List of fictional worms

This is a list of fictional worms, categorized by the media they appear in. For the purpose of this list, "worm" does not simply refer to earthworms, but also to mythological and fantastic creatures whose description as a "worm" descends from the Old English word wyrm, a poetic term for a legless serpent or dragon. For a comprehensive account of worms in fiction, please see Fictional depictions of worms.

Mythology and legends

• The Lambton Worm, of 15th-century English legend, also made into an opera by Robert Sherlaw Johnson
• The Worm of Sockburn, of 14th-century English legend
• The Worm of Linton, of 12th-century Scottish legend
• The Laidley Worm of Bamburgh
• The Mongolian Death Worm, a cryptozoological creature reported to exist in the Gobi Desert.

Literature

• Beowulf slays a 50-foot serpentine creature. It is described variously as a 'wyrm' (18 instances) or as a dragon (11 instances).^[1]
• "The Conqueror Worm", an 1845 poem by Edgar Allan Poe, concludes with the lines "The play is the tragedy, 'Man',/ and its hero the Conqueror Worm."^[2]
• The Lair of the White Worm is a 1911 novel by Bram Stoker, made into a 1988 film by director Ken Russell.^[3]
• Fafnir, a beast slain during the course of the Völsungasaga, is a worm in William Morris's rendition.^[4]
• The Worm Ouroboros, a 1922 fantasy novel by Eric Rücker Eddison, invokes an ancient myth of a legless creature that eats its own tail.
• The Coming of the White Worm is a 1941 short story by Clark Ashton Smith.^[3]
• J.R.R. Tolkien refers to his creation Glaurung as 'The Great Worm'. This term was adopted by hackers to describe the Morris Worm.^[5]
• John Brunner's 1975 Shockwave Rider describes computer 'tapeworms' as capable of reproducing themselves as long as networked computers enable their survival.^[6]
• In the House of the Worm is a 1976 short story by George R. R. Martin.
• The Conqueror Worms is a 2006 novel by Brian Keene.
• The .303 Bookworm in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.
• The Worm of the World's End, first mentioned in The One Tree, Book 2 of the second trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever fantasy series written by Stephen R. Donaldson. Its slumbering body is said to underlie the land and ocean,and its thrashings will destroy the world when it awakes. By the end of the Second Chronicles one is left wondering if it really exists, or whether it is a mythical personification of the world's eventual fate. However the more recent books make it clear that the worm does exist, but that it is not physically very large. However, its hunger will nonetheless lead to global ruination.
• Sandworms play a major role in the science fiction novel Dune and in its film and TV adaptations (Dune universe).^[3]
• Diary of a Worm (2003), written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Harry Bliss, is a journalistic account of a worm's daily life.^[7]
• Lowly Worm is a fictional character that makes frequent appearances in Richard Scarry's children's books.
• Flobberworms are dull wormlike magical creatures in the Harry Potter universe.
• Molly Michon, aka Kendra, Warrior Babe of the Outland, worships a worm god known as Nigoth in several of Christopher Moore's novels, including The Stupidest Angel and the Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove.
• César Aira's "The Literary Conference" (2010) features giant blue worms, the product of a science experiment gone awry, that destructively tumble down mountains toward the Venezuelan town below.
• Daniel Pinkwater's 1981 novel The Worms of Kukumlima features giant intelligent earthworms who live in an extinct volcano and collect "elephant mice".

Comics

• Gary Larson narrates the adventures of a nuclear worm family in his 1998 There's a Hair in My Dirt: A Worm's Story.^[8]
• Quentin the lugworm in the British comic strip Ollie and Quentin by Piers Baker

Television, music and film

• Space slugs, also called exogorths or "giant asteroid worms", are silicon-based gastropods, capable of surviving in a vacuum. First seen in Star Wars: star wars (5)
• The Graboids in the Tremors films and television series.^[3]
• Jeff, the giant subway worm in the film Men in Black II
• The ghost-eating sandworms in the film Beetlejuice
• A family of worms in Jim Davis' comic strip US Acres
• Phish performed a version of the song "Swingtown" in Amsterdam, about giant worms in the city's sewers, known as "Wormtown".
• Inchworm, a song first recorded by Danny Kaye and since covered by several other artists, asks an inchworm to appreciate the beauty of marigolds rather than measuring their length.
• The giant worm-demon in "Beneath You", a 7th season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• The giant flukeworm/human hybrid in "The Host", a 2nd season episode of The X-Files.
• A giant maggot/worm in the cult film Galaxy of Terror.
• "Just a worm" living in the walls of the outer Labyrinth in the Jim Henson movie of the same name.
• Regulan bloodworms are a species in the Star Trek universe.^[9]
• In the 2005 film King Kong, a giant bloodworm-like predator called the carnictis lives in the rents and chasms of Skull Island. They grow to be 7–13 feet long, and they kill a character named Lumpy in the film.
• In the Alien series series, Alien Chestbursters are Xenomorph larvae that incubate within a human host and rip out of the chest cavity when partially mature.
• The Giant flesh-eating worms from Pre-cambrian rimes in Primeval, this Worms life in sulphur gases which come from the anomaly, oxygen is poison for the Worms.
• The titular character in the They Might Be Giants song Dr. Worm, a worm that can play the drums.
• In the Worms Series, Boggy B, Spadge, and Clagnut are named characters who appear in title songs and the like.
• Alaskan Bull Worm from the television show SpongeBob SquarePants.
• The Bookworm, supporting character in Warner Brothers' Sniffles cartoons
• The Bookworm, a character Spider-Man fought in an episode of The 1970s PBS TV series The Electric Company
• Bookworm (Tiny Toon Adventures), supporting character on the hit cartoon show Tiny Toon Adventures
• The Bookworm character of various children's reading programs.
• Boreworms an (unseen) animal used as an implement of torture in the movie Flash Gordon.
• Doctor Worm, from the They Might Be Giants song featured on Nickelodeon's Kablam
• Evil Jim, Earthworm Jim's evil Doppelgänger from the Earthworm Jim TV series.
• Glo Worm, plushie worms toys
• The Slurm Queen from Futurama, the only source of the Slurm brand of soda.
• Mr. Mind, the super-intelligent nemesis of DC's Captain Marvel character
• Slimey, pet of Sesame Street's Oscar the Grouch
• Lazy Jay Ranch's worms in Rocky and Bullwinkle
• The "Worm That Doth Corrupt" from Jerusalem's Lot by Stephen King.
• A giant worm was the monster in a What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode.
• A giant worm was in an episode of Timon and Pumbaa.
• The Dark One Worm, from Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!.
• The Sweet Worm from Hamtaro (Japanese 'Hamu Hamu Paradai~chu!' season), a giant worm who ate the sweets in Sweet Paradise, then went through metamorphosis and turned into Sweet Butterfly.
• The Worm, stretchy superhero created by Cartoonist/Character designer Alex G. Bowman.
• Winny the Worm, mascot of Whiteworms Studios and main character in a series of stop-motion short films.
• Turner the Worm, a comic strip written by Paul Rose for the now-defunct UK Teletext service.^[10]
• Metal sandworm, more likely giant whirling tunneling tornadoes of metallic scrap, in the film Vexille.
• Guph's Giant Dirt-Devouring Worm from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1986 TV series).

Role-playing games

• Purple worms, from Dungeons & Dragons

Video games

• Annelids, from System Shock 2.
• Boreworms, from Splatterhouse.
• Burrow Beast, a man-eating worm weapon from Destroy All Humans! 2
• Earthworm Jim, the protagonist of the video game series with the same name.
• Earthworm Kim, the female version of Jim from Earthworm Jim 3D.
• Fat Worm, from Fat Worm Blows a Sparky
• Long and purple worms, from NetHack.
• Mindworms, from Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
• Moldorm, from The Legend of Zelda and its sequels.
• Multiworms and hyperworms, from X-COM: Apocalypse.
• The Pit Worm and Geneworm from Half-Life: Opposing Force.
• Sandworms, from the Dune computer and video games.
• Sandworms, from the Diablo I & II computer and video games.
• Sandworms, from the Final Fantasy series.
• Tapeworm Slim, a new character planned to be in the cancelled Earthworm Jim PSP.
• The King of Worms, a fictional character from the games Daggerfall and Oblivion in The Elder Scrolls series.
• Burrowers and Dune Worms (possibelly Young Burrowers) from WarCraft series.
• The eponymous worms from the Worms series.
• The various types of Worms in Guildwars.
• Zerg larvae, Nydus worms, and Cerebrates from StarCraft.
• Rockworms and the Riftworm from Gears of War 2.
• Molgera, a boss from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
• Worm, referring to various types of creatures in the Monster Rancher series.
• Magmaw, a boss from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
• Baron Nashor, a giant worm from League of Legends.
• Death Worm, the protagonist from the smartphone game of the same name.
• Split Worm, an enormous worm that appears in Silent Hill 3
• Greedy Worm, a creature from Silent Hill 4: The Room & Silent Hill: The Arcade
• Graboid, from the computer game Dirt Dragons

References

1. Christine Rauer (2000). Beowulf and the dragon: parallels and analogues. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 32–33. ISBN 978-0-85991-592-2.
2. Carlson, Eric (1996). A companion to Poe studies. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-313-26506-8.
3. Trent Walters (2005), "Snakes and Worms", The Greenwood encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy 2, p. 729, ISBN 978-0-313-32950-0
4. William Morris (1911). The collected works of William Morris, Volume 7. Longmans, Green and company. p. 328.
5. Drout, Michael D. C. (2007). J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: scholarship and critical assessment. CRC Press. p. 636. ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0.
6. Rick Lehtinen, Deborah Russell, G. T. Gangemi (2006). Computer security basics. O'Reilly. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-596-00669-3.
7. Dilys Evans (2008). Show & tell: exploring the fine art of children's book illustration. Chronicle Books. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-8118-4971-5.
8. Angier, Natalie (28 April 1998). "AFICIONADO OF SCIENCE: Gary Larson; An Amateur of Biology Returns to His Easel". New York Times. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
9. Marc Okrand (1992). The Klingon dictionary: English-Klingon, Klingon-English, Volume 1992, Part 2. Simon & Schuster. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-671-74559-2.
10. http://everything2.com/title/Turner+the+Worm