1 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:06,359 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:11,520 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the 3 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 5 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 2: In March of nineteen seventy seven, Penthouse Magazine published a 6 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:31,320 Speaker 2: short story by Stephen King called Children of the Corn, 7 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:35,400 Speaker 2: alongside a pro Nixon watergate piece and photos of Polish 8 00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 2: model Jolanta von Zamuda. It was a nasty and highly 9 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:43,280 Speaker 2: effective little short story about a troubled couple on a 10 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 2: road trip across America's heartland, right into the corn choked 11 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:50,800 Speaker 2: expanses of Nebraska and the clutches of a strange youth 12 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 2: cult that venerated a being known only as He who 13 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:58,720 Speaker 2: Walks behind the Rose, represented in crude local folk art 14 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:02,880 Speaker 2: as a kind of page in Green Haired Christ. King 15 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 2: writes of it as quote a strange green god, a 16 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 2: god of corn, grown old and strange and hungry, and 17 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 2: later on he describes it as a large shadow with 18 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:19,600 Speaker 2: great red eyes, moving behind roe upon row of perfect corn. 19 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:23,480 Speaker 2: The being in question here may have connections to the 20 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:27,000 Speaker 2: titular entity from it, as well as other beings in 21 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:30,200 Speaker 2: the Stephen King universe and in the two thousand and 22 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 2: six Malius Mastrorum monster book from the RPG Call of Cthulhu. 23 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:38,800 Speaker 2: He who walks behind the Rose is identified as an 24 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:43,560 Speaker 2: avatar of the god shub Nigoruth and described as a 25 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 2: kind of twisted fertility and vegetation deity. Children of the 26 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 2: Corn is a tale full of monocrop anxiety and religious horror, 27 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 2: and while the deity worshiped by the murderous children in 28 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 2: the story is purely fictitious, it does tie into several 29 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 2: different legacies of corn crops and associated deities. For starters, 30 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,640 Speaker 2: we should remind ourselves that corn mayze was long a 31 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:13,040 Speaker 2: sacred crop of indigenous Americans, and multiple meso American maze 32 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 2: gods loom large, including the Aztec god Zinteatu and the 33 00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 2: goddess Chico mi Kuar. The rights concerning these deities, like 34 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:26,920 Speaker 2: the rights concerning harvest deities around the world, could certainly 35 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:30,959 Speaker 2: involve bloodshed and sacrifice, but I think a better match 36 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 2: for what we're dealing with in Stephen King's short story 37 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 2: here can be found in European folklore. I turned to 38 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:42,800 Speaker 2: Brad Steiger's were Wolf book from nineteen ninety nine and 39 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 2: was instantly captivated by an entry for the corn Wolf. Yes, 40 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:49,120 Speaker 2: that's spelled with a K like the New Metal Band, 41 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 2: and the corn in question is not Mays but wheat. 42 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:55,160 Speaker 2: As we've discussed on stuff to blow your mind before. 43 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:58,800 Speaker 2: Mays only entered into European usage after first contact with 44 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:02,520 Speaker 2: the indigenous people of the Americas, and the new to 45 00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 2: Europeans crop came to be known as corn in some 46 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:10,760 Speaker 2: English speaking countries, but the word corn predated this contact 47 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:15,480 Speaker 2: and referred to different grains and cereal grasses. German folklore 48 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:20,920 Speaker 2: in particular features various accounts of feldgeister or field spirits, 49 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 2: also known as corn de Momnen. There's also the Hofferman 50 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 2: or oat man, as well as the Ragenwulf and indeed 51 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 2: the corn Kinder. There are many such corn spirits, typically 52 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:38,000 Speaker 2: malicious in nature and prone to disappearing people, especially children. 53 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 2: According to Steiger, one such spirit is the corn wolf, 54 00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 2: a supernatural lupine predator said to haunt the fields and 55 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 2: prey on the weak or unaware. The tale it would 56 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 2: seem served as a kind of boogeyman to alert children 57 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:56,800 Speaker 2: to the risks of actual wolves. Amid the crops drawn 58 00:03:56,840 --> 00:04:00,120 Speaker 2: in by hares and small game, and the unbalanced eCos 59 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:04,120 Speaker 2: of a farm, as well as referring to human outlaws 60 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:08,480 Speaker 2: and miscreants potentially hiding from capture amid the cover of 61 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:11,800 Speaker 2: pre harvest fields, a place where you could hide and 62 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:17,159 Speaker 2: potentially sustain yourself on the ripening crops. Steiger goes on 63 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:20,640 Speaker 2: to mention various rural European rights in which the corpse 64 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:24,560 Speaker 2: of the corn wolf or related entities is symbolically burned 65 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:28,240 Speaker 2: each year. Now I should mention that steiggerb cites a 66 00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 2: particular book for this entry, Robert Eisler's Man into Wolf, 67 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:38,359 Speaker 2: An Anthropological Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism, and Lacanthropy from nineteen 68 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:42,679 Speaker 2: forty eight. It's a rather interesting volume. It's not purely 69 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:48,039 Speaker 2: history or folklore, but rather a union anthropological work arguing 70 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,920 Speaker 2: that the union archetype of the werewolf connects with a 71 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,239 Speaker 2: primal evolutionary split that saw humans develop into opposing groups 72 00:04:56,279 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 2: of peaceful and violent individuals. Ultimately proposing his own version 73 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 2: of to borrow, a term used by Terence McKenna, archaic 74 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:08,080 Speaker 2: revival a return to primordial ways of human behavior in 75 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 2: an attempt to prevent our own continual self destruction. Indeed, 76 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 2: Eisler does discuss the corn wolf, rye wolf, bean wolf, 77 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:21,000 Speaker 2: and pee wolf and related entities as imaginative creatures, archetypes 78 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 2: of quote, the disguised outlaw and wear wolf, hiding and 79 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 2: feeding in the ripe cornfield, dream analysis, and jungion theory. Aside, 80 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:32,640 Speaker 2: the traditions presented here are fascinating and do match up 81 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 2: with what I've read elsewhere, such as M. James Fraser's 82 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:39,440 Speaker 2: section of the Golden Bough on the corn spirit as 83 00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 2: a wolf or dog, as well as more contemporary writings 84 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:46,000 Speaker 2: in folklore and belief. You might also remember our past 85 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:49,039 Speaker 2: stuff to blow your mind episodes on beans, in which 86 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:52,800 Speaker 2: we discuss the very old traditions of supernatural danger associated 87 00:05:52,839 --> 00:05:57,360 Speaker 2: both with legomes as something you might eat and also 88 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:02,960 Speaker 2: as haunted fields of legomes where you might dare to venture. 89 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:05,440 Speaker 2: And all of this brings us back once more to 90 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 2: Stephen King in Children of the Corn. He does a 91 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:13,520 Speaker 2: fantastic job of conveying the uncanny nature of the monocrop field. 92 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:17,040 Speaker 2: It sits both with the main character, Burt and the reader, 93 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:20,920 Speaker 2: as a sinister perversion of the natural order within the 94 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,120 Speaker 2: depths of the corn dangerously close to the presence of 95 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:28,320 Speaker 2: he who walks behind the rose. Burt encounters corns so perfect, 96 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:32,800 Speaker 2: so flawless, that neither weed nor insect encroaches upon it. 97 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:36,279 Speaker 2: As such, the green harvest god of the story stands 98 00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:42,720 Speaker 2: as a fitting deity for modern industrialized agriculture, brutal, unflinching, 99 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:47,760 Speaker 2: and alien to natural balance. Tune in for additional episodes 100 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:50,320 Speaker 2: of The Monster Fact each week. As always, you can 101 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:53,239 Speaker 2: email us at contact it's stuff to Blow your Mind 102 00:06:53,640 --> 00:07:03,359 Speaker 2: dot com. 103 00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:06,800 Speaker 1: Stuffed Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For 104 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:10,720 Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 105 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:12,600 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.