Why Are They Called Fire Salamanders? Myths of Fire and Legend

Salamanders crawling out of firewood

The fire salamander spends its days hidden in damp places: under bark, inside rotting logs, in stumps and under piles of wood. In winter it hibernates in similar shelters. For centuries, European households gathered exactly this kind of wood for their fires.

When a log was thrown onto a hearth, any salamander sheltering inside would be driven out by the heat. To an observer, it looked as if the animal had appeared from the flames themselves. The salamander’s moist skin and slimy secretion may have helped it survive the first moments, which made the illusion even more convincing.

This is the explanation most often given by historians and naturalists for the fire legend. A famous example comes from the Italian goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571). In his autobiography, he recalled that as a small boy he saw a salamander-like creature in the fire with his father, who then boxed his ears so that he would never forget such a rare sight.

Aristotle, Pliny and the ancient world

The story is very old. In the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote in his History of Animals that the salamander puts out fire by crawling through it. His student Theophrastus repeated similar ideas, and the tale spread through the classical world.

The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, writing in the 1st century AD, described the salamander as a lizard-shaped animal spotted all over that only comes out in heavy rain and disappears when the weather clears. This is an accurate description of fire salamander behavior. Pliny also passed on the claim that it was so cold it could put out fire, but elsewhere he doubted it, noting that the idea would be easy to test. He also wrote exaggerated stories about its poison, which in reality has a basis in the toxic secretions of the animal’s skin.

Other ancient writers joined in. Some said salamanders were attracted to the fires of blacksmiths’ forges. A relief from the Roman town of Pompeii shows a salamander in a forge scene, and the animal has been identified as a fire salamander.

Medieval bestiaries and the fire spirit

In the Middle Ages, the salamander became a favorite of the bestiaries, illustrated books of real and imaginary animals with moral lessons. They described it as living in flames without being burned and as so venomous it could poison a whole tree. Christian writers used the salamander as a symbol of faith that cannot be destroyed by the fires of temptation.

In the 16th century, the Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus went further. He described salamanders as the elemental spirits of fire, alongside gnomes of the earth, undines of water and sylphs of the air. This idea strongly influenced later alchemy and occult writing, and it is why fire-dwelling salamanders still appear in fantasy books and games today.

Salamander wool and asbestos

One curious offshoot of the legend involved fireproof cloth. Medieval merchants sold a fabric that did not burn when thrown in a fire and claimed it was made from salamander hair or wool. In fact, it was woven from asbestos, a fibrous mineral.

The Venetian traveler Marco Polo, writing at the end of the 13th century, explained that this “salamander” came from a mineral dug from mountains in Asia, not from an animal. Even so, the name “salamander wool” survived for centuries.

The salamander in heraldry and royal emblems

Thanks to its legendary link with fire, the salamander became a popular emblem in heraldry, usually shown as a lizard-like creature surrounded by flames. The most famous user was King Francis I of France, who ruled from 1515 to 1547. His personal badge was a crowned salamander in flames, often with the Latin motto “Nutrisco et extinguo,” usually translated as “I nourish and I extinguish.”

Hundreds of carved salamanders still decorate his châteaux in the Loire Valley, especially Chambord, and the palace of Fontainebleau. The legend has left other traces in everyday language: a “salamander” is also the name of a type of very hot kitchen grill used by chefs to brown food, and of a heated iron once used in cooking.

From legend to scientific name

When the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus named the fire salamander in 1758, he placed it in the lizard genus as Lacerta salamandra. It was later moved to its own genus, and its current scientific name is Salamandra salamandra. In German it is called the Feuersalamander and in Dutch the vuursalamander, both meaning “fire salamander.”

Today scientists know that salamanders are amphibians, not lizards, and that they are especially sensitive to heat and drying out. To learn how they really differ, see lizard vs salamander. The common name “salamander” now covers every tailed amphibian, from tiny lungless salamanders to the hellbender of North America.

Is the name about its colors?

Many people assume that “fire” refers to the salamander’s markings, and the yellow, orange or sometimes red patches on glossy black skin do look a little like flames or glowing embers. That likeness probably helped the name stick in modern languages.

The real origin, however, is the much older legend. The animal’s bright colors actually have a very different purpose: they warn predators that its skin is toxic. You can read about these defenses in are fire salamanders poisonous?.