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, see Fictional depictions of worms.

Mythology and legends

Literature
  • "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."[1]
  • The Lair of the White Worm is a 1911 novel by Bram Stoker, made into a 1988 film by director Ken Russell.[2]
  • Fafnir, a beast slain during the course of the Völsungasaga, is a worm in William Morris's rendition.[3]
  • 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.[2]
  • J.R.R. Tolkien refers to his creation Glaurung as 'The Great Worm'. This term was adopted by hackers to describe the Morris Worm.[4]
  • John Brunner's 1975 novel Shockwave Rider describes computer 'tapeworms' as capable of reproducing themselves as long as networked computers enable their survival.[5]
  • "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 2016 children's novel Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot vs. the Naughty Nightcrawlers from Neptune features a wise worm named Nimrod Nightcrawler, who serves as the main antagonist of the book. He hates living on Neptune due to the methane gas blocking out the sun on the surface of the planet, and after seeing other evil geniuses from other planets that have failed to take over Earth, he decides to follow in their footsteps and take over Earth himself.
  • "The Worm of the World's End" is an apocalyptic being 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 an allegory for the world's eventual fate. However the more recent books make it clear that the worm does exist, but that it is nowhere near as large as readers may have imagined. 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).[2]
  • Diary of a Worm (2003), written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Harry Bliss, is a journalistic account of a worm's daily life.[6]
  • Lowly Worm is a fictional character that makes frequent appearances in Richard Scarry's children's books.
  • Flobberworms are dull, worm-like 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".
  • The Septimus Heap novel Flyte introduces creatures known as Landwyrms, worm-like creatures with deadly tails that secrete acid.
  • Chaol Westfall (Throne of Glass)
  • Walter The Worm, a worm which makes minor/cameo appearances in various of the Mr. Men books, appearing in the background of almost all of them. Not named as Walter until latter-day additions to the Mr. Men canon. He later received his own book in the series.
  • Earthworm, in Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach book
  • The Middengard Wyrm (A Court of Thorns and Roses) is a gigantic, blind worm monster that navigates by scent, and is described as being pinkish-brown and having an enormous mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth. It is killed by the main character of the series, Feyre, who evades its senses by covering herself in mud, and then lures it into a trap made of the bones of its previous victims.[7]

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]
  • Glupy, a wurm in a children's comics series, drawn by Juan Díaz Rodriguez.[9]
  • Kulgude, a wurm who can locate treasure. Side character in Raymond Macherot's Sibylline.[10]
  • Quentin the lugworm in the British comic strip Ollie and Quentin by Piers Baker
  • Ko Rocks, a string worm in the comic strip "Cricket's Rock" by Cricket's Rocks

Television, music and film
The memory worm from Doctor Who
  • 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
  • Winny the Worm, mascot of Whiteworms Studios and main character in a series of stop-motion short films[13]
  • Jane Prentiss, a woman whose body hosts a large colony of worms, and is the main antagonist from season one of the horror anthology podcast The Magnus Archives.
  • Turner the Worm, a comic strip written by Paul Rose for the now-defunct UK Teletext service[14]
  • Mr. Dinkles from the trolls series
  • Metal sandworm, more likely giant whirling tunneling tornadoes of metallic scrap, in the film Vexille
  • Guph's Giant Dirt-Devouring Worm from the 1986 TV series The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  • Memory worm from the Doctor Who episode "The Snowmen"
  • Shelby, the worm who lives in Jake's violin in Adventure Time with Finn & Jake
  • Kent, Shelby’s little brother in Adventure Time with Finn & Jake
  • The king worm who traps Finn in a dream from Adventure Time with Finn & Jake
  • Trill symbionts are worm like aliens in Star Trek
  • In the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode, 'The Gang Tends Bar,' Frank intentionally gives himself a tapeworm he called Jerry.
  • Earthworm, in Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach book
  • The worm in Corpse Bride

Role-playing games

Video games

References
  1. Carlson, Eric (1996). A companion to Poe studies. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-313-26506-8.
  2. Trent Walters (2005), "Snakes and Worms", The Greenwood encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy, 2, p. 729, ISBN 978-0-313-32950-0
  3. William Morris (1911). The collected works of William Morris, Volume 7. Longmans, Green and company. p. 328.
  4. Drout, Michael D. C. (2007). J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: scholarship and critical assessment. CRC Press. p. 636. ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0.
  5. Rick Lehtinen; Deborah Russell; G. T. Gangemi (2006). Computer security basics. O'Reilly. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-596-00669-3.
  6. Dilys Evans (2008). Show & tell: exploring the fine art of children's book illustration. Chronicle Books. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-8118-4971-5.
  7. Maas, Sarah J. (2015). A Court of Thorns and Roses. Bloomsbury. pp. 318–327.
  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. https://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/diaz_rodriguez_juan.htm
  10. https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/macherot.htm
  11. JediDictionary.com - Caysh - Word of the Week Vol. 2
  12. Marc Okrand (1992). The Klingon dictionary: English-Klingon, Klingon-English, Volume 1992, Part 2. Simon & Schuster. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-671-74559-2.
  13. http://www.whiteworms.com/about-us/winny-the-worm/
  14. http://everything2.com/title/Turner+the+Worm
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