'bookworm' or mutated forms of the common earthworm are also found in many books, especially those written for children.

Worms in popular culture

Legends

*The Lambton Worm, of 15th-century English legend, also made into an opera by Robert Sherlaw Johnson

*The Worm of Sockburn, of 14th-century English legend
*The Worm of Linton, of 12th-century Scottish legend

*The Laidley Worm of Bamburgh

*Great Orms of fresh and salt water in early Gaelic and Brythonic legends

*The Jörmungandr or Midgard Serpent of Norse Mythology

*The Mongolian Death Worm, a cryptozoological creature reported to exist in the Gobi Desert.

Giant worms in books, television, music and film

*"The Lair of the White Worm" is a 1911 novel by Bram Stoker, made into a 1988 film by director Ken Russell.

*"The Coming of the White Worm" is a 1941 short story by Clark Ashton Smith.

*"In the House of the Worm" is a 1976 short story by George R. R. Martin.

*"The Conqueror Worms" is a 2006 novel by Brian Keene.

*The .303 Bookworm in Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" novels.

*The Worm of the World's End, whose body underlies the lands and ocean and whose thrashings will destroy the world when it awakes, in The One Tree, the second book of the second trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever fantasy series written by Stephen R. Donaldson.

*Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll is a 'nonsense' poem telling the tale of a giant worm like monster.

*One of the unrecorded cases of Sherlock Holmes involves a "worm unknown to science."

* Flobberworms dull wormlike magical creatures in the "Harry Potter" universe.

*The Graboids in the "Tremors" films and television series

*Jeff, the giant subway worm in the film "Men in Black II"

*The ghost-eating sandworms in the film "Beetlejuice"

*Sandworms in the books, film and TV series "Dune"

*A family of worms in Jim Davis' comic strip US Acres

* Phish performed a version of the song "Swingtown" in Amsterdam, about giant worms in the city's sewers, known as "Wormtown".

* The giant worm-demon in "Beneath You", a 7th season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

* The giant flukeworm/human hybrid in "The Host", a 2nd season episode of The X-Files.

* "Just a worm" living in the walls of the outer Labyrinth in the Jim Henson movie of the same name.

*The giant, autonomous space based doomsday weapon featured in the original Star Trek resembled a giant Norse Wurm. It was wingless, limbless and ingested whole planets in its ever gaping maw just as the Worm of Linton ate everything in its path.

*In the 2005 film King Kong, a giant bloodworm-like predator called the carnictus lives in the rents and chasms of Skull Island. They grow to be 7-13 feet long, and they kill a character named Lumpy in the film.

*In the AVP series, Alien Chestbursters are Xenomorph larvae that incubate within a human host and rip out of the chest cavity when partially mature.

*The Giant flesh-eating worms from Pre-cambrian rimes in Primeval, this Worms life in sulphur gases which come from the anomaly, oxygen is poison for the Worms.

*The titular character in the They Might Be Giants song Dr. Worm, a worm that can play the drums.

Other worms in media

* The Bookworm, a character Spider-Man fought in an episode of The 1970s PBS TV series The Electric Company

* Worm, being Pink's inner judge in

* Boreworms an (unseen) animal used as an implement of torture in the movie "Flash Gordon".

*The Bookworm character of various children's reading programs.

*The Slurm Queen from Futurama, the only source of the Slurm brand of soda.

*Omer in the animated TV series "Omer and the StarChild"

*Mr. Mind, the super-intelligent arch-nemesis of DC's Captain Marvel character"

*Fip, the word-eating worm in the book, The Word Eater

*Slimey, pet of Sesame Street's Oscar the Grouch
*Lowly Worm, from Richard Scarry's "Busytown"

*Lazy Jay Ranch's worms in Rocky and Bullwinkle

*The documentary The Future Is Wild featured three species of worms: garden worms, slickribbons and gloomworms.

*Evil Jim, Earthworm Jim's evil twin from the Earthworm Jim TV series.

*The Bookworm in Warner Brothers "Sniffles" cartoons

*The Bookworm in Tiny Toons

*Doctor Worm, from the They Might Be Giants song featured on Nickelodeon's Kablam.

* Alaskan Bull Worm from the television show SpongeBob SquarePants.

* The "Worm That Doth Corrupt" from Jerusalem's Lot by Stephen King.

* Squorm, Buster's pet worm from Buster comics

Role-playing games

* Purple worms, from "Dungeons & Dragons"

Video games

*Annelids, from "System Shock 2".
*Boreworms, from "Splatterhouse".
*Burrow Beast, a man-eating worm weapon from "Destroy All Humans! 2"
*Earthworm Jim, the protagonist of the video game series with the same name.
*Earthworm Kim, the female version of Jim from "Earthworm Jim 3D".
*Fat Worm, from "Fat Worm Blows a Sparky"
*Long and purple worms, from "NetHack".
*Mindworms, from "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri".
*Moldorm, from "The Legend of Zelda" and its sequels.
*Multiworms and hyperworms, from "".
*The Pit Worm and Geneworm from "".
*Sandworms, from the "Dune computer and video games".
*Sandworms, from the "Diablo I & II computer and video games".
*Sandworms, from the "Final Fantasy" series.
*Tapeworm Slim, a new character planned to be in the cancelled "Earthworm Jim PSP".
*The King of Worms, a fictional character from the games "Daggerfall" and "" in "The Elder Scrolls" series.
*Burrowers and Dune Worms (possibelly Young Burrowers) from "WarCraft" series.
*The worms from the "Worms" series.
*The various types of Worms in "Guildwars".
*Zerg larvae and Cerebrates from "Starcraft".
* Caterpie, Weedle and Wurmple from Pokémon