WEBVTT - The Monstrefact Redux: He Who Walks Behind the Rows

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the

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<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

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<v Speaker 2>Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

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<v Speaker 2>In March of nineteen seventy seven, Penthouse Magazine published a

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<v Speaker 2>short story by Stephen King called Children of the Corn,

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<v Speaker 2>alongside a pro Nixon watergate piece and photos of Polish

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<v Speaker 2>model Jolanta von Zamuda. It was a nasty and highly

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<v Speaker 2>effective little short story about a troubled couple on a

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<v Speaker 2>road trip across America's heartland, right into the corn choked

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<v Speaker 2>expanses of Nebraska and the clutches of a strange youth

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<v Speaker 2>cult that venerated a being known only as He who

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<v Speaker 2>Walks behind the Rose, represented in crude local folk art

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<v Speaker 2>as a kind of page in Green Haired Christ. King

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<v Speaker 2>writes of it as quote a strange green god, a

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<v Speaker 2>god of corn, grown old and strange and hungry, and

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<v Speaker 2>later on he describes it as a large shadow with

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<v Speaker 2>great red eyes, moving behind roe upon row of perfect corn.

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<v Speaker 2>The being in question here may have connections to the

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<v Speaker 2>titular entity from it, as well as other beings in

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<v Speaker 2>the Stephen King universe and in the two thousand and

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<v Speaker 2>six Malius Mastrorum monster book from the RPG Call of Cthulhu.

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<v Speaker 2>He who walks behind the Rose is identified as an

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<v Speaker 2>avatar of the god shub Nigoruth and described as a

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<v Speaker 2>kind of twisted fertility and vegetation deity. Children of the

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<v Speaker 2>Corn is a tale full of monocrop anxiety and religious horror,

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<v Speaker 2>and while the deity worshiped by the murderous children in

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<v Speaker 2>the story is purely fictitious, it does tie into several

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<v Speaker 2>different legacies of corn crops and associated deities. For starters,

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<v Speaker 2>we should remind ourselves that corn mayze was long a

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<v Speaker 2>sacred crop of indigenous Americans, and multiple meso American maze

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<v Speaker 2>gods loom large, including the Aztec god Zinteatu and the

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<v Speaker 2>goddess Chico mi Kuar. The rights concerning these deities, like

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<v Speaker 2>the rights concerning harvest deities around the world, could certainly

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<v Speaker 2>involve bloodshed and sacrifice, but I think a better match

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<v Speaker 2>for what we're dealing with in Stephen King's short story

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<v Speaker 2>here can be found in European folklore. I turned to

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<v Speaker 2>Brad Steiger's were Wolf book from nineteen ninety nine and

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<v Speaker 2>was instantly captivated by an entry for the corn Wolf. Yes,

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<v Speaker 2>that's spelled with a K like the New Metal Band,

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<v Speaker 2>and the corn in question is not Mays but wheat.

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<v Speaker 2>As we've discussed on stuff to blow your mind before.

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<v Speaker 2>Mays only entered into European usage after first contact with

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<v Speaker 2>the indigenous people of the Americas, and the new to

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<v Speaker 2>Europeans crop came to be known as corn in some

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<v Speaker 2>English speaking countries, but the word corn predated this contact

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<v Speaker 2>and referred to different grains and cereal grasses. German folklore

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<v Speaker 2>in particular features various accounts of feldgeister or field spirits,

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<v Speaker 2>also known as corn de Momnen. There's also the Hofferman

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<v Speaker 2>or oat man, as well as the Ragenwulf and indeed

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<v Speaker 2>the corn Kinder. There are many such corn spirits, typically

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<v Speaker 2>malicious in nature and prone to disappearing people, especially children.

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<v Speaker 2>According to Steiger, one such spirit is the corn wolf,

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<v Speaker 2>a supernatural lupine predator said to haunt the fields and

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<v Speaker 2>prey on the weak or unaware. The tale it would

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<v Speaker 2>seem served as a kind of boogeyman to alert children

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<v Speaker 2>to the risks of actual wolves. Amid the crops drawn

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<v Speaker 2>in by hares and small game, and the unbalanced eCos

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<v Speaker 2>of a farm, as well as referring to human outlaws

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<v Speaker 2>and miscreants potentially hiding from capture amid the cover of

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<v Speaker 2>pre harvest fields, a place where you could hide and

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<v Speaker 2>potentially sustain yourself on the ripening crops. Steiger goes on

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<v Speaker 2>to mention various rural European rights in which the corpse

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<v Speaker 2>of the corn wolf or related entities is symbolically burned

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<v Speaker 2>each year. Now I should mention that steiggerb cites a

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<v Speaker 2>particular book for this entry, Robert Eisler's Man into Wolf,

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<v Speaker 2>An Anthropological Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism, and Lacanthropy from nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>forty eight. It's a rather interesting volume. It's not purely

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<v Speaker 2>history or folklore, but rather a union anthropological work arguing

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<v Speaker 2>that the union archetype of the werewolf connects with a

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<v Speaker 2>primal evolutionary split that saw humans develop into opposing groups

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<v Speaker 2>of peaceful and violent individuals. Ultimately proposing his own version

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<v Speaker 2>of to borrow, a term used by Terence McKenna, archaic

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<v Speaker 2>revival a return to primordial ways of human behavior in

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<v Speaker 2>an attempt to prevent our own continual self destruction. Indeed,

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<v Speaker 2>Eisler does discuss the corn wolf, rye wolf, bean wolf,

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<v Speaker 2>and pee wolf and related entities as imaginative creatures, archetypes

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<v Speaker 2>of quote, the disguised outlaw and wear wolf, hiding and

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<v Speaker 2>feeding in the ripe cornfield, dream analysis, and jungion theory. Aside,

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<v Speaker 2>the traditions presented here are fascinating and do match up

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<v Speaker 2>with what I've read elsewhere, such as M. James Fraser's

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<v Speaker 2>section of the Golden Bough on the corn spirit as

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<v Speaker 2>a wolf or dog, as well as more contemporary writings

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<v Speaker 2>in folklore and belief. You might also remember our past

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<v Speaker 2>stuff to blow your mind episodes on beans, in which

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<v Speaker 2>we discuss the very old traditions of supernatural danger associated

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<v Speaker 2>both with legomes as something you might eat and also

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<v Speaker 2>as haunted fields of legomes where you might dare to venture.

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<v Speaker 2>And all of this brings us back once more to

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<v Speaker 2>Stephen King in Children of the Corn. He does a

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<v Speaker 2>fantastic job of conveying the uncanny nature of the monocrop field.

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<v Speaker 2>It sits both with the main character, Burt and the reader,

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<v Speaker 2>as a sinister perversion of the natural order within the

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<v Speaker 2>depths of the corn dangerously close to the presence of

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<v Speaker 2>he who walks behind the rose. Burt encounters corns so perfect,

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<v Speaker 2>so flawless, that neither weed nor insect encroaches upon it.

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<v Speaker 2>As such, the green harvest god of the story stands

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<v Speaker 2>as a fitting deity for modern industrialized agriculture, brutal, unflinching,

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<v Speaker 2>and alien to natural balance. Tune in for additional episodes

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<v Speaker 2>of The Monster Fact each week. As always, you can

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<v Speaker 2>email us at contact it's stuff to Blow your Mind

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<v Speaker 2>dot com.

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