Mythological Beasts And Spirits: Wyvern

From its place of hibernation, from its lair beneath the lake,
Rupturing the liquid membrane, to the surface burst the Drake.
From: The Staff in the Tree by Robert Lambert Jones III

The Wyvern was a winged, bipedal dragon. Technically, it differs from the Drake, which was a smaller version of a winged, four-legged dragon, but various literary works have used the term, Drake, to represent dragons in general. I took poetic license and used both terms interchangeably because it afforded me more flexibility in forming rhymes. For this, I hope I will be forgiven by those who are purists.

St. George and the Dragon by Paolo Ucello.
Note that the dragon in this particular painting is a Wyvern.

The Wyvern appears in Celtic works, as shown below.

Wyvern depicted in a 14th Century Welsh manuscript.

This creature is believed to have been used in medieval heraldry as well.

Possible symbol of the medieval kingdom of Wessex.

I tried to avoid modern fantasy art since the imagery is so familiar to enthusiasts, but I couldn’t ignore this diagram of a Wyvern skeleton. It harks back to my grade school (and current) fascination with dinosaurs, and it reminds my of illustrations from some of the books I owned in childhood.

Wyvern skeleton by BerserkMecha on Deviant Art.

Allow me to indulge myself by ending today’s post with another drawing of my own.

Bowstring sang, and arrow quivered…
From: The Staff in the Tree by Robert Lambert Jones III