Creature Feature created by Michael is a feature that focuses on the wonderful world of fantasy, science fiction, and horror creatures.
Wyverns
If you are like me and read a book that features a wyvern and look it up and said, "O, It's a dragon." You would only be half right, because Wyvern is not a dragon though it has dragon attributes. I think much of the confusion comes from movies, TV, and Video Games. Even Smaug at times in Hobbit films had more wyvern features then dragon features. Yes Smaug is a dragon, read The Hobbit and check out Tolkien's own drawing.
Okay so what exactly is a wyvern you might ask? A wyvern is like a flying serpent. Say what?!! In fact the name comes from the Anglo-Saxon word wivere which means serpent, or the Latin word vīpera which of course the English equivalent is viper. So how did we get the dragon like features for this particular creature. Not exactly sure on that one. I do know wyvern were featured in many charges(shields) and coat of arms during the medieval period. As in this one, its pretty darn cool!
It also has features like a dragon. In fact the upper parts has wings and a dragon like face. While the bottom portion is more serpent like. Wyverns have no magical force and usually are unable to breath fire unlike dragons which can. They are very strong, highly ferocious, and exceptional hunters. Many wyvern in today's literature, arts, games, etc follow this particular style and attributes.
These creatures have appeared in video games, TV shows, movies and books. Some of the more popular of these are :
Video Games: Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and Elder Scrolls
TV Shows: Riders Of Berk and Game of Thrones
Movies: How To Train Your Dragon and Reign of Fire
Books Series: (They don't always show up in the first book but the first book of series is listed below)
As of right now I think my favorite wyvern is Stormfly from How to Train Your Dragon, because I like How to Train your Dragon and Finn (my grandson) has a stormfly Build a Bear. Though I'm starting to like Abraxos. Plus Stormfly does stuff like this:
Fun and informative post. I need to pay more attention to the different creatures I encounter in my reads because I had automatically assumed all of the creatures you mentioned were dragons, even if they had serpent-like bottoms. I'd say my favorites are the ones in Game of Thrones, although I loved Stormfly too.
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