INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

Oh my goodness, we’re back! I have missed you all, but I have had a lovely break - if you follow me on Twitter you’ll already know, but I’ve finally decided to work on my research proposal for a PhD in Myth Studies which is super exciting. I’m hoping for a January submission, but if anyone is interested, give me a bell and I’d love to hear what you think! 

Otherwise, it’s been pretty chill - it’s very cold over here in the UK now just in time for the spooky season. Speaking of which, this week’s monster is also pretty spooky - and originating that we’ve not actually covered before.

DESCRIPTION:

This week it’s a really fun one - it’s the Gargoyles from French and European folklore! It’s a really common monster, and one that most people have heard of, even if they’re not a mythology nerd like me.

They are generally described as winged, fanged creatures that are made of stone or brick, and live on the sides of churches and gothic structures such as castles and monasteries in central Europe. These are very literally real, you can see these on the sides of these buildings, so they do exist - but it’s debated that they are a monster from this form.

During the day, they sit, hard as nails, in their posts - however at night, their stoney bodies turn to flesh and they are able to move freely and shed their stone like skin. They usually just sit and watch on their turrets, keeping an eye out for evil spirits lurking around the buildings they guard - but they can fly around the area, but not too far - as their bodies will turn back into stone if they leave the vicinity of their home structure. It also cannot move about in the day, not through its own choosing - but their bodies will again revert to their stoney structure if exposed to sunlight. 

In terms of other powers, they’re generally considered immortal, as any damage obtained during the active evening hours is repaired as soon as the Gargoyle becomes stone again. They also cannot age, or become ill with any sickness - so they are very much impervious to most damage. However, most importantly, they can be smashed or damaged when in their stone state, much like a statue could be. If a Gargoyle is destroyed whilst in its stoic form, it would also be destroyed. They could also be ‘mutilated’ this way, for example, if an ear is chipped during the day, this would also be reflected in the Gargoyle’s flesh form in the evening.

The coolest power, which is definitely debated within the mythology of this monster is the power of petrification, sort of like the Gorgons of Greek mythology, however, instead of a gaze from a snakey-lady, it can be activated by touch. This infection is slow, and will spread across the body, much like grey-scale in the Game of Thrones universe. Although there is not much information on why a Gargoyle would do this to a person, it is definitely not a nice way to go - but also quite funny that they turn people into ornaments like them.

So Erin, are they good or evil? Because petrification sounds pretty evil! Well, the quick answer is that we’re not sure - it’s actually tricky to set down a definite history of the monster, differing to the actual Gargoyles that can be seen on buildings. However, I personally think there’s a bit of both going on, but I also think evil is a subjective term in this case. 

As their main purpose is to protect their building, which is usually a house of God in some way - be that a castle with a religious monarch or a church - I guess if the beings intentions are evil against that place, a Gargoyle would attack. However, if you’re inside that building, technically it’s also protecting you. So it’s kind of tricky - I inherently think it’s completely impartial to people, it only attacks when its perch is threatened, and then in theory, its life is also threatened.

ORIGIN:

Now onto etymology, the word Gargoyle is very very French. But it’s also Latin, and in Latin, it’s ‘gargula’ which translates to gullet - which comes from the word root ‘gar’ which means to swallow. 

Now French is a Latin based language, much like Spanish & Catalan, Portuguese, Romanian, Italian and Romansh, so it makes sense that it derives from the same thing, but the French word is ‘gargouille’ which means throat in English. It also is connected to the French ‘gargariser’ which means to gargle, which is pretty gross. However, I will save you a Google translate - it doesn’t actually translate to this officially, and translates to Gargoyle in English. Most of these other Latin languages have the same translation too, with ‘garganta’ in Portuguese and Spanish, and ‘gargolla’ in Italian.

Now in history, they have a pretty weird background. Now we have to battle with the fact that these monsters are also very much intertwined with architectural history throughout Europe, which does make things a little difficult. 

Of course, the monster did come after the stone ones - but we can trace these creations back to at least the 13th century in French architecture. If you’ve seen a Gargoyle in real life on the churches in a European city, or even now American churches - you might not even notice that there is a functional use to them as well as their spooky side. They’re actually used as water spouts, and if you look closely enough, you might be able to see the pipes that flow through them to relieve church roofs of too much water and avoid water damage to the sides of the buildings during the usually wet seasons of central Europe. Basically they were the original gutter, and were and still are massively helpful.

They were invented with this in mind, however, they did serve another purpose. Due to their hideous looks, they were said to ward off evil spirits - and considering that they were usually attached to churches, it was believed that they would keep the demons out of the house of God as stalwart guardians, so ugly that they frighten off the evils of hell itself.

The rumours of Gargoyles as monsters swiftly followed, because it makes complete sense, it’s a stone guardian of churches, so fearsome it scares off demons? Yeah I totally get it. 

However, there is a story that enforces the legacy of the Gargoyle as a mythical monster though - which is the story of St Romanus, who had to fight a dragon, as apparently is a pretty common activity for a Saint, for his village, and the dragon’s name was La Gargouille. He defeated the monster, and burned his body - again, not sure why but we’ll roll with it, but its head and neck could not be burned as they had previously breathed fire themselves. Therefore, the Saint took the remaining parts and mounted them on the walls of the church, to ward off those evil spirits we talked about earlier. I guess it worked too, since this tradition in churches has remained ever since, but does not always feature a dragon’s head, but sometimes just a grotesque face. 

That’s something we should talk about too, the Grotesque, which in theory, is another French monster. However, we can do a quick summary here, and I’ll decide later if it gets a standalone episode. Grotesques are pretty much the non-winged versions of Gargoyles, and they very much exist within architecture too, but their only use was to frighten off these evil spirits rather than an actual useful use too. Some people do mix up the two monsters, as they are very similar, but basically the only difference is their literal usage on the churches they're built on. 

They are very similar to another stone monster, the Golem, which is a monster from Jewish religious folklore. This monster, which sometimes is a bit of an interesting term for this in the first place, as it can be compelled to do good - is also basically animated clay, which takes the orders of humans, be them good or bad. However, we’re going to cover Golems in another episode, but you can certainly see the comparisons here with both of these stoney beings.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, we actually have so much this week - which is not unexpected from this centuries old monster. 

For art, I would actually really recommend looking at the architecture that features gargoyles - such as the ones on the Notre Dame being possibly my favourite. Otherwise, I would recommend the art from games such as Dungeons and Dragons, or just independent stuff for the monstrous side of these cement demons.

In movies, we have quite a few like; The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Fantasia, The Cat Returns, Cast a Deadly Spell, Curse of the Talisman, Gargoyle, Gargoyles 1972, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, I, Frankenstein, Ghostbusters, Rise of the Gargoyles & Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.

For TV, we have; Gargoyles, Charmed, What We Do In The Shadows, Doctor Who, Monster High, Reign of the Gargoyles, Special Unit 2, Futurama, Fangface, Adventures of Gummi Bears, Jonny Quest, Huntik: Secrets & Seekers, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Space Ghost, Pac-Man and The Ghostly Adventures, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Wishfart, Riverdale, Batman: The Animated Series and SWAT Kats.

In video games, we have ones such as; World of Warcraft, Warcraft, A Vampyre Story, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Runescape, Nitemare 3D, Pokemon, Scooby-Doo: First Frights, Splatter Master, Gargoyles: The Video Game, Ultima, League of Legends, Nightmare Creatures, Kingdom Hearts, Guild Wars, Final Fantasy, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Killer Instinct 2, Last Armageddon, Golden Sun, Gargoyle’s Quest 1 & 2, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, LEGO Marvel Avengers, Heroes of Might and Magic, Dragon’s Dogma, Drakensang, Elder Scrolls, Disciples 2, Diablo, Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening, Book of Demons, Darklands, Castlevania, Dark Souls, Dark Adventure, Darkest Dungeons, The Crystal of Kings, Arena.Xlsm, Blood, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance & Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

My book recommendation this week is Gargoyles and Grotesques by Alex Woodcock for a great view on Gargoyles from an architectural perspective and one that also covers the monster aspect too. However, if you’re interested in how Gargoyles affect the Church, The Dedalus Book of Medieval Literature: The Grin of the Gargoyle by Brian O. Murdoch is a great one for stories around Gargoyles acting as the mockery of the church in the Middle Ages. 

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

I mean, we know that Gargoyles do certainly exist in the actual world within the buildings across the world - there’s no denying that, and they do certainly look scary and monstrous sometimes. However, do I think they come alive when people aren’t looking? Probably not - although I do like the thought of them flying around with normal bats and the normal bats being like HUH.

The first time I remember actually acknowledging Gargoyles was when I was about 10 at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London - where it’s not actually Gargoyles, but Grotesques hanging onto the ancient structure. When I was much older, within the last 2 years - I went to Paris and saw them in Notre Dame, which was unfortunately still under scaffolding from the fire, to see the massive and beautiful Gargoyles there. Then most recently, in Copenhagen, I visited the St Alban’s Church, which is right next to the Little Mermaid and saw the smallest and most vicious looking ones I’d ever seen. They were most definitely my favourite too, but they were pretty scary - and certainly were only there as waterspouts.

But what do you think? Did the Gargoyles roam the Earth? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

What a fantastic monster, and one that actually is so embedded into our architectural history that most people, even if they’ve not thought of them as a monster, they do know they’re actually a thing, which is always a breath of fresh air. However, I’m not sure I trust anyone who hasn’t seen the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Next week, we’re heading over to the US and looking at another lovely cryptid, one that haunts the swamps of Kentucky! Yes, we are looking at the horrible Pope Lick Monster next Thursday, so bring your wading boots for this one.

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.