How Gargoyles Became Monsters | Monstrum

gargoyles those stony goblin-like creatures that glare down at you from their perches among the spires of universities and cathedrals why are they there what is their function how did they find their way onto our buildings let alone into our living rooms somehow these mainstays of gothic architecture climbed into our imaginations and developed their own story lines sometimes they attack us sometimes they defend us sometimes they terrify us and sometimes they make us laugh sometimes they are supernatural and sometimes they are just really good at camouflage quite an accomplishment considering that historically they're just water spouts i'm dr emily zarka and this is monstrum the gargoyle might very well be the world's only monster inspired by architecture the ancient egyptians greeks and etruscans used waterspouts designed to look like an animal head most often a lion whose purpose was to prevent rain water from eroding the surfaces of tombs and other structures by diverting it through a hole that was almost always in the shape of an open mouth but why do we call these features gargoyles today the prevailing myth harkens back to another monster a notorious water dragon gargoule allegedly terrorized france by swallowing ships in the sun and spitting torrents of water out of its mouth flooding the surrounding land and causing destruction the 1400 year old story goes a priest vowed to kill the beast if the town's people built a church they did and the priest defeated the creature one of the acts he was later canonized for but the dragon's head and neck mysteriously failed to decay along with the rest of the body and according to the legend the dragon's head was mounted on the town wall that's how the gargoyle earned its name the word gargoyle is derived from the french dragon gargoule which itself comes from the latin word gargula meaning gullet or throat the gothic style of gargoyle is believed to date back as far as the 12th century the gargoyles still adorning the leon cathedral in france thanks to some very careful restoration date back to 1220 ce of course france's most famous gargoyles watch over paris from their perches atop notre dame by the end of the 13th century the gothic gargoyle was a trendy if practical accessory there is an incredible variety of gargoyles from this period although some look similar no two are identical but they have a few things in common they are exaggerated or grotesque they are fanciful and can be frightening or ugly in appearance in fact the word grotesque is so commonly associated with these creatures that they are often just called architectural grotesques though it's important to note that while a gargoyle can be a grotesque not all grotesques are gargoyles since some aren't designed to divert rainwater associated with the fancifully absurd these carvings and sculptures are characterized by their distorted features and unusual hybrid representations often combining humans real animals and fantastic beasts why did these strange stone carvings become popular beyond their practical purpose and why so monstrous well no one is quite sure although we have some theories one theory goes since few people in the medieval period could read it is possible that the physical existence of the frightening gargoyle was meant to illustrate the prevailing idea that evil could be made manifest that ugliness and sin were real forces in their lives another is that the gargoyles were meant as guardians so terrifying and hideous that they would scare away evil and designate the outside and the inside out there lies temptation and evil but within these walls you are safe they do show up on a lot of churches or perhaps they were just meant to entertain much the way 20th century gargoyles do while the word gargoyle appeared in literature before the 1900s it was in the context of the water spout not an actual fictional being but in 1908 we are introduced to one of the earliest versions of a living gargoyle dorothy and the wizard in oz the fourth book in the popular oz series by l frank balham features soundless winged flying wooden creatures with ugly faces who are scared of loud noises and they are distinctly called gargoyles in the text as wooden people i'm not sure if they really qualify as the first gargoyle monster but i suppose it's up for debate first published in the pulp magazine weird tales in 1932 the maker of gargoyles by clark ashton smith is widely considered the actual first incidence of architectural gargoyles brought to life by evil set in 12th century france the story follows town outcast in stonemason blaze renard as he carves two gargoyles for the local cathedral reynard treated horribly by the town's people unwittedly transfers his rage into one of the gargoyles and his lust and desire into the other one gargoyle is a murderous cat-headed monster with claws and bird-like wings and the other a horned seder with talons and wings like a bat one night a flying monster as black as suit sees as a man on the street with its towns and tears at his throat his companion narrowly escapes the same fate simultaneously another winged creature is terrorizing the women molesting them with its gaze while technically preserving their chastity as the attacks continue a drunken reynard aggressively pursues nicolette the server at a tavern and the object of his affections when suddenly the window panes shatter and both flying terrors enter it is instantly apparent to all inside that the monsters are the gargoyles that adorn the cathedral come to life reynard is knocked unconscious by one of their heavy wings the next morning raynar takes a hammer from his workshop and confronts the stony gargoyles on the cathedral roof he finds the cat-headed one stained with blood and ripped pieces of nicolette's dress on the talons of the winged seder he tries to destroy the incarnations but they animate and fight back lifting him off of the church's eaves and high into the air he manages to take off one of their clawed legs but doing so causes them to drop him sending him plummeting to his death below reynard's broken body is found in the square by the archbishop the stone claw still embedded in his shoulder the horn of vapula by louis spence also published in 1932 tells the story of a bishop who's packed with satan binds his demon familiar into a horned and godish gargoyle giving it the ability to move and terrorize the countryside for some 200 years after these first two stories a few other gargoyle monsters showed up here and there in literature but it wasn't really until the 1970s that they became more popularly recognized thanks to television the silver screen and a very popular role-playing game in 1971 a stone gargoyle named bach came to life because of the evil magic in the ever popular doctor who a fairly formidable foe he could vaporize objects and was relatively indestructible i've got a machine outside that can narrate you until the doctor destroyed the master who controlled him and bach along with him the following year the made-for-tv movie gargoyles presented a world in which gargoyles live in caves in new mexico watching over thousands of gargoyle eggs it's not a good movie but it's also kind of awesome after all the emmy award-winning special effects makeup combined with the creative use of slow motion cinematography bring the gargoyles to life with unique movement and characteristics you can't quite take them seriously but they are interesting to look at then in 1974 the original edition of the fantasy role-playing game dungeons and dragons the white box set was released and it included gargoyles as a chaotic evil creatures who can freeze as still as stone dungeons and dragons helped and still helps popularize gargoyles as living breathing monsters cult classic ghostbusters brought gargoyles back to their grotesque animal roots in 1984 with the keymaster and the gatekeeper represented by demonic hellhounds or terror dogs who reach the human world by manifesting into stone gargoyles then in the 1990s the animated series gargoyles changed the trajectory of the monster expanding on their potential architectural symbolism as protectors by making them physical defenders of humanity the gargoyles are depicted as superheroes instead of monsters this idea of gargoyles as friendly monsters was reinforced in 1996 when disney's the hunchback of notre dame introduced anthropomorphic gargoyles victor hugo and laverne quasimodo's guardians and best friends who pretend to be lifeless during the day the gargoyle as a living monster is a modern fiction but that doesn't mean we aren't still creating the architectural embellishments this gargoyle photo from scotland's paisley abbey went viral in 2013 after people compared it to the famous monster from the alien film franchise the abbey's minister believes the stonemasons who refurbished the abbey in the early 1990s including the replacement of 12 of the original gargoyles were probably having a bit of fun to whoever is responsible for this epic continuation of gargoyle history i salute you there's no singular symbolic meaning for gargoyles and it's unlikely there ever was after all crouching in the eaves of buildings they are hard to see and probably not meant to be recognized by the casual observer we see their detail mostly through the lenses of binoculars and camera zooms they are a flourish an adornment that took on a life of its own i would argue that that's one of the reasons why our imaginations transform them into living creatures glimpsed only in the shadows guarding or threatening open to interpretation gargoyles are all about speculation the idea that something looks inanimate could actually be watching you is scary whether that's a frightening face peering at you from the top of a building or some terrible predator with the ability to stand stone still to hunt you more successfully still i'm a fan of the funnier depictions of gargoyles in both real life and fiction like that alien inspired gargoyle or this darth vader one these are not meant to scare us but to amuse us like architectural easter eggs waiting to be discovered and marveled at honoring that tradition is actually paying homage to the past we don't know for sure why gargoyles were so popular in the medieval period that they became a defining feature of gothic architecture but i like to think it all comes down to something so fundamental and simple even today humans seek entertainment we all love a good grotesque okay low yeah it's alone the gargoyle's still adorned by carl ash clark widgets oh wait mess that up

Channel: Storied

Views: 407,822

Keywords: monstrum, monstrum pbs, monsters, lore, folklore, documentary, pbs, pbs digital studios, monster, mythology, emily zarka, dr. emily zarka, legends, scary stories, horror stories, mysterious, creature, gargoyle, dragon, gargouille, grotesque, gargoyles, gargoyle statue, dungeons and dragons, demon, gothic, medieval, d&d

Id: 4E_RmBMH-6A

Length: 11min 17sec (677 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 02 2020