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The Cave-Wyrm Theory

Ahh, I see this old thread has been dragged up from the dead...
funny, I feel like a different person to the person that started it! In November 2020 I was still doing my undergraduate degree at Newcastle, going through my first break up, and overall pretty miserable and alone due to Covid lockdown. Now I'm living my dream life in the Dales, significantly healthier mentally & physically, supported by a wonderful partner + wonderful friends, doing the things I love and caving every weekend... what a difference a few years can make!

What I didn't know at the time I started this thread is that two years later I'd actually be researching cave wyrms as an postgraduate at Cambridge University! So I suppose I know a lot more about them now... well, about one very particular type of cave wyrm (the early medieval dragon) in any case.

Interestingly, a year after that I was in Slovenia with some caving friends I met during my Master's. We met a Slovenian caver who told us all about the myths relating to olms (AKA proteus), as local people had traditionally thought that olms were baby dragons / the offspring of cave dragons. This did make me wonder how old these myths were, and how well travelled they were - and whether they perhaps contributed to the traditional belief of dragons dwelling in caves.
 
Interestingly, a year after that I was in Slovenia with some caving friends I met during my Master's. We met a Slovenian caver who told us all about the myths relating to olms (AKA proteus), as local people had traditionally thought that olms were baby dragons / the offspring of cave dragons. This did make me wonder how old these myths were, and how well travelled they were - and whether they perhaps contributed to the traditional belief of dragons dwelling in caves.
Here's the baby beast.
And if you want proof that when it grows up, it can create caves, you only have to look at the symmetry of these:
 

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Haven't you all seen the recent Netflix film "Damsel"?


Or better yet, a few verses from Job 41, (one of my favorite passages) where God describes "Leviathan" to Job...



Job 41:18 (KJV) By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

19 Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

20 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

21 His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.
 
Haven't you all seen the recent Netflix film "Damsel"?
yes, it's my favourite film because a) millie bobby brown is excellent, b) I love fantasy and it's a great, non-traditional fairytale retelling and c) it has lots of links to early medieval literature including caves and dragons!
 
Although leviathan most often refers to a sea monster, and the moisture that comes out of whales' blowholes does look like smoke...
 

Job 41:18 (KJV) By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

19 Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

20 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

21 His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.
Maybe he'd just had a particularly hot curry?
 
Of course condensation can also rise from the mouths of caves in cold weather - so had cavemen done the same!
 
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