Ghoul
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A ghoul (Arabic ,غول ġūl) is a monster from ancient Arabian and Persian folklore that dwells in graveyards and other uninhabited places. The English word comes from the Arabic name for the creature: الغول ghūl, which literally means "demon".[1] The ghul is a devilish type of jinn believed to be sired by Iblis.[2]
The female form is given as "ghouleh" in Muhawi and Kanaana (see ref below). The plural is "ghilan".
Ghul is also the name for a desert-dwelling shapeshifting demon that can assume the guise of an animal, especially a hyena. It lures unwary travellers into the desert wastes to slay and devour them. The creature also preys on young children, robs graves, and eats the dead[3]. Because of the latter habit, the word ghoul is sometimes used to refer to an ordinary human such as a grave robber, or to anyone who delights in the macabre. The word "ghoul" has also been used to describe cannibals such as Jeffrey Dahmer.[citation needed]
The star Algol takes its name from this creature.[4]
Contents |
[edit] In Iran
In Iranian mythologies, Ghouls are creatures very similar to but larger than humans; usually they are less intelligent and not necessarily evil. Most Persian speakers use Ghul to describe large people. This is not considered an insult.
[edit] Fictional representations
Morlocks are a fictional species of cannibalistic ghouls, created by H. G. Wells for his 1895 novel, The Time Machine. The Morlocks, as well as another supposed offshoot of humans, the Eloi, exist in the future world in the year 802,701 A.D. in The Time Machine.
Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula features a ghoulish character named Renfield. Under the vampire's influence, Renfield becomes his willing slave and develops a craving to eat living creatures in the hope of obtaining their life-force for himself. After being confined to an asylum, he considers eating a human hospital orderly, but finds he can only capture and consume flies, spiders, and the occasional bird.
In the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, a ghoul is a member of a nocturnal subterranean race. Some ghouls were once human, but a diet of human corpses, and perhaps the tutelage of proper ghouls, mutated them into horrific bestial humanoids. In the short story "Pickman's Model" (1927), the first of Lovecraft's ghoul stories, they are unutterably terrible monsters; however, in his earlier novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926), the ghouls are somewhat less disturbing, even comical at times, and both helpful and loyal to the protagonist. Richard Upton Pickman, a noteworthy Boston painter who disappeared mysteriously in "Pickman's Model", appears as a ghoul himself in Dream-Quest. Similar themes appear in "The Lurking Fear" (1922) and "The Rats in the Walls" (1924), both of which posit the existence of subterranean clans of degenerate, retrogressive cannibals or carrion-eating humans.
In modern and contemporary fiction, ghouls are often confused with other types of undead, usually the mindless varieties of vampires and zombies. Although modern fiction (post-1954), particularly 1954's I Am Legend, suggests that the latter beings share cannibalistic habits with ghouls, it is nonetheless generally believed that vampires and zombies prefer live prey.
[edit] Popular culture
Ghouls have been portrayed in many instances of popular literature. The following is a non-exhaustive list in which Ghouls appear: a series of dark fantasy short stories by Brian McNaughton, a Michael Slade novel, "Ghoul", Larry Niven's "Ringworld" series, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia, the works of Caitlín R. Kiernan, Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, and Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files.
[edit] Popular fiction
In 1987, Brian McNaughton wrote a series of dark fantasy short stories in which these Lovecraftian ghouls are the protagonists. The stories, collectively published as Throne of Bones, were a critical success and the book went on to receive a World Fantasy Award for Best Collection.
In Michael Slade's novel Ghoul is a heavy metal rock band with possible connections to a series of grisly murders.
In Larry Niven's Ringworld series, the ghouls are a race that eats the dead of the other races that live on the ringworld. They have a fairly sophisticated (for a post-apocalyptic people) culture, and are the only race with a communication system that traverses the entire ringworld: heliographs.
In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, ghouls are harmless creatures that live in the homes of wizards, making loud noises and occasionally groaning.
In The Chronicles of Narnia, ghouls are creatures that serve the White Witch. They resemble corroded old humans. In the 2005 movie and videogame, they resemble pale orcs carrying spears.
In Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, graveyards became infested with ghouls when the blessing of the graveyard was used up; this was usually caused when too many zombies were raised or voodoo rituals of evil nature were performed in the graveyard. Though they were once human, they are like pack animals, and they are not very smart. They will only attack if a person is vulnerable. A ghoul will run from a healthy strong human being.
In Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Undead, zombies are frequently referred to as ghouls.
In Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, ghouls are much like they are in the classic mythologies. They are humanoid monsters that feed on human flesh, and seem to be able to disguise themselves as ordinary humans. These ghouls are intelligent, as opposed to being mindless and feral monsters.
In Monster in My Pocket #37, a ghoul shown carrying a shovel. When he appears in stage 2, the kitchen, in the video game, the shovel has become an axe. Ghilan is Monster in My Pocket #101, which appears to be a cluster of two of the shapeshifitng sort of ghul.
In Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's St. Germain series, the ghoul is an undead being created through an ancient Egyptian ritual to act as a servant to a vampire. St. Germain comes across a dying slave and resurrrects him as his faithful servant, Roger, who accompanies him through his adventures for the next 2,000 years. Roger is indistinguishable from humans except for his immortality and that his diet consists of raw meat.
Caitlín R. Kiernan has written a number of short stories and novels featuring ghouls (referred to as the ghul), including "The Dead and the Moonstruck" and "So Runs the World Away" (both from To Charles Fort, With Love, 2005) Low Red Moon, Murder of Angels, and Daughter of Hounds. Kiernan's ghouls exhibit a blend of human and canine traits, are highly intelligent, live in subterranean cities, possess magical powers, and feed on the flesh of human corpses. According to Daughter of Hounds, they seem to have an extraterrestrial origin. They are often referred to as "The Hounds of Cain."
In R.L. Stine's Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls, ghouls are depicted as noncorporeal green mists that were humans at one time, and are able to steal bodies.
In Ghoul by Brian Keene it is a coming of age story where the main character a 12 year old discovers that a ghoul that has been imprisoned has escaped and now is roaming in the local graveyard. Only Timmy and his friends can stop it.
In the webcomic Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams there is a dimension of ghouls where the main protagonist Torg gets with his alien friend while escaping the military chasing them. See the strip from March 28, 2007.
[edit] Movies and television
Although many screenplays have featured ghouls, the first major motion picture of this theme was the 1933 British film entitled The Ghoul. The actor Boris Karloff plays a dying Egyptologist who possesses an occult gem, known as The Eternal Light, which he believes will grant immortality if he is buried with it, and thereby able to present it to Anubis in the afterlife. Of course, his bickering covetous heirs and associates would rather keep the jewel for themselves. Karloff vows to rise from his grave and avenge himself against anyone who meddles with his plan, and he keeps this promise when one of his colleagues steals The Eternal Light after his death.
In 1968, George A. Romero's groundbreaking film Night of the Living Dead combined reanimated corpses (zombies) with cannibalistic monsters (ghouls), creating new film monsters more terrifying than either of their predecessors. The term "ghoul" was the one actually used in the film.
The 1975 British film The Ghoul (unrelated to the Karloff vehicle) stars Peter Cushing as a defrocked missionary whose son has deveolped a taste for human flesh while travelling in India. As the son's mind and body degenerate, Cushing has several young people dispatched and prepared as food for his offspring, whom he keeps locked up in the attic.
The 1975 anthology film The Monster Club featured a segment about a village of ghouls stumbled upon by an unwary traveller (Stuart Whitman), who temporarily escapes the creatures with the help of one half-human girl, but he is recaptured when it turns out that the ghouls have representatives inhabiting our normal human world.
In the anime and manga series Hellsing, ghouls are zombie-like creatures that are created when a "chipped" (technological) vampire drains a victim to death, or, in the Manga, where a vampire drains the blood of someone who is not a virgin. If fatally wounded, they instantly crumble to dust. They are under the control of the vampire who bites them, eat human flesh, and are intelligent enough to use firearms. It is not rare to see a vampire amass a small army of Ghouls for offence and defence
"The Ghoul" is the stage name of Cleveland-area horror television host Ron Sweed.
The 2005 movie, Batman Begins, has an antagonist named Ra's Al-Ghul. A surname derived from the Arabic equivalent to Ghoul and first name in honor to the Egyptian God, Ra. IMDB.com
[edit] Ghouls in gaming
Many games, as the tabletop wargame Warhammer, use the term "ghoul" to describe undead beings or other kinds of cannibalistic and degenerate humanoids.
In the game Warcraft 3 and its expansion, the ghoul is the main light infantry and lumber harvesting unit of the Undead race.
Ghouls are featured in a multitude of varieties in the online game Kingdom of Loathing. They are spelled Ghuol, as they live in the Misspelled Cemetery, and are an obvious parody of traditional ideas of ghouls.
Other games have painted a more sympathetic portrait. In Shadowrun ghouls are victims of a mutating virus that transforms them into cannibals. Originally portrayed as monsters, subsequent supplements have featured ghoul activists arguing for their rights as a people. The Delta Green supplement for Call of Cthulu presents a ghoul character whose unique abilities are exploited for forensic purposes.
[edit] World of Darkness
In White Wolf's World of Darkness Ghouls are regular mortals fed with vampiric Vitae (blood) which develop a few minor supernatural powers (basically enhanced physical attributes). Usually they develop a strong loyalty and devotion to the first vampire to feed them blood regularly.
[edit] See also
- Halloween traditions
- The Ghouls Punk Band
- "Ghouls" a song by The Horrorpops
- "Ghoulina" a song by Nekromantix
- Ghoul a Death Metal band.
[edit] Footnotes and references
- Muhawi, Ibrahim, and Sharif Kanaana. Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1989.
- ^ "ghoul". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved on January 22, 2006.
- ^ "ghoul". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved on January 22, 2006.
- ^ "ghoul", Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
- ^ Jim Kaler (Prof. Emeritus of Astronomy, University of Illinois). Algol. STARS. Retrieved on February 18, 2006.
