Legendary salamander in popular culture

References to the legendary salamander in popular culture—in fiction (especially fantasy fiction), games, animation, and so on—can be categorized in three ways: as a fantastic (sometimes magical) beast with an affinity with fire, as a true fire elemental,^[1] and allusions to the salamander's fiery nature.

Fantastic beasts[edit]

Books

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 Ruth Plumly Thompson's Oz novel Captain Salt in Oz (1936), a salamander is erupted from a volcano and collected as a specimen. The Captain carries it in the bowl of his lit pipe, and names the island Salamander Island.
In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 novel, the firemen wear salamander symbols on their uniforms and call their fire truck a "salamander" because salamanders were believed to live in fire without being consumed by it.
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. See, for example, The Truth (2006).
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 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 adults. 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 hunter Nandreeson.
In Robin McKinley's book Rose Daughter, a salamander gives Beauty a "small serenity". When she cups her hands together, a little fire glows which she views at first with trepidation but it comforts her later in the book.
The Salamander shoe company published booklets on the adventures of Lurchi, an anthropomorphized version of their logo.
In Harry Turtledove's novel The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump, the main character mentions in passing that his apartment building uses a salamander as a water heater.

Games

In the Rappelz MMORPG, salamanders are creatures that can be tamed and used as pets. These pets can be summoned to aid the player in battle.
In the RuneScape MMORPG, salamanders can be caught and used as weapons that shoot fire.
Throughout the entire Final Fantasy media franchise, salamanders can be found as fire-breathing enemies.
In the RPG game Chrono Cross, Salamander is a gargantuan fiery beast kept as a pet by the Fire Dragon in Mt. Pyre. It is awarded to the protagonist Serge as a summon after defeating the Fire Dragon during their second battle.
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. Compare salamander (elemental), below.
In the tabletop fantasy wargame Warhammer Fantasy Battle, a salamander is a giant, predatory amphibian that inhabits jungles, 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.
In the Pokémon media franchise, Charmander and Charmeleon are lizard-like Pokémon based on legendary salamanders. Wild Charmander and Charmeleon live in hot places such as volcanoes, and the flame on their tails acts as a barometer for their life force, burning fiercely when they are in good health. They eventually evolve into the dragon Charizard. There is also a dragon Pokémon named Salamence, another reference to the salamander. Other Pokémon based on the salamander are Salandit and Salazzle, which are Poison/Fire type, referencing both the real life salamander's poisons and the folkloric salamander's fire attributes.
The Digimon Salamandermon has fiery qualities to it and a flame pattern on its back.
In the Age of Wonders PC game, a salamander is a type of Lizardman that is born once in a generation. It is "born of fire" and delights in lighting things ablaze. Lizardmen hate and fear fire, and think of salamanders as outcasts. However, the salamanders are still fiercely loyal to their lizardmen brethren, and will fight for them in battle.
In the PlayStation 2 video game Odin Sphere, Salamanders are small, lizard-like reptiles that are enemies in the fiery Volkenon region.
In the online game AdventureQuest, the player can fight the fire creatures Young Salamanders and Salamanders.
In Dungeon Keeper 2, the salamander is a creature that resists lava and can launch fire balls from its mouth.
In the NES game The Magic of Scheherazade, Salamander is the fire demon fought at the end of the fourth chapter.
In Metroid Prime the Magmoors are found in Magmoor Caverns which is their namesake. The Magmoors are gigantic serpents which only dwell in super-hot lava and can spew out fire to attack prey.
In the Mana series, Salamander is one of the eight Mana spirits. representing the element of fire.
In the Legend of Zelda series, the Dodongo creature could be based on the salamander, especially in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
In Rogue Galaxy the giant "Mark VIII Salamander" is the second boss monster to fight.
In Overlord 2, the fireball launching red minions can ride on the reptilian fire-breathing salamanders.

Other

In the light novel series The Familiar of Zero, Kirche von Zerbst's familiar is a fire-breathing salamander named Flame.

In the anime Legendz, Salamander is an anthropomorphic fire lizard who is relegated a role as a minor character.
In the episode "Little Orphan Hero" of Drawn Together, Foxxy Love references a Salamander Jesus.
In the television show Beyblade, Johnny McGregor has a bitbeast that is a salamander-like creature named Salamalyon.
In the manga Fairy Tail, Natsu's nickname is "Salamander"
In the original Japanese cut of the anime Digimon Frontier, two of Agunimon/Agnimon's attacks referenced the fire elemental salamander.
In the show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the main villain of the show, Lord Zedd, creates the monster Saliguana by combining an iguana with a mythical salamander, giving the lizard-like monster the ability to breathe fire. Saliguana would later make reappearances on the show.

Fire elementals[edit]

In the manga Berserk, Isidro is gifted the Salamander Dagger, a short broad knife magically crafted from molten lava and imbued with the power of fire elementals. The blade dances with tiny salamander-like spirits when their power is called upon.
In Poul Anderson's short story "Operation Salamander" (1956), fire elementals appear as lizard-shapes hidden in flame.
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.^[2] Some early editions, notably the boxed sets of the late 1970s and 1980s, also feature ice-cold frost salamanders.
In the Warcraft series, the salamander (elemental) is the flame-loving cousin of the fire elemental, originating from the Firelands on the Elemental Plane. Compare salamander (beast), above.
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 the NES game Adventure Island 3, the third boss is a fire salamander, who transforms into a Shuriken-like shape, swirls and then turns into many smaller shurikens that form a ring of fire.
In the Super Sentai series Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGo-V, Salamandes and his infant form Drop are homage to the Salamander and the constellation Leo. Both were brought into the US adaptation Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue as Olympus and Impus respectively.
Salamander is one of the eight elemental spirits featured in the Mana series. Unsurprisingly, he represents the fire element.
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 salamander.
In the manga and anime series Naruto, Hanzō, who was nicknamed Hanzō of the Salamander, used Fire Style.
In the movie Frozen II, the fire elemental, nicknamed Bruni, is a salamander.
In the movie The Princess and the Enchanted Forest, the fire elemental, nicknamed Iggy, along with his wife and their three children, are salamanders.

Allusion[edit]

Books

In the Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953), the vehicles driven by the "firemen" are called Salamanders, and the firemen's badges have salamanders on them.
In David Weber's Honorverse series, the main character, Honor Harrington, is often referred to as "The Salamander" as she is always to be found where the action is the hottest.
In the George R. R. Martin novel A Clash of Kings (1998), the character Melisandre of Asshai, a red-haired priestess of the God of Flame and Shadow, has a name that is a partial anagram of "salamander".
In Stieg Larsson Millennium series (2005), Lisbeth Salander, a natural red hair (although had black painted), whose surname is a partial anagram of "salamander". Besides that, the title of the second novel The Girl Who Played with Fire is an allusion to salamander.
In the book The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, the character Pierre Gringoire compares Esmeralda to a salamander. "Verily, thought Gringoire, it is a salamander, a nymph, a goddess, a bacchanal of Mount Menelaus"!

Games

In the BattleTech franchise, the Salamander is a Clan anti-battlemech and anti-infantry battle armor that utilizes a flamethrower-type weapon in conjunction with incendiary missiles.
In the second and third installments of the games in the Mega Man: Battle Network series, a player with a style aligned with fire can harness the power of fire and sent a great flame in the shape of the creature flying at the enemy, a powerful attack known as the Salamander.
In The Witcher game, your main enemy is the Salamandra gang. They wear salamander badges as proof of membership. The apparent leader is a rogue mage whose primary element is fire.
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 Salamander".
In Warhammer 40,000, There is a chapter of space marines called the Salamanders, who are known for heavy use of flame weapons.

Other

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 the anime Digimon Frontier, Kanbara Takuya's human evolution Agnimon has three attacks, two of which are Salamander Break and Burning Salamander. In addition, Takuya's theme song is "Salamander", performed by Takeuchi Junko.
Jethro Tull's song "Salamander", from Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die!, contains several allusions in its lyrics; for example: "born in the sun-kissed flame" and "burn for me and I'll burn for you".
In "See Homer Run", an episode of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson becomes the Safety Salamander, a fire-safety mascot.
In the song "Ghost/Haunted", Beyoncé states "I could sing a song for a Solomon or Salamander"
In the anime/light novel series Sword Art Online, One of the playable races in ALfheim Online during the Fairy Dance arc is called "Salamander", Their color scheme of red and black and affinity for Fire-type magic allude to a connection with the mythical beast.
In the song by Paul McCartney and Wings, "Getting Closer", there are lines about "my salamander".

American politics

'Gerrymandering' named after a politician who effected the creation of a voting district in Boston, Massachusetts, that was in shape like that of a mythical salamander. See Gerrymandering .

References[edit]

↑ Langford, David (1997). "Elementals". In Grant, John; Clute, John. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. London: Orbit/Little, Brown and Company. pp. 313–314. ISBN 978-1-85723-368-1.
↑ Williams, Skip; Tweet, Jonathan; Cook, Monte (2003). Monster Manual: Core Rulebook III v.3.5. Renton: Wizards of the Coast. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-0-7869-2893-4. Search this book on (d20 open content)

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[1] Langford, David (1997). "Elementals". In Grant, John; Clute, John. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. London: Orbit/Little, Brown and Company. pp. 313–314. ISBN 978-1-85723-368-1.

[2] Williams, Skip; Tweet, Jonathan; Cook, Monte (2003). Monster Manual: Core Rulebook III v.3.5. Renton: Wizards of the Coast. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-0-7869-2893-4. Search this book on (d20 open content)

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Legendary salamander in popular culture

Contents

Fantastic beasts[edit]

Fire elementals[edit]

Allusion[edit]

References[edit]

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