Medieval Salamander

Made for GFBBLU (meaning, ‘Group-For-Bookwyrms, Blue’) 
Made with blue and purple wonder-loom rubber-bands, pipe cleaners and yellow pom pom as eyes.

Description Small lizard, with stars or spots on it. Sometimes described as being in the shape of a man. 
 
Features They are cold, and impervious to fire- if placed in a fire, a salamander will put it out. (Salambeander is Greek for chimney-man) Very poisonous- if it wraps itself around a tree, all of the fruit will become poisoned. Asbestos was at first believed to be salamander wool.

Symbolizes The salamander is a symbol of enduring faith, or courage, that cannot be destroyed.
 
Described By: Pliny- "This animal is so intensely cold as to extinguish fire by its contact, in the same way that ice does.  It spits out a milky matter from its mouth, and whatever part of the human body is touched with this all the hairs fall off, and the part assumes the appearance of leprosy."

Isidore of Seville-  "The Salamander is so called because it is strong against fire; and amid all poisons its power is the greatest. For other {poisonous animals} strike individuals; this slays very many at the same time; for if it crawls up a tree, it infects all the fruit with poison and slays those who eat it...It fights against fires, and alone among living things, extinguishes them.  For it lives in the midst of flames without pain and without being consumed, and not only is it not burned, but it puts the fire out." (Brehaut, 1912)

General Attributes

The salmander is a cold animal. It can live unharmed in a fire, and its coldness will extinguish the hottest flames. If it enters hot water, the water will become cold.

From the salamander comes a material that is unlike any other cloth; when it becomes dirty, it must be thrown into a fire, which will consume the dirt without harming the cloth. This cloth is made in the deserts of India, and is worn by important people. This is a good description of asbestos, which some sources link with the salamander.

The salmander's poison is very strong, and can kill many at once. If it climbs an apple tree, the apples become poisonous; if it enters a well, the water becomes deadly.

Allegory/Moral

The salamander represents righteous people, who can withstand fire, just as Daniel could emerge unharmed from the fiery furnace.

Sources (chronological order)

Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 10, 86): The salamander is a shaped like alizard, but is covered with spots. A salamander is so cold that it puts out fire on contact. It vomits from its mouth a milky liquid; if this liquid touches any part of the human body it causes all the hair to fall off, and the skin to change color and break out in a rash. Salamanders only appear when it rains and disappear in fine weather. (Book 11, 116): It is fatal to drink water or wine when a salamander has died in it, as is drinking from a vessel from which the creature has drunk.

Augustine [5th century CE] (City of God, Book 21, chapter 4): If the salamander lives in fire, as naturalists have recorded, this is a sufficiently convincing example that everything which burns is not consumed, as the souls in hell are not.

Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 4:36): The salamander alone of animals puts out fires; it can live in fire without pain and without being burned. Of all the venomous animals its strength is the greatest because it kills many at once. If it crawls into a tree it poisons all of the fruit, and anyone who eats the fruit will die; if it falls in a well it poisons the water so that any who drink it die.

Illustration

The salamander commonly is illustrated as a lizard in or moving through a fire. The effect of the salamander's poison is also commonly illustrated. Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. S. 1633 4º (f. 55v) shows a large salamander, with its tail in a fire, poisoning an apple tree; a dying man, holding an apple, lies on the ground below. Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 B 25 (f. 43r) shows the salamander as a snake spiraling up an apple tree; the snake has an apple in its mouth, making the scene very similar to some manuscript illustrations of the temptation of Eve. A man holding an apple stands near the tree, a hand to his head and looking sick.