What is a salamander?
The salamander is a spirit of fire. One of the four elementals described by the 16th-century physician Paracelsus, it is often depicted as a lizard-like creature living in blazing flames. Together with the undine of water, the sylph of air and the gnome of earth, it is one of the four elementals.
The legend of a creature that lives in fire
The legend of “a creature that can live even in fire” is old. The ancient Roman Pliny’s Natural History says the salamander’s body is so cold that it puts out fire on contact. In medieval Europe it was believed to be a real creature, and asbestos, known as a cloth that does not burn, was even sold as “salamander wool.”
What is the salamander really?
In English, “salamander” is also the word for real amphibians. One theory says the legend began when people saw salamanders that had been overwintering in damp logs crawl out of wood thrown on a fire, and concluded they were “creatures born from fire.” In games, the salamander is familiar as a fire spirit or a dragon-like monster.
