What is the difference between a dragon and a wyvern?

Legs. A heraldic dragon has four limbs plus wings; a wyvern has two legs plus wings. The rule is strict in classical English blazon, though early rolls of arms often used the words loosely.

Is a lindworm a kind of dragon?

Yes — the wingless kind. The lindworm is a two-legged serpent-dragon of Germanic tradition, kept wingless in strict armorial use. Scandinavian and German folk art sometimes adds small wings, which blazon does not.

Do the colours of a heraldic dragon have fixed meanings?

No. Tincture follows the rule of contrast — colour on metal or metal on colour — so the arms stay legible. Books assigning virtues to colours are later romantic additions, not medieval practice.

Why do old rolls of arms not match modern dragon rules?

Because the vocabulary settled slowly. Before the fifteenth century writers often called two-legged and four-legged beasts by the same word, and the tidy dragon–wyvern split is a later standardisation. The register notes the discrepancy where it matters.

3canonical dragon forms distinguished in classical armory

7standard tinctures — two metals and five colours

c. 1140sdecade when true heraldry appears in Western Europe

4legs on a true heraldic dragon

A bestiary in blazon

Draken Store — the dragon in European heraldry | draken-store.com

European armory knows more than one dragon. This register sets out the three canonical forms — the four-legged dragon, the two-legged wyvern and the wingless lindworm — together with the blazon used to read them on a shield. A second thread follows the words and folktale roles that carried the beast into the armorial tradition.

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Forms · words · lore — a ledger of the winged serpent, kept in ink and tincture
An independent register of the dragon in European heraldry and folktale.

Numeric index

The register at a glance

4legs on a true heraldic dragonFour limbs plus a pair of wings separate the dragon from its two-legged relatives in strict blazon.

2legs on a wyvernThe wyvern walks on two eagle-like legs and its serpentine tail usually ends in a barb.

0wings on a lindwormIn strict armorial use the lindworm is wingless: a two-legged serpent-dragon of Germanic tradition.

Quick key to the forms

The register's quick key: forms of the armorial dragon by anatomy
Form	Legs	Wings	Tail	Field note
Dragon	four	yes	barbed or knotted	the default of strict blazon
Wyvern	two	yes	barbed, often curled	commonest in British arms
Lindworm	two	no	serpentine, sometimes knotted	Germanic tradition; wingless in strict use
Cockatrice	two	yes	serpentine	rooster's head; deadly glance in lore
Amphisbaena	none	sometimes	a second head	crawls both ways
Sea-dragon	two forelegs	yes	fish's tail	marine bearings and harbour towns

The register's quick key: forms of the armorial dragon by anatomy

What counts as a dragon on a shield?

Three forms share the dragon's name in armory, and anatomy tells them apart.

Classical English heraldry reserves the word dragon for a four-legged, winged monster: scaly body, barbed tongue, and a tail ending in an arrow-like point or a knot. Give the same creature two legs instead of four and it becomes a wyvern, the commonest dragon-form in British arms. Remove the wings as well and the result answers to the older Germanic name lindworm.

The distinction is load-bearing. A blazon — the formal verbal description of a coat of arms — names the form exactly, and the artist must follow the words, not personal taste. A grant that says wyvern cannot honestly be painted as a four-legged dragon, and the reverse is equally true.

Around these three stand lesser relatives: the cockatrice, a wyvern with a rooster's head; the amphisbaena, a serpent with a head at each end; and the sea-dragon, whose hindquarters dissolve into a fish's tail. Each is a separate charge with its own name in blazon.

Count the legs: four for a dragon, two for a wyvern or lindworm
Look for wings: present on dragon and wyvern, absent on a strict lindworm
Read the tail: barbed, knotted (nowed) or forked
Check the head: a rooster's head makes the beast a cockatrice

A small glossary of blazon

Blazon: The formal verbal description of a coat of arms, fixed in a technical order: field first, then charges, then details. In armory the words are primary and the picture is their illustration.
Charge: Any figure placed on the shield — a dragon, a lion, a star. The dragon is a charge; so is each head, wing or knot when separately named.
Tincture: The limited palette of heraldry: two metals, five colours and the furs. Tinctures obey the rule of contrast so that arms remain legible at distance.
Attitude: The posture of a beast in arms — rampant, statant, passant, volant and the rest. Attitude is stated in the blazon and is part of the charge's identity.
Segreant: The term used when a winged beast such as a griffin — and by extension a dragon — stands rampant with wings raised and addorsed. Some writers simply blazon such dragons as rampant.
Nowed: Knotted: said of a serpent's or dragon's tail tied in a knot. A tail split in two is instead blazoned fourchée, forked.

Questions a reader actually asks

What is the difference between a dragon and a wyvern?: Legs. A heraldic dragon has four limbs plus wings; a wyvern has two legs plus wings. The rule is strict in classical English blazon, though early rolls of arms often used the words loosely.
Is a lindworm a kind of dragon?: Yes — the wingless kind. The lindworm is a two-legged serpent-dragon of Germanic tradition, kept wingless in strict armorial use. Scandinavian and German folk art sometimes adds small wings, which blazon does not.
Do the colours of a heraldic dragon have fixed meanings?: No. Tincture follows the rule of contrast — colour on metal or metal on colour — so the arms stay legible. Books assigning virtues to colours are later romantic additions, not medieval practice.
Why do old rolls of arms not match modern dragon rules?: Because the vocabulary settled slowly. Before the fifteenth century writers often called two-legged and four-legged beasts by the same word, and the tidy dragon–wyvern split is a later standardisation. The register notes the discrepancy where it matters.

How this record is compiled

Entries are compiled from standard heraldic references — classical treatises on blazon and published rolls of arms — and from primary literary texts such as Beowulf and the Völsunga tradition. Where early practice disagrees with later standardisation, the entry says so rather than smoothing the difference. No commercial material of any kind is used.

Sources and further reading

The reading list cites armorial treatises, rolls of arms and literary texts in standard editions; it contains no merchant material.