Ogre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the mythological creature. For other uses, see Ogre (disam
biguation).
Puss in Boots before the ogre. Note that one of the platters on the table serves
human babies (Illustrated by Gustave Dor).
An ogre (feminine ogress) is a being usually depicted as a large, hideous, manli
ke monster that eats human beings. Ogres frequently feature in mythology, folklo
re, and fiction throughout the world. They appear in many classic works of liter
ature, and are most often described in fairy tales and folklore as eating babies
.
In visual art, ogres are often depicted as inhumanly large and tall and having a
disproportionately large head, abundant hair, unusually colored skin, a voracio
us appetite, and a strong body. Ogres are closely linked with giants and with hu
man cannibals in mythology. In both folklore and fiction, giants are often given
ogrish traits (such as the giants in "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Jack the Gia
nt Killer", the Giant Despair in The Pilgrim's Progress, and the jtnar of Norse m
ythology); while ogres may be given giantish traits.
Famous examples of ogres in folklore include the ogre in "Puss in Boots" and the
ogre in "Hop-o'-My-Thumb"; and in fiction, Shrek and Fiona from Shrek. Other ch
aracters sometimes described as ogres include the title character from "Bluebear
d", the Beast from "Beauty and the Beast", Grendel from "Beowulf", Polyphemus th
e Cyclops from Homer's Odyssey, the cyclops in "Sinbad the Sailor", and the oni
of Japanese folklore.
Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Translation difficulties
3 Gallery
3.1 In illustration
3.2 In sculpture
4 See also
5 References
5.1 Notes
Etymology[edit]
Puss in Boots before the ogre. (Illustrated by Walter Crane.)
The word ogre is of French origin, originally derived from the name of the Etrus
can god Orcus, who fed on human flesh. Its earliest attestation is in Chrtien de
Troyes' late 12th-century verse romance Perceval, li contes del graal, which con
tains the lines:
Et s'est escrit que il ert ancore
que toz li reaumes de Logres,
qui jadis fu la terre as ogres,
ert destruite par cele lance.
"And it is written that he will come again
to all the realms of Logres,
known as the land of ogres,
and destroy them with that lance."
The ogres in this rhyme may refer to the ogres who, in the pseudohistorical work
History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, were the inhabitants o
f Britain prior to human settlement. Ogre could possibly derive from the biblica
l Og, last of the giants (or from the Greek river god Oiagros, father of Orpheus
).
Hop-o'-My-Thumb steals the ogre's seven-league boots. (Illustrated by Gustave Do
r.)
The word ogre came into wider usage in the works of Charles Perrault (16281703) o
r Marie-Catherine Jumelle de Berneville, Comtesse d' Aulnoy (16501705), both of w
hom were French authors. Other sources say that the name is derived from the wor
d Hongrois, which means Hungarian, as of western cultures referred to Hungarians
as a kind of monstrosity.[1] The word ogre is thought to have been popularized
by the works of Italian author Giambattista Basile (15751632), who used the Neapo
litan word uerco, or in standard Italian, orco. This word is documented[2] in ea
rlier Italian works (Fazio degli Uberti, 14th century; Luigi Pulci, 15th century
; Ludovico Ariosto, 15th16th centuries) and has even older cognates with the Lati
n orcus and the Old English orcneas found in Beowulf lines 112113, which inspired
J.R.R. Tolkien's Orc.[3] All these words may derive from a shared Indo-European
mythological concept (as Tolkien himself speculated, as cited by Tom Shippey, T
he Road to Middle-earth, 45). Some see the French myth of the ogre as being insp
ired by the real-life crimes of Gilles de Rais.[4]
The first appearance of the word ogre in Perrault's work occurred in his Histoir
es ou Contes du temps Pass (1696). It later appeared in several of his other fair
y tales, many of which were based on the Neapolitan tales of Basile. The first e
xample of a female ogre being referred to as an ogress is found in his version o
f Sleeping Beauty, where it is spelled ogresse. Madame d'Aulnoy first employed t
he word ogre in her story L'Orangier et l'Abeille (1698), and was the first to u
se the word ogree to refer to the creature's offspring.
Translation difficulties[edit]
Kwakiutl house pole representing the cannibal ogress Dzonoqwa
In various languages, among them German and Russian, this French word became ass
ociated with the characters in the original fairy tales who are cannibals (adult
-eaters) or specifically child-eaters. Foreign, especially English-speaking, aut
hors do not realize this, and translation of their works has to use some other d
escription to avoid association with cannibalism, which would render the charact
ers incapable of being a figure of fun, or an incidental character type to a fan
tasy story or game, at all.
The most well-known example is the animated feature film Shrek, whose name comes
from the German, but whose localized subtitle translates back into "The Foolhar
dy Hero".
The word ogress has been adopted as well for fierce female characters of the myt
hology of non-European countries, such as the Matrika Putana killed by Krishna,
the Japanese ogress Kijo (??), the ogress Sanda Muhki, who offered her own breas
ts to the Buddha, and Hariti, who converted to Buddhism and has been widely comb
ined with Guanyin in Sino-Japanese practice, and the sea ogress of the Thai folk
lore story Phra Aphai Mani, among others.
Gallery[edit]
In illustration[edit]
Norandino and Lucina Discovered by the Ogre

Bluebeard and his wife

The ogre and his wife in "Hop-o'-My-Thumb"

Hop-o'-My-Thumb's ogre

Hop-o'-My-Thumb's ogre

Hop-o'-My-Thumb's ogre

The Beast and Beauty from "Beauty and the Beast"

An oni

An oni

An oni
In sculpture[edit]
The ogre from "Hop-o'-My-Thumb" at Efteling

An ogre king represented at Mandalay Hill

The ogress Sanda Muhki represented at Mandalay Hill

An oni

An oni in Beppu
See also[edit]
Look up ogre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Media related to Ogre at Wikimedia Commons
Buggane
Cyclops
Fictional ogres (category)
Giant
Jinn
Mapinguari
Oni
Shrek
Stallo
Troll
Wendigo
References[edit]
Rose, Carol. Giants, Monsters, & Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, a
nd Myth. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. ISBN 0-393-32211-4
Shippey, Tom. The Road to Middle-earth. London: HarperCollins, 1992 (rev.). ISBN
0-261-10275-3
South, Malcolm, ed. Mythical and Fabulous Creatures: A Source Book and Research
Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987. Reprint, New York: Peter Bedrick Boo
ks, 1988. ISBN 0-87226-208-1
"Ogre." Encyclopdia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopdia Britannica Online. 15 May 2006,
search.eb.com
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Dictionnaire de l'Acadmie franaise (193235)
Jump up ^ Vocabolario Degli Accademici Della Crusca
Jump up ^ "Beowulf". Humanities.mcmaster.ca. Retrieved 2012-03-28.
Jump up ^ heresie.com
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