Copyright 2019 by Gary L. Pullman
The Online
Etymology Dictionary is not
only interesting in itself, but it is also a reminder of the beliefs,
attitudes, and, yes, fears (among other influences) that inspire words
associated with language and, in the case of the topic for this post,
horror.
“Troll,”
for example, originally alluded to a “supernatural being in
Scandinavian mythology and folklore and derived from the Old Norse
troll,
referring to a “giant being not of the human race, evil spirit,
monster.” Its first recorded use, the Online
Etymology Dictionary
states, was in a court document concerning a case associated with
witchcraft and sorcery. Allegedly, “a certain [witch named]
Catherine” witnessed trolls rise from a churchyard in Hildiswick.”
First conceived as giants, they were later believed to be “dwarfs
and imps supposed to live in caves or under the ground.” Moreover,
these formerly fierce beings became “obliging and neighbourly;
freely lending and borrowing, and elsewise keeping up a friendly
intercourse with mankind,” their thieving ways notwithstanding.
The
dictionary's entry concerning the werewolf
indicates that belief in these creatures, as people “'with the
power to turn into a wolf' . . . . was widespread in the Middle
Ages.” Apparently, it was also widely believed in Persia, where
present-day Iran's ancestors named the October Varkazana,
or the month of the “Wolf-Men.”
Teratology,
once the study of monsters, is now the study of physical
abnormalities, such as those resulting from birth defects and
“reproductive and developmentally-mediated disorders.” Its
previous subject matter provides some interesting and, indeed,
surprising insights into the origin of the concept of the monster as
a horrific figure. Originally, a monster
was an omen, sent by God to warn humanity (or a nation) of his
displeasure; if the people didn't repent of their wickedness, God
would follow his warning with punishment. Thus, for example, a pair
of conjoined twins or a hermaphrodite would be taken as an admonitory
message to be ignored at a people's own peril. As the Online
Etymology Dictionary entry
for this term reads, in part, “monster” derives from “Latin
monstrum,”
referring to a 'divine omen (especially one indicating misfortune),
portent, sign; abnormal shape; monster, monstrosity,' [and means a]
figuratively 'repulsive character, object of dread, awful deed,
[or] abomination.'” Writers and readers of contemporary horror fiction
might do well to keep this history of the word's meaning in mind the
next time they take up a copy of Frankenstein
or The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Couldn't the scientists' monsters have been warnings sent by God,
through the labors of Frankenstein and Dr. Moreau?
The
lamia first
seems to have been envisioned as a mermaid-vampire hybrid, but was
later envisioned as a half-woman, half-serpent vampiric creature.
Interestingly, the transformation of the lamia from mermaid to
serpent-woman might have been suggested by the word lamia's
association with “swallowing,” just as her erotic charm might
have been suggested by the word's original link to lechery and her
sorcery to the term's original connection to sorcery: “female
demon, late 14c., from Latin lamia
[meaning] 'witch, sorceress, vampire,' from Greek lamia
[meaning] 'female vampire, man-eating monster,' literally 'swallower,
lecher,' from laimos 'throat, gullet.'” The snake-like form of the
lamia might have been based upon the idea that she was something of a
personified gullet, since a snake has such a form.
Alluring,
the lamia enthralled men with her charms (and, perhaps, with a bit of
witchery, but, when her beauty and magic were no longer strong enough
an attraction, she would kill and devour him, as the following
passage suggests:
Also kynde erreþ in som beestes wondirliche j-schape,
as it fareþ in a beest þat hatte lamia, þat haþ an heed as a
mayde & body as a grym fissche[;] whan þat best lamya may fynde
ony man, first a flatereþ wiþ hym with a wommannes face and makeþ
hym ligge by here while he may dure, & whanne he may noferþere
suffice to here lecherye þanne he rendeþ hym and sleþ and eteþ
hym. [Bartholomew Glanville, c. 1360, "De proprietatibus rerum,"
translated by John of Trevisa]
Translation:
An error among some kinds of animals sometimes results in a
wondrous shape, such as that of the lamia, which has a woman's head and
the body of a horrible fish. When a lamia finds a man, it flatters
him with its beauty and makes him linger beside her until her charms
no longer enthrall him, whereupon she slays and eats him.
[Bartholomew Glanville, c. 1360, the
Property of Things,
translated by John of Trevisa]
Many
other words associated with horror fiction also have interesting
origins and histories, some of which could suggest new takes on old
topics or altogether new approaches to such fiction.
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