Salamander - Fire Lizard

Mythical Creatures Series

It is said that some early visitors to China were once shown a cloth made from salamander wool, which was unharmed by fire if thrown on a blaze. The Pope Alexander III apparently had a tunic which made of it, which he valued highly. Though it seems some reports show these garments were perhaps woven from strands of asbestos!!!

 

SALAMANDER

What is it?

The name salamander applies to both a real and mythical lizard, and the legend was influenced by the real deal. You see the little salamander likes to hibernate on logs, so when these logs were thrown onto a fire, the lizard woke up and all of a sudden looked as if it mysteriously appeared in the fire.

 

The mythology of the salamander was born and hence it was seen as a creature of fire. According to some writers, the milky substance that a salamander exudes when frightened and which makes its skin very moist gave rise to the idea that the salamander could withstand any heat and even put out fires.[1]

The salamander became a symbol of enduring faith which triumphs over the fires of passion. It was the badge of Francis I of France, with the motto, “I nourish [the good] and extinguish [the bad].” [1] It appears in the arms of Le Havre.

Ability

The stories spread about the salamander creature, and here is one such example:

Isidore of Seville-  “The Salamander is so called because it is strong against fire; and amid all poisons its power is the greatest. For other {poisonous animals} strike individuals; this slays very many at the same time; for if it crawls up a tree, it infects all the fruit with poison and slays those who eat it…It fights against fires, and alone among living things, extinguishes them.  For it lives in the midst of flames without pain and without being consumed, and not only is it not burned, but it puts the fire out.” (Brehaut, 1912)

Its ability varies, but always associated with fire, whether that means it puts it out, starts it or was born in it.

Physical Appearance

Size of the salamander depends on the legend, but generally they are small lizard-like creatures with stars or spots on it. Some even describe it as being the same of a man.

Appearances In Culture (a very popular creature)

• In Estates and Empires of the Sun and Moon, Cyrano de Bergerac depicts a battle between the salamander as fire-creature and the remora as ice-creature, culminating in the triumph of the remora.
• In C.S. Lewis’s Narnia novel The Silver Chair (1953), salamanders are said to be very wise creatures that live in the flames of Bism and speak to the gnome-like Earthmen there.

• In Piers Anthony’s Xanth novel A Spell for Chameleon (1977), salamanders are lizards who breathe magical fire.
• In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, salamanders are used by iconographers to create the flash for their pictures.
• Salamanders appear as magical beasts in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series (1997–2007). They are bright-orange lizards that live in fireplaces and die after an hour without heat, except when they get chili pepper rubbed over their bodies regularly.
• In the The Spiderwick Chronicles series of children’s books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black (2003 onwards), salamanders appear as lizards with many paws that can live in the fire without burning and develop into wyrm dragons as they become adult. Goblins, griffins and giants are shown eating salamanders, the latter being able to breathe fire when they do so.
• In Emily Gee’s novel The Thief With No Shadow (2007), salamanders are humanoid fire-breathing troglodytes with blood-red skin, (figuratively) flaming eyes, spiny crests, and snake-like tails: “Not lizard, not man, but something else.”
• In Monsterology: The Complete Book of Fabulous Beasts, salamanders (Salamandra ignis), are shown as being black and yellow, six-legged creatures who live in volcanic vents and secrete a “milk” which puts out the flames.
• In the Deverry cycle by Katharine Kerr salamanders are primitive elemental spirits of fire. They are part of the race of spirits called Wildfolk and can be seen only by people with elven or dwarven blood or by people with magical talents. There is even a main character in the series who uses the nickname Salamander because he is very fond of the fire spirits.
• In Joseph Delaney’s The Last Apprentice Book 6: Clash of the Demons,the most powerful type of fire elemental often takes on the form of a salamader.
• In Anton Myrer’s military epic Once an Eagle, protagonist Sam Damon chooses the salamander for both the emblem and nickname of the (fictional) 55th Infantry Division, specifically citing the lizard’s perceived fire-proof nature.
• In the Star Wars novel The New Rebellion by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, there are a group of fire-breathing alien amphibians known as Glottalphibs led by the crime lord and bounty hunterNandreeson.
• In the Warcraft series, the salamander is a monstrous reptilian quadruped with a fiery breath weapon, reaching about 40 feet long and weighing close to 4,000 pounds.
• In the tabletop fantasy wargame Warhammer Fantasy Battle, a salamander is a giant, predatory amphibian that inhabits jungle swamps and estuaries and can vomit a fiery venom.
• In the tabletop space opera wargame Warhammer 40,000, the Salamanders are a chapter of the Imperium’s Space Marines, named for the lizards native to their volcanic homeworld, themselves named for the legendary salamander.
• The Digimon Salamandermon has fiery qualities to it and a flame pattern on its back.

• In the Pokémon media franchise, Charmander is a salamander-like Pokémon with some of the fiery characteristics of the legendary salamander. Also, the legendary Pokémon Heatran could be based on the legendary salamander. There is also a dragon Pokémon named Salamence, another reference to the salamander. Magmar and it’s evolutionary family also resemble the legendarysalamander.
• In the The Legend of Zelda (series), the Dodongo creature could be based on the salamander, especially in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
• In the Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters series (1995-2005), salamanders are portrayed as lesser fire elementals.
• In Dungeons & Dragons, salamanders are serpentine beings who dwell in metal cities in the Elemental Plane of Fire. The Flamewalkers of the Warcraft series are based on these.
• In the Warcraft series, the salamander (elemental) is the flame-loving cousin of the fire elemental, originating from the Firelands on the Elemental Plane.
• In the Castlevania: Circle of the Moon video game, Nathan can summon Salamander to provide him with fire-elemental magic.
• In the Nintendo DS game Lost Magic, the Salamander is one of the four elementals, found in Blaze Lake; attacks using fireballs.
• In Final Fantasy IX, a fiery red haired character joins your party in the game with the name of Amarant Coral, which is roughly translated as Salamander Coral in Japanese. He is known as “The Flaming Amarant” or “The Flaming Salamader”.
• In the manga/anime Fullmetal Alchemist, Colonel Roy Mustang, known as the Flame Alchemist has a salamander depicted on the transmutation circle on his gloves. While wearing the gloves, with a snap of his fingers, he can set anything ablaze, but not when he’s out in the rain.
• In “See Homer Run”, an episode of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson becomes the Safety Salamander, a fire-safety mascot

Did you know? The Greek word Salambeander  means “fire lizard.”

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Sources:

Monstrous

Wikipedia

Dave’s Mythical Creatures and Places

[1] Thomas Bulfinch (1913). Age of Fable: Vols. I & II: Stories of Gods and Heroes: XXXVI. e. The Salamander

Friar, Stephen (1987). A New Dictionary of Heraldry. London: Alphabooks/A & C Black. pp. 300. ISBN 0906670446.

Clare Browne, “Salamander’s Wool: The Historical Evidence for Textiles Woven with Asbestos Fibre”, Textile History, Volume 34, Number 1, May 2003, pp. 64-73(10a

Previous Mythical Creature Posts:

Marchosias, Ningyo, Abatwa, Cait Sith, Anka, Huldra, iele, Manticore, Hantu Demon, Lich, Joan The Wad, Fomorian, Rakshasa, Hellhound, Sleipnir, Three-Legged Crow, Afanc, Tarasque, Echidna,  Alkonost, Landvaettir, Hippocampus, Cockatrice, Shedu,Dryad, The Erlking, Oni, Rusalka