1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:06,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:13,399 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lammon. This is the Monster Fact, 3 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:15,680 Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 4 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:24,520 Speaker 2: focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters. In time, the 5 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:28,319 Speaker 2: ogre has come up in different contexts, recently here in 6 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:31,400 Speaker 2: the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. So I 7 00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 2: thought I'd devote an episode to an overview, brief overview 8 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:37,720 Speaker 2: of just what we mean when we talk about ogres. 9 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,360 Speaker 2: You may know them best as a distinct fantasy species 10 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:48,479 Speaker 2: in Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, or perhaps Shrek. The fantasy 11 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:52,560 Speaker 2: tradition leans on the ogre's place in English language fairy 12 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 2: folk tales, as folklorist Carol Rose discusses in her excellent 13 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:02,000 Speaker 2: book Giants, Monsters and Dragons. The word entered into this 14 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,960 Speaker 2: English usage either via the translated work of two seventeenth 15 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:10,120 Speaker 2: century French authors or the slightly earlier work of Italian 16 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:15,440 Speaker 2: author John Bautista Bazila. Whatever the case, the word may 17 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 2: have originally derived from the Latin orcus, the flesh eating 18 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 2: underworld god who punishes oath breakers. More interesting than the 19 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 2: specific etymology, however, is the widespread concept of what an 20 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:32,960 Speaker 2: ogre is thought to be. An enormous and powerful humanoid 21 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:35,800 Speaker 2: male or female. In the case of an ogress with 22 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 2: a taste for brutality and sometimes human flesh, he is 23 00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:45,120 Speaker 2: typically dim of wits, however, and easily outmaneuvered by cunning 24 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:49,400 Speaker 2: heroes or even children, as discussed by Ian Jobbling in 25 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 2: the Psychological Foundations of the Hero Ogre story published two 26 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 2: thousand and one in Human Nature. This concept, the concept 27 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 2: of the ogre, is likely rooted in the huge human 28 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,800 Speaker 2: propensity to favor the in group and to demonize the outgroup. 29 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:09,760 Speaker 2: So the basic ogre figure is essentially an exaggeration of 30 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:13,359 Speaker 2: the threat posed by outsiders right down to their base 31 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:20,600 Speaker 2: violent intense. An intensely noble and social insider hero overcomes 32 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 2: this solitary and anti social outsider through cunning and heroism. 33 00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 2: It's a story that you find in cultures around the world, 34 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,800 Speaker 2: working as a form of threat management, reducing anxiety intensions 35 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:40,400 Speaker 2: over outsiders into a single heroically defeated threat. It also 36 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 2: serves to reinforce positive notions about the in group. We 37 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 2: work together, and we're wise, and we're cunning, and while 38 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:53,680 Speaker 2: encouraging negative savage notions about the outsider. Carol Rose also 39 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 2: points out that ogre stories often involve a certain amount 40 00:02:56,919 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 2: of black humor, and also they tend to lack a 41 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 2: mythological origin for the ogres in question, setting them apart 42 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 2: from giants, which often factor into human origin stories and mythologies. 43 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:15,000 Speaker 2: The International RNAE. Thompson Uther or ATU Index includes multiple 44 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:19,320 Speaker 2: folk tale types than entail an ogre specifically, or that 45 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:22,680 Speaker 2: sometimes feature an ogre as opposed to a full blown 46 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:26,440 Speaker 2: giant or some other threat. Within the ATU, giants and 47 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 2: ogres are largely interchangeable threats in many uses, but again, 48 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:35,840 Speaker 2: more broadly, giants suggest deeper mythological connections, such as those 49 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:40,119 Speaker 2: seen in Norse and Greek myths. So when we read 50 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 2: about an ogre in say, a paper about Chinese or 51 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:48,280 Speaker 2: indigenous North American traditions folkloric traditions, we're using an English 52 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 2: language word to stand in for a specific in culture term. 53 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:56,120 Speaker 2: And of course, like other folkloric entities rooted in particular 54 00:03:56,200 --> 00:04:00,320 Speaker 2: social or historic circumstances, the ogre has taken on life 55 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:03,720 Speaker 2: of its own. It's become a standard fantasy world creature, 56 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 2: though one that's still hints at its likely original purpose. 57 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:11,680 Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, 58 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:14,920 Speaker 2: or Animalies Dependium each week. As always, you can email 59 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:28,279 Speaker 2: us at contact at Stuffdblow your Mind dot com. 60 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 61 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,239 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 62 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,120 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.