Golem: Difference between revisions

In some versions the golem was animated by writing the Hebrew word for "truth" (אֱמֶת ''ʼĕméth'') on its forehead, and made inert again by erasing the first letter, converting it into the word for "dead" (מֵת ''mēth''). However, other versions included using a "[[Words Can Break My Bones|Shem]]", literally meaning a name and referring to one of the [[I Have Many Names|secret names of God]]. This could be put on its forehead or in the mouth.

 

 

More loosely the term can be applied to any [[Ridiculously Human Robot|robot]] that is explicitly run on magic rather than technology. Talos, a mythical [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] giant made out of forged bronze is a good example.

* The titular character from ''Thessaly: Witch for Hire'' (a spinoff from [[Sandman]]) had a golem in her house that she used primarily as a coat-rack. When it comes alive to defend her, another character expresses surprise that she knows Jewish magic. She points out that when a magic user becomes as powerful as she is, magic loses all its cultural barriers.

 

* In ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/827379/1/Moon_Cats_The_further_adventures Moon Cats, The Further Adventures of Luna and Artemis]'', a ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' fanfic there is a girl that can make golems. The senshi end up fighting some of them at one point.

* One episode of ''Simpson Moon R'', a ''[[The Simpsons]]''/''[[Sailor Moon]]'' [[Crossover]], features Origami Golems as mooks.

* The ''[[Dresden Files]]'' fanfic ''[http://rassaku.livejournal.com/?skip=20&tag=enemy%20mine Enemy Mine]'' features an OC named Tam Veda. Like Harry, (s)he's a magic-user for hire. Unlike Harry, (s)he makes ultra-realistic golems for clued-in clients - [[No Questions Asked]].

 

== Film ==

* The Garthim from the film ''[[The Dark Crystal]]'' may have been golems or a local equivalent. They appear to be made of a dark metal and, upon death/deactivation, fall apart to reveal that they are merely shaped plates surrounding a hollow interior.

* ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'': Atlantis' [[Deflector Shields]] are projected by several massive golems who stand at set spots around the border of the city.

 

== Literature ==

* In ''Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian'', it is revealed that {{spoiler|most of the statues in New York and quite a few elsewhere are actually golems built by Daedalus, requiring only a codephrase to turn them into an instant army.}}

* Golems on the ''[[Discworld]]'' are a bit like the classical golem from Hebrew folklore, and a bit more like [[Magitek]] versions of robots. Ancient priests would form a human-like figure out of clay, fire it, and then place a fragment of holy script, or chem, in their head, animating them. Golems can survive all manners of catastrophe and so the majority of modern-day golems are in fact surviving golems from destroyed civilizations that have been recovered from ruins. No "current" wizards or priests know how to make golems anymore, and most (unmodified) golems are unable to speak. They communicate by writing on slates (and in a nice bit of [[Painting the Fourth Wall]], their writing is a Hebraic-looking script).

*** The method by which Dorfl is set free is worth a mention - Carrot bought him and amended his chem (the magic words in his head) with the sales receipt. It's implied that later golems have been doing something similar, as they save up and buy each other from their owners. They immediately go back to working for practically nothing, but on the other hand, golems do not sleep or rest, so as Dorfl notes, Vimes will have to pay them twice as much. Also, Golems know the secret of making more golems.

** Anhk-Morpork's economy was {{spoiler|placed on the "golem" standard, each dollar's value being backed up by a fixed amount of work performed by the several thousand golems acquired by the city in ''Making Money''. Much like the original myths, it became necessary to seal away the golems out of fear they would completely destroy the economy}}.

* [[China Mieville]]'s novel ''[[Iron Council]]'' from the [[Bas-Lag Cycle]] explores a magical discipline called "golemcrafting", wherein magicians channel power into anything that isn't living. Most of the Golems created are fairly standard (blade, flesh, metal, clay, wood), However the main character of Iron Council creates increasingly more fantastic golems some of the more memorable ones being: poison, light, dark, and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|TIME]].

* In Book Two of ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'', the Golem is a tool controlled by the book's [[Big Bad]], {{spoiler|Henry Duvall}}. In this book series, the Golem manifests as a 10-foot tall man of clay, immensely strong, anathema to normal magic, wraps itself in a shroud of living darkness and freezing cold, is remotely controlled through a clay eye embedded in its forehead (making it really a giant war automaton), and can only be stopped by removing the scroll, placed in the Golem's mouth, that holds the spell that turned a quarry corner into a clay man. Nasty.

* ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series has the ''gholam'', essentially vampiric [[Terminator|T-1000s]] with [[Anti-Magic|invulnerability to magic]] and [[Nigh Invulnerable|pretty much everything else]]. [[Oh Crap|Yeah]]. They unnerved the ''Dark Side'' so much that only six were ever made, and only one is known to still exist in the present day.

* A golem is mentioned in passing as part of an army of gods and mythical beings in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[American Gods]]''. It's an original Jewish type golem, and is accompanied by a man implied to be Rabbi Loew.

** Before he came to America Kavalier helped his rabbi steal & secret away the genuine Golem of Prague (which is in storage in a big box), so it wouldn't be destroyed by the Nazis.

* [[Magnus]] recalls once battling a golem that was the basis for the Frankenstein legend.

* [[Harry Turtledove]] wrote a short story about a traditional Golem which saves a Jewish family from the Holocaust during [[World War Two]]. He/it is "killed" when a Nazi bullet strikes the first letter of the word carved on his forehead and erases it, changing it from 'emet' to 'met'.

* The late David Wisniewski authored a children's book, simply titled ''Golem,'' which [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|tells the story of the creation of the Golem.]] Although the story is fairly straightforward, the book is especially notable for its stunning use of cut-paper illustrations; an excellent example can be found [http://gettierarts.com/images/golem.gif here.]{{Dead link}}

* Marge Piercy's ''He, She, and It'' has a cyberpunk update to the tale. A free Jewish enclave builds a [[Ridiculously Human Robot]] to help their small settlement defend itself against a [[Mega Corp]]. The protagonist is a freshly-divorced programmer sent to teach it human mannerisms. The novel itself cuts between the tale of Prague golem of the 16th century and the [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] version programmed by the threatened enclave.

* In Neil Asher's Polity books, "Golem" is the official designation of the setting's combat androids.

* In ''[[The Clown Service]]'' by Guy Adams, golems are made with the true name of God and authentic Jewish prayers and immediately after having been brought to life invariably go berserk.

 

* Used as an analogy in ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' where Sarah mentions the golem twice. The first time describes only the version of the story where it turns on its creator, as voice over for a scene where an evil Terminator is getting facial reconstruction. The second is at the end of the episode, describing other versions of the story and comparing the creator and golem to a parent and child (her and John).

** Similarly, the Putty Patrol in ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]''. Both are actually good examples of Golems, as they're made from clay to none-too-brightly go about the makers' bidding (but then, the same goes for the [[Monster of the Week]]). Also, in Boukenger, Gaja's [[Mooks]] are stone, created from small stones that grow when thrown, and often compared to the Golems / Putties. ([[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'s Chillers are ice-based but there's little difference beyond that.)

** An actual Jewish-style golem appears as a [[Monster of the Week]] in ''[[Go Go Sentai Boukenger]]''. It's even defeated in the traditional way, by destroying the first letter on its forehead. Weirdly, the Miniskirt Santa that brought the golem apparently meant for it to be a Christmas present.

 

== Oral Tradition ==

* In the tales of Rabbi Loew's golem, the creature has additional powers, namely invisibility (when given a special amulet) and the ability to heat up its body. Like the rule about a golem being unable to speak due to it not having a soul, these powers are often not used in adaptations.

* In a story retold by [[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|Jakob Grimm]], a Jewish man creates a servant golem but neglects to deactivate him before he grows too big and potentially dangerous. Finally the man tells the golem to take off its boots. As it bends over to do so, the man erases the first letter of ''emet'' from its forehead, changing the word from "emet" to "met" which means dead in Hebrew, whereupon the now-shapeless clay falls over, crushing him to death.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'' has the Tammuz, nicknamed the Golems, who are based heavily on the stories of the golem. They're brought to life in the dirt, usually bear the word of life somewhere on their body, and were originally created for purposes of servitude.

** While the Tammuz are literally referred to as Golems, it's important to remember that basically all of the characters are a type of golem.

** [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] had the Ushabti, living statues carved into the likeness of the gods the Tomb Kings used to worship.

*** Anything within the Tomb King's army labeled as a "construct" falls into this. While it's implied they did use the bones of long-dead creatures, they're still largely constructed out of wood and stone. The Sphinxes are the extremes, impossibly tall animated statues, some of which are capable ''of flying on stone wings''.

* In addition to the golems listed in the description, ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' had golem-like monsters such as the Stone Guardian and the Caryatid Column.

** Also the half-golem template, which is a fantasy version of [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]].

** The old Basic/Expert/etc rules had even more of these than AD&D, with "living statues" as low-level golem equivalents, and juggernauts or iron gargoyles for when regular golems just aren't a challenge anymore.

** As of 4th Edition, they also exist in Forgotten Realms as an enemy/NPC/possible player species.

* The urban fantasy game ''Underworld'' has Junkmen as golem PCs too, along with little bitty mini-golems that look like ambulatory soda cans.

 

== Video Games ==

* All over the place in the ''[[Castlevania]]'' series. They run the gamut from your typical clay giant to an animated pile of rocks. In ''Judgment'', a golem winds up with a soul for unexplained reasons and goes on a quest of self-identity.

** It's actually handwaved at the beginning of his story as the time rift's doing, and even plays a major plot point at the end.

* Ohtsuchi, the [[Dishing Out Dirt|Arcana of Earth]] in ''[[Arcana Heart]]'', is a massive clay golem that [[Miko|Maori's]] family has been praying to for generations.

* The ''[[Disgaea]]'' series has the Wood Golem monster class in every game after the first (Which had ones of the clay variety). They're the sentient, speaking sort of golem, and generally the most durable out of all the monsters, boasting high HP and defense on top of the ability to [[Healing Factor|regenerate health]] after each turn.

* The ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' series features monsters named Golem (made of bricks) and [[Gold Golem]] [[Captain Obvious|(made of gold)]].

* Stone Man in ''[[Mega Man 5]]'' is essentially a robot golem made of rocks, a core, and eyes. Earlier games had the Junk Golem enemy, and ''[[Mega Man 7]]'' had Junk Man. The various Devils were golems made of shapeshifting blocks or green goo.

* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption]]'' features a rampaging golem in the Jewish quarter of old Prague.

** Many ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games have golems as minor enemies, or summons.

* Golems were the dwarves' ultimate weapon in the backstory of ''[[Dragon Age]]''. However, the knowledge of how to make them was lost forever during the First Blight. The [[Player Character]] can gain one, Shale, as a party member, and later in the game can learn the truth about the lost art of creating them: {{spoiler|they're made from living dwarves.}}

** Just don't ask what's in his little sack.

* In the third game of the ''Exile'' series, the golems are a major plague destroying the plant's surface. All of them appear to be made of metal and gemstones, but they have different associated elements including fire, ice, and acid.

* In the ''[[Fall From Heaven]] II'' mod for ''[[Civilization IV]]'', the Luchuirp is a civilization made up of surface-dwelling [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|Dwarves]] and golems. The problem is that the crude golems they can make now are incapable of learning (i.e. gaining XP) on their own. Barnaxus is an ancient golem from the old Khrad'Ke-zun Empire, of which only the Luchuirp remain, who can teach himself new things and then pass it on to Dwarves and other golems. Their cave-dwelling Khazad cousins don't use golems.

** The Egg Golem boss from ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'', a gigantic mecha covered with stone whose only vulnerable point (in the Hero Story) is a control device on its head. In the Dark Story, Sonic scrambles the control device and the Egg Golem turns on Dr. Eggman, who's forced to blow off its rocky armor and destroy its power cores to stop it.

* ''[[Echo Bazaar]]'' has the Clay Men. They are never ''called'' golems, but otherwise fit the description. The in-game art even shows that they have writing on their foreheads.

* In the third in ''[[The Legend of Spyro Trilogy]]'', Golems are [[Kaiju]]-sized lava monsters from below the Earth. Only one appears and it serves as Malefor's [[Dragon]] in the game. It can regenerate by absorbing rock or rubble and the only way to permently kill it is to destroy the Dark Gem acting as it's brain. {{spoiler|Spyro and Cynder shatter it's brain, sending it falling off a building.}} The Destroyer, a planet destroying [[Eldritch Abomination]] Malefor unleashes is pretty much a mountain-sized, much more frightening one.

* Astaroth in the ''[[Soul Calibur]]'' series was created after Rock the "White Giant" attacked a cult to rescue his adopted son. The cultists were so impressed by Rock's strength that they created Astaroth in his image. Astaroth eventually went rogue and tried to claim Soul Edge and kill Rock so that he could be a truly unique being instead of being just an [[Evil Knockoff]]. The remnants of the cult also created a feminine clockwork golem named Ashlotte to bring Astaroth back to them. In the time period between the fourth and fifth games, Astaroth was apparently [[Killed Off for Real]] by Maxi and Ashlotte retrieved his golem heart. The cultists, having failed to learn from their past mistakes, have created an ''entire series'' of Astaroth-like golems.

* A huge golem acts as a boss in ''[[Dark Souls]]''. The descriptions of the weapons that can be forged from its core reveal that the gods used the remains of a dead dragon to forge the golem's core.

* ''[[Minecraft]]'' has iron golems and snow golems that the player can build. A snow golem looks like a snowman with a jack-o-lantern for a head, and it distracts enemies by throwing snowballs at them. Iron golems can be found in large NPC villages, where they defend villagers from zombies at night.

 

* ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' has the Golem Girls, drunken co-eds created from clay; their backstory gradually reveals that {{spoiler|they were once human, their remains reanimated into immortal [[Artificial Human]] forms using an ancient [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|technology resembling magic]] from [[Atlantis]]. [[Physical God]] Tepoztecal was also created by this method.}}

* Gwynn from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' creates a golem out of [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=080121 all the clutter in the apartment]. She dubs the creation "Clutter Monster."

** That sounds eerily similar to ''Klutter'', a living pile of clothes and mess who featured in a segment of [[Eek! The Cat]].

* Golems are possible to create in ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'', but it takes a ''lot'' of effort and resources. Among others, we've seen a Golem of Law (Acibek, made from his creator's followers... whose first act was to expose his creator's crimes), a Leaf Golem (Leaflette, the (first) Forest Oracle), a Miscellaneous-Forest-Creature Golem (Dirk the Mighty), and a Flesh Golem (Quilt).

* In ''[[Impure Blood]]'', some of the forces attacking them were machinery, but the smaller ones? [https://web.archive.org/web/20130801221347/http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Issue4PAGES/ib078.html Just dirt].

 

== Web Original ==

* In the world of ''[[Tales of MU]]'', golems are created as living tools who must obey orders. Their level of sentience varies; some have more developed personalities than others. They can be "emancipated" by ordering them to consider themselves free beings. The character Two is one such golem, with a rather uniquely constructed personality.

** And Eldritch is a former member of the academy's weapon range crew turned into something called an 'artificer', essentially a (still largely human-looking) golem with the potential to become the perfect magic-item crafting slave for whoever manages to get the proper tattoos on her body. As of this writing, she's still trying to figure out how to do the job herself and thereby retain her independence, which would apparently make her the first artificer to ever do so.

*** Eldritch managed to do it sometime during Christmas Break. However, [[Noodle Incident|how she did it]] [[Anachronic Order|is currently a mystery]].

* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' one of the "superheroes" on the state-sponsored Israeli national hero team is a golem that seems to have stepped right out of the Rabbi Loew legend. Whether this is the actual Golem of Prague, or a new creation using the same process, is a carefully-guarded state secret.

** Mister Magic, a Jewish super-sorcerer who gets his powers from Kaballah, has occasinally employed golems in his fight against supervillains.

 

== Western Animation ==

{{quote|'''Lance Falk''': "Actually, 'Rock of Rages' with the Golem, was an attempt to sort of tweak the nose of Hard Rock. I wanted to show how downright frightening a seven-foot tall rock creature is. A terrifying supernatural force, not a puppy dog."}}

* ''[[Batman Beyond]]'': "Golem": A geeky high school student gets mental control of a giant construction robot through [[Lightning Can Do Anything|Lightning]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]

[[Category:A Nice Jewish Index]]