ghoul

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Amine is discovered with the Goule , illustration to the story Sidi Nouman from Arabian Nights

A ghoul ( Arabic غُول, DMG ġūl [ ɣuːl ]) is usually a corpse-eating mythical creature and appears in various mythological and literary forms.

Traditional representations

Persian-Arabic culture

The ghoul is a dangerous demon in the Persian - Arab culture . It is similar to the Djinn , but unlike the Ghoul, a Djinn can also be well-disposed towards humans. The female counterpart to the ghoul is called a ghula. The ghoul can hatch into various forms and lure travelers in the desert or forest off the path in order to devour them. Ghouls play a role in numerous myths and fairy tales , especially in the stories from the Arabian Nights .

Europe

In the classical European literature and mythology the man-eating and corpse-eating ghoul is not to be found in the actual sense. Only after the stories from the Arabian Nights in Europe were published did the ghoul become a term there; in the 20th century he gained more prominence, particularly through the horror literature of the American writer HP Lovecraft , who was strongly influenced by this collection of short stories. In Lovecraft's work, ghouls have dog-like facial features and live together underground near cemeteries.

Modern representations

literature

Ghouls often appear as corpse-eating demons in horror or scary novels , where they are usually described as slimy and with a decay odor. For example, series like Ghostbusters John Sinclair or Professor Zamorra contain the fight against ghouls in many novels. The original motif can be greatly changed, sometimes the word is used without reference to history for non-human beings.

  • Ghouls also play a major role in Dennis L. McKiernan's book series . There they are described as corpse-pale beings the size of a person, with hollow eyes and cracked lips.
  • In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, ghouls (sometimes also "gule") are described as almost extinct. Like many other mythological figures, they are largely integrated into society, but not very popular.
  • Wolfgang Hohlbein takes up the ghoul motif in his novels Anubis and Unterland .
  • In Joanne K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels a ghoul occurs, who lives in the attic of the Weasley family. In the 7th volume, Ronald Weasley makes use of the ghoul who puts on Ron's old pajamas and pretends to be "Ronald with serious illness" ("curmudgeon", heavily contagious), while Ron himself actually with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger on the Escape is.
  • The man-eating monsters are also dealt with in the manga and anime Tokyo Ghoul . There they are a society of their own and usually disguise themselves as humans. They murder people partly for fun and partly to survive. In addition, the ghouls there have superhuman abilities and a sense of taste that makes most food taste bad. They can only feed on human and ghoul meat.
  • Ghouls also appear in Jeaniene Frost's book series (The Night Huntress series) . There they are related to the vampires by the way they are created.
  • In the fourth volume of TA Barron's Merlin saga, ghouls are described as eerie bog ghosts who wreak havoc and wreak havoc there. When the young magician Merlin helps them, however, they return the favor by helping him too.
  • Karl Edward Wagner mentions ghouls in his novel Mistress of the Shadows .
  • Frank Rehfeld describes in his novel Zwergenbann ghouls as hybrid creatures between humans, animals and possibly demons, who resemble pale, skinny people with individual strands of hair and an extremely large mouth filled with knife-like teeth and who primarily feed on corpses that they devour completely , but also living people, if this seems safe to them. They are shy of sunlight, but still dare to go in for a few seconds to make prey. They live in underground burrows and people believe that ghouls devour not only the bodies but also the souls of their victims.
  • In John Passarella's Ghoul Trouble , Buffy battles four ghoul girls who subjugate men.
  • In the book Corpse Eaters (Ghoul) by the American writer Brian Keene , a ghoul plays a central role.

Video games

In computer games , ghoul is occasionally used as a term that is also often detached from the historical context.

  • In the real-time strategy game Warcraft 3 , an undead combat and work unit is called Ghoul, which quickly regenerates life points by consuming corpses. It also appears in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft and in the online trading card game Hearthstone .
  • In the Fallout series, which is set after a nuclear world war, ghouls appear as either normal humans mutated by radioactive radiation or as man-eating beasts.
  • In the game Dark Messiah of Might and Magic ghouls appear as prisoners between life and death as well as excluded from the circle of rebirth, they are people who have been turned into ghouls.
  • In the games Risen and Risen 2 Dark Waters , ghouls are black, goblin-like creatures that consume the player's corpse after death.

Role play

In fantasy role-playing games , ghouls also often appear as opponents to be overcome and mostly have the common feature of feeding on corpses. The special properties can vary greatly here too.

Ghouls in the pen and paper role-playing game Vampires: The Masquerade are normal people who drink the blood of their vampire masters once a month. This consumption makes them stronger, heals wounds and stops all aging, but also leads to addiction. If the supply of vampire blood is interrupted, natural aging is made up for, which means that centuries-old ghouls turn to dust.

Similar types of ghouls can also be found in other role-playing games, such as the role-playing game The Witcher . There they also appear as corpse-eating monsters, and there are some subspecies.

Feature film and series

In the film, the term ghoul is often used to refer to the resurrected dead - undead - mainly zombies and vampires . In the 1933 British film The Ghoul , the revenant portrayed by Boris Karloff is referred to as the eponymous ghoul. This is the first time the term has been used in a feature film.

The film director Ed Wood made several films about the mythical creature, including Plan 9 from outer space and Night of the Ghouls . The fictional film tetralogy Ghoulies I – IV (USA 1983–1994) achieved a certain cult status .

In the Netflix miniseries Ghoul, published in 2018, the eponymous monster appears as a murderous shapeshifter who can be summoned with human blood.

In Supernatural (season 4 / episode 19) ghouls appear as corpse eaters. In the series, they can take the form of their victims and maintain family relationships with one another.

music

In the song Ghuleh / Zombie Queen by the band Ghost , a female ghoul, who transforms into a graceful figure in the moonlight, plays the main role.

In Alice Cooper's 2011 album Welcome 2 My Nightmare , the song Ghoules gone wild tells of ghouls gone wild .

The masked and anonymous members of the band Ghost are each given with "A Nameless Ghoul" (English "A nameless Ghoul").

literature