WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Ogres

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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 Lammon. This is the Monster Fact,

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<v Speaker 2>a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,

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<v Speaker 2>focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters. In time, the

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<v Speaker 2>ogre has come up in different contexts, recently here in

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<v Speaker 2>the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. So I

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<v Speaker 2>thought I'd devote an episode to an overview, brief overview

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<v Speaker 2>of just what we mean when we talk about ogres.

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<v Speaker 2>You may know them best as a distinct fantasy species

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<v Speaker 2>in Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, or perhaps Shrek. The fantasy

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<v Speaker 2>tradition leans on the ogre's place in English language fairy

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<v Speaker 2>folk tales, as folklorist Carol Rose discusses in her excellent

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<v Speaker 2>book Giants, Monsters and Dragons. The word entered into this

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<v Speaker 2>English usage either via the translated work of two seventeenth

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<v Speaker 2>century French authors or the slightly earlier work of Italian

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<v Speaker 2>author John Bautista Bazila. Whatever the case, the word may

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<v Speaker 2>have originally derived from the Latin orcus, the flesh eating

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<v Speaker 2>underworld god who punishes oath breakers. More interesting than the

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<v Speaker 2>specific etymology, however, is the widespread concept of what an

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<v Speaker 2>ogre is thought to be. An enormous and powerful humanoid

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<v Speaker 2>male or female. In the case of an ogress with

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<v Speaker 2>a taste for brutality and sometimes human flesh, he is

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<v Speaker 2>typically dim of wits, however, and easily outmaneuvered by cunning

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<v Speaker 2>heroes or even children, as discussed by Ian Jobbling in

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<v Speaker 2>the Psychological Foundations of the Hero Ogre story published two

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<v Speaker 2>thousand and one in Human Nature. This concept, the concept

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<v Speaker 2>of the ogre, is likely rooted in the huge human

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<v Speaker 2>propensity to favor the in group and to demonize the outgroup.

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<v Speaker 2>So the basic ogre figure is essentially an exaggeration of

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<v Speaker 2>the threat posed by outsiders right down to their base

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<v Speaker 2>violent intense. An intensely noble and social insider hero overcomes

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<v Speaker 2>this solitary and anti social outsider through cunning and heroism.

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<v Speaker 2>It's a story that you find in cultures around the world,

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<v Speaker 2>working as a form of threat management, reducing anxiety intensions

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<v Speaker 2>over outsiders into a single heroically defeated threat. It also

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<v Speaker 2>serves to reinforce positive notions about the in group. We

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<v Speaker 2>work together, and we're wise, and we're cunning, and while

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<v Speaker 2>encouraging negative savage notions about the outsider. Carol Rose also

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<v Speaker 2>points out that ogre stories often involve a certain amount

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<v Speaker 2>of black humor, and also they tend to lack a

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<v Speaker 2>mythological origin for the ogres in question, setting them apart

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<v Speaker 2>from giants, which often factor into human origin stories and mythologies.

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<v Speaker 2>The International RNAE. Thompson Uther or ATU Index includes multiple

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<v Speaker 2>folk tale types than entail an ogre specifically, or that

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<v Speaker 2>sometimes feature an ogre as opposed to a full blown

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<v Speaker 2>giant or some other threat. Within the ATU, giants and

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<v Speaker 2>ogres are largely interchangeable threats in many uses, but again,

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<v Speaker 2>more broadly, giants suggest deeper mythological connections, such as those

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<v Speaker 2>seen in Norse and Greek myths. So when we read

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<v Speaker 2>about an ogre in say, a paper about Chinese or

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<v Speaker 2>indigenous North American traditions folkloric traditions, we're using an English

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<v Speaker 2>language word to stand in for a specific in culture term.

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<v Speaker 2>And of course, like other folkloric entities rooted in particular

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<v Speaker 2>social or historic circumstances, the ogre has taken on life

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<v Speaker 2>of its own. It's become a standard fantasy world creature,

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<v Speaker 2>though one that's still hints at its likely original purpose.

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<v Speaker 2>Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact,

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<v Speaker 2>or Animalies Dependium each week. As always, you can email

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<v Speaker 2>us at contact at Stuffdblow your Mind dot com.

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