Ogre
An ogre is a human-like monster in fairy tales , sagas , fantastic or similar stories.
Today the word designates a fictional, human-like, but misshapen being, which is usually characterized by enormous body size and strength. "Ogres" look ugly and shy away from contact with people. They are mostly portrayed as violent, aggressive and rather stupid. They are also ascribed a preference for human meat, preferably children’s meat.
Word origin and language use
The word has only recently been adopted from English, but originally comes from French. There is no exact equivalent in German. The French lexem ogre ("fiend, ogre ") is first documented in 1697 in the fairy tales of Charles Perrault ; B. in that of Little Tom Thumb . Moritz Hartmann rewrote it in a retelling by Thäumling ( fairy tale based on Perrault, Stuttgart 1867) as "giant".
Perrault has probably taken over the term from the Italian author Giambattista Basile (1575-1632) used as a template , in which it appears as orco . Its origin is probably Latin Orcus ("god of the underworld"). Orcus was depicted as a hairy, bearded giant on paintings in Etruscan tombs .
From an etymological point of view, the ogre is therefore probably related to the orc , a fictional being of a nonhuman nature who was revived in the 20th century in the stories The Little Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien .
Because of the above-mentioned preference for human or children meat was the French ogre into German mostly as " man-eaters " or " Child Eater translated". The latter is the German title of a novel by Jacques Chessex . In the novel Returning Only the Death of Charlie Higson , it is said that the word "ogre" comes from the word "Hungarian".
Sir Henry Hamilton Johnston speculated that the encounter between what he saw as the monstrous, gorilla-like Neanderthal man and the Stone Age man could be the origin of the ogre in folklore. Based on this, HG Wells expanded the portrayal of the Neanderthal man as an ogre and man-eating giants in the short story “The Grisly Folk”. However, modern anthropology today assumes that the Neanderthals were not enormous, but were around 150–170 cm tall.
The male hero in Theodor Fontane's 1888 novel Irrungen, Wirrungen is jokingly called "ogre" (towards his own wife) by a friend. The Ogre is also the title of a 1921 novel by Oskar Loerke . However, the word was rather unknown in German-speaking countries outside of various computer and role-playing games until the animated film Shrek - The daredevil hero came into the cinemas in 2001 , the main character of which, Shrek, is an "ogre".
A special kind of ogre is the two-headed ogre (see also: Ettin ).
"The Ogre's Blinding"
The main plot elements of the story of Odysseus and Polyphemus (including "A monster checks animals that go away.") Can be seen in the folklore of many other European ethnic groups , often summarized under the title "The Blinding of the Ogre". Wilhelm Grimm collected versions in Serbian, Romanian, Estonian, Finnish, Russian and German. Versions in Basque , Lappish , Lithuanian , Syriac, and Celtic are also known. The story The Robber and His Sons is mentioned as a German variant of the ogre motif . Due to the widespread use of the central plot elements, the Finnish School assumes a common origin. On the basis of a total of 98 action elements from 44 different traditions , a phylogenetic reconstruction was carried out, a method from evolutionary biology to determine genetic origins or relationships . The tradition in the version of the Valais turned out to be the one that came closest to a prehistoric, European original version .
Ogre in a fairy tale
- Little Tom Thumb (France)
- Hans and the Beanstalk (England)
Presentation in digital media
The details of the various representations of ogres can vary greatly depending on the source. However, certain characteristics are almost always ascribed to them: a stately size and enormous strength. In particular, they appear obese or muscle-packed. Their clothing is usually primitive. From the bones of their victims, they make trophies and talismans , with which they decorate both their homes and themselves. Often they are not even given a civilized language. In this case, your communication is limited to the bare minimum and consists largely of gestures and calls. Similar to giants , they often carry a club or other clumsy weapons with them, but they are also strong in unarmed combat.
Occurrence of ogres in culture and media
literature
- Title character of a short story from Heimito von Doderer's stories
- In the 24th chapter of Thomas Mann's “ Doctor Faustus ”, “fairytale ladles ... that could have belonged to an ogre” are mentioned.
- a main character in the book "The Secret of Talking Animals" by Eva Ibbotson , 2010
- Title of a play by Veza Canetti and title character of a short story from Veza Canetti's novel The Yellow Road
- In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , the main character is addressed in chapter 16 as "ogre"
- Abel Tiffauges , main character in the book Der Erlkönig by Michel Tournier and the film based on it, The Unhold by Volker Schlöndorff , is called an ogre.
- In Michael Peinkofer's book series Die Orks , the term is used several times as a comparison
- Mulgarath, the goblin leader in the children's book The Spiderwick Secrets
Movie
- Shrek and Fiona, the main characters in the film Shrek - The daredevil hero and its sequels
- Vincent in the fantasy film Time Bandits
- Nish and his two buddies in Ella - Darn & Magical
Series
- In the series Gummi Bears Igzorns monsters are based on ogre in many colors
Video games
- Race in the Warcraft Universe ( Blizzard Entertainment )
- Race in MMORPG Everquest ( Sony Online Entertainment )
- In the PC role-playing games " Gothic 3 " and " Risen " by Piranha Bytes
- Ogre and True Ogre from the beat-'em-up game Tekken 3
- In the PC game Black & White the ogre is the guardian of a gate and must be defeated
- In the PC and console game Dragon's Dogma - Dark Arisen, ogres have to be destroyed in various quests
- In the Playstation 4 game God of War , ogres are a common type of opponent
- In the " The Elder Scrolls " computer game series (" Morrowind ", " Oblivion ", " Skyrim " and " The Elder Scrolls Online ") there are ogres and ogre-like beings, which are also referred to as such
- In the PC strategy game " Heroes of Might and Magic ", ogres are a primitive race with strong attack and defense values, who can become shamans and thus can work primitive magic
Radio plays
- Groger the (gold) ogre from the radio play series Tell me something
Board games
- In the tabletop strategy game " Warhammer Fantasy " from Games Workshop
- In various Dungeons & Dragons worlds, such as B. in the Forgotten Realms
- Races in the pen & paper role-playing games The Black Eye and Shadowrun
- In the HeroQuest expansion Against the Ogre Hordes
comics
- Snacks from the comic Merlin
- Demon Race at Manga Angel Sanctuary
Others
- According to an Urban Legend , the Latvian SSR issued badges or badges with Lenin's likeness and the name of major cities in the country, including Ogre , which in this case caused huge sales among English-speaking travelers until the "problem" was defused by the authorities.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Charles DePaolo: Wells, Golding, and Auel: Representing the Neanderthal . In: Science Fiction Studies . tape 27 , no. 3 , p. 418-438 .
- ^ Wilhelm Grimm: The saga of Polyphemus . Royal Akad. Der Wissenschaften, 1857 ( google.com [accessed January 17, 2018]).
- ^ A b Robarts - University of Toronto: Pausanias's Description of Greece, tr. With a commentary by JG Frazer . London Macmillan, 1898 ( archive.org [accessed January 17, 2018]).
- ↑ Hans-Peter Naumann: The Polyphemus Adventure in the Old Norse Saga literature . Ed .: Swiss Archive for Folklore. tape 75 , no. 3-4 , 1979 ( e-periodica.ch ).
- ↑ Julien d'Huy: Julien D'Huy. Polyphemus (Aa. Th. 1137): A phylogenetic reconstruction of a prehistoric tale. Ed .: Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée. tape 1 , no. 1 , 2013 ( archives-ouvertes.fr ).