Wormtongue

[u/TieOk9081]

So the "worm" in Wormtongue isn't referring to anything like an earthworm. Worm here is another name for a dragon (Germanic origin, wyrm or worm) - and we've already read about a dragon that can speak very well. Plus, earthworms don't have tongues.

[u/Thesorus]

just that Grima is a snake.

He poison the people around him, both physically and mentally.

[u/CrotodeTraje → u/Thesorus]

well, I think most of the dragons have poisonous blood or something like that.

I think some of them also has kind of a stench, no? I could be mistaken.

Also, Dragons can hypnotize people (like Nienor)

[u/Fickle-Journalist477 → u/CrotodeTraje]

Right, but those attributes, stinking and being poisonous (and probably the hypnotism, too, or at least I don’t imagine Rudyard Kipling came up with Kaa out of nowhere), are derived from snakes. It’s why early European dragons are explicitly serpentine in body shape, and are referred to as serpents and worms interchangeably with the actual name of dragons. And them having the characteristics of being manipulative, cruel, and avaricious are references to the Biblical serpent.

[u/Mission-Wasabi-7682]

In the German translation it’s “Schlangenzunge” i.e. snake tounge.

[u/Ur-Than → u/Mission-Wasabi-7682]

Same in the old French Translation (I don't know the most recent) : Langue de Serpent

[u/HakanTengri → u/Ur-Than]

In Spanish also: Gríma, Lengua de Serpiente

[u/the_classicist → u/Ur-Than]

I read this very wrong and thought to myself “There’s an Old French translation of LOtR??” until I realized my mistake! In my own defense, there is a Latin translation of The Hobbit!

[u/TheSwedishBaron → u/Mission-Wasabi-7682]

Same in Swedish.

[u/lam_42]

Tolkien often used worm in meaning of "reptile"

[u/Technical-Main-3206 → u/lam_42]

I don't think that's right, especially if you claim 'often'. Can you point to some examples? Tolkien either used 'worm' the way we use it in modern English, referring to invertebrates like earthworms and such, or it's specifically 'dragon', as in Scatha the Worm (from whose hoard came the Horn of the Mark that Eomer and Eowyn gave to Merry) or Glaurung the Great Worm. I can't find an example where it means 'reptile' generally.

[u/No-Doctor-4424]

Forked tongue

[u/NoBoromirNo]

Okay? It's open to different interpretations

[u/TheSwedishBaron]

In Swedish he is called "Ormtunga", "Snaketounge".

[u/Upset-Oil-6153]

In Italian he's Vermilinguo which specifically refers to a gross worm and not a dragon

[u/hammerblaze]

Its wurm, not worm

[u/Time_Afternoon2610]

The dragon and the worm mean a snake. Grima is a mask.

[u/Exotic-Ad-2137]

Yes, the nickname 'wormtongue' indicates someone who, like a dragon, has almost supernatural eloquence but who is not necessarily trustworthy. 'Grima' , incidentally means 'mask'