European dragon than with a lizard-like or dinosaur-like body as in later belief (though the dragon of Beowulf does show several features that would later become popularized with dragons–namely, it breathes fire–lives underground, and collects treasure). The most famous lindworm in Norse and Germanic mythology is Fafnir The Germanic stories of lindworms have them guarding a treasure hoard. The Fafnir lindworm guarded earthen mounds full of ancient treasure. The treasure was cursed and brought ill to those who later possessed it. Sea serpents are also called orms in Nordic languages, wyrms in Old English and worms in Middle English. These "dragons" are
Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology groves are widely attested among the records of the ancient Germanic peoples. Some scholars hypothesize that they even predated the development of temples (according to Rudolf Simek, "there were sacred woods long before there were temples and altars"). In his "Germania", Tacitus says that the Germanic peoples "consecrate woods and groves and they apply the name of gods to that mysterious presence which they see only with the eye of devotion", Tacitus describes the grove of the Semnones and refers to a "castum nemus" (chaste grove) in which the image of the goddess Nerthus was hallowed, and other reports from