Episode 7 | Ghoulish Gargoyles

Episode Transcript

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Strange Origins.

For a few months, I've been very excited to do this episode for one single reason. Gargoyles are the one topic my mom wanted to know about when I first mentioned to her that was making this podcast. When she mentioned it, I thought “well the architectural history of gargoyles is pretty easy to explain. But they don’t really have a lot of stories about them concerning modern sightings.”

But I was curious, And after a bit of research, I realized that they have a little more of a foot in reality than I previously thought they did. I went on a high school trip to Paris when I was a senior, and one of the most interesting things I remember was all the creepy gargoyles, staring down at everyone. The closest thing we had to anything like that was a large buffalo that stands on the roof of a building at the only stoplight in Driggs, Idaho. And he looks like a relatively friendly animal when you compare him to Gargoyles. 

What I didn't realize when I went to Europe was that the version we see now isn't the original version of a gargoyle. In fact, the first known gargoyle was made 13,000 years ago in Turkey and was in the shape of a Crocodile. Though it is known that Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used them, they are most famous for their appearance in Europe on cathedrals, and as taking the shape of winged, horned, dog-like creatures. 

Some of you even may be well acquainted with the creatures from the comic books or Disney cartoon that aired in the 1990s titled Gargoyles. For me, though, my first experience with the creatures as a kid was while watching the animated Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. They weirded me out a bit, but I remember them as nice guys. They weren’t as terrifying as they were when I first saw them on the outsides of a few famous buildings in Paris. They seemed to be always watching your every move, either gaurding something or stalking their prey. 

So what purpose does a gargoyle serve exactly? Are they meant to scare away birds or to remind people to go to church and repent of their sins? Based on my research, they have multiple purposes.  

The Architecture of a Gargoyle

The word Gargoyle comes from the French Gargoilles, which means throat. Kind of like when you gargle mouthwash? This is due to the fact that Gargoyles were originally carved out of stone and placed on the exteriors of large buildings in order to act as spouts, diverting water away from the mason work that could easily erode away from rushing water. If you’ve ever seen the backside of a gargoyle, you’ve seen that they have a trough on their back, which leads to the spout that comes out of the gargoyle’s mouth.

This leads me to a fact that many people may not know. There are two versions of the stone creatures that sit on the exterior of buildings. A Gargoyle is just the version that has a water spout. But there is also a non-functioning version, which is referred to as Grotesque, which means repulsively ugly or distorted. This one serves many purposes, which I will get into later in the episode. Beyond those, if a gargoyle is in the shape of two different types of animals like a dog with a humans face, it’s referred to as a Chimera. In Greek mythology, a Chimera was a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. I can’t even imagine what that would look like. 

While the most obvious reason for a gargoyles invention is that they serve an architectural function, mainly diverting water away from the building, they also served as a visual story to the parishioners of the churches they were affixed to. Before the printing press was invented in 1440, and even for a few centuries after that, if you weren’t someone who devoted their life to reciting passages of the bible, reading was a rich man’s hobby. You would most likely have been born a peasant, and in order to survive, you would have had to work around the clock, most likely as a farmer, in order to feed your family. So instead of using words to relay a religious story, the next best option was visual storytelling. 

The Origin of Modern Gargoyles

So where did the idea for Gargoyles and Grotesques come from? And should we be scared of modern versions of the thing? 

As I stated before, due to the fact that a majority of churchgoers in the Medieval Age were illiterate, meaning they weren’t able to read, a great way to teach commoners was through the use of visual representation. 

A great example of how churches could be extremely detailed in their iconographies can be found on the undersides of chairs. Strange wood carvings, referred to as Misericords, can be found on the bottoms of monks’ seats in certain Christian churches to this day. They were designed so that the men sitting in them could easily stand up, and when the seat was folded upward, the carvings would show. Misericord, which means pity of the heart, was created due to the fact that some monks couldn’t stand and would need to take the weight off every now and then, so they would use a shelf under the chair as a way to lessen the burden.

The strange thing about Misericords, though is that the vast majority of them, which were created in the 14th and 15th centuries, would often depict pagan stories, folk tales, or even domestic events. It’s so strange because these stories would be in direct contradiction with the religious iconography that surrounded them. While no one has yet found an exact reason for the existance of Pagan Misericords in Christain churches, I can relay to you a few historically logical reasons for the existance of Gargoyles and Grotesques. 

Detailed religious and historical stories were recorded through the use of stained glass windows, such as in Kings College Chapel, and wall paintings, such as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Stonemasonry was also a popular form of storytelling, especially in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. Pretty much every area of its interior is carved so as to tell a story. Some of my favorite carvings include Lucifer hanging upside down, tied up with a rope, a line of people, each holding onto a skeleton that is referred to as “The Dance of Death,” and an angel playing the bagpipes. There are a few mysteries inside the church that I might dive into in later episodes, though, concerning secret codes and symbols. If you’re interested in that, be sure to look up the Musical Cubes of Rosslyn Chapel. 

So why put the most terrying examples of stonemasonry on the outsides of churches, where the public was sure to judge the church based on first appearances? It seems counterproductive to put scary creatures on the outsides of buildings that were supposed to be a sanctuary for the public

Well, there are several theories as to why. One states that the exterior gargoyles on cathedrals served in telling parishioners of what would await them in Hell if they failed to attend church every week and repent of their wrongdoings. Another states that gargoyles were modeled after pagan creatures in an attempt to bring Pagan worshippers into the Christain flock, seeing as they were much more used to Chimera-like creatures that are popular in Greek mythology than of any Christain imagery. Another theory is that gargoyles are meant to be protectors of the cathedrals that they are a part of, and were created as a way to ward off evil spirits. Honestly, I could see all of these theories being true at the same time. 

Another fact that many may not realize is that Gargoyles can be found in all shapes and sizes, not just dragon-like creatures. In fact, the ones situated out in the front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the ones everyone goes to as an example of what a classic gargoyle looks like, are actually a more modern version of the original Medieval gargoyle. Since water runs through them at a high volume, Gargoyles often need to be replaced, as they crumble if not made of the right material. The original gargoyles were positioned in the 1160s but had to be replaced after about 200 years. In the mid-1300s, the gothic aesthetic was in style, so they created gargoyles that were suited to that era. 

Romanus of Rouen

But where exactly did the dragon-like shape originate? According to French Folklore, it all has to do with Romanus of Rouen, the Christain saint. His story has mostly been commemorated through the stained glass windows of the south gate of Rouen Cathedral, which was created in the mid-1500s. His life was supposedly a very miraculous one, his own birth being announced to his parents by an angel after they lamented not being able to conceive. After going to court to perform duties in exchange for a small amount of education, Romanus met other famous saints and rose to an episcopal seat of power. 

While the chronology is not very well recorded, it’s said that Romanus performed many saintly miracles, including the destruction of a Pagan temple, the warding off of a devasting flood, and at one point even entered a state of ecstasy where his body floated off the ground during Mass and announced the date of his own death. But the story he is most famous for is the one concerning a Gargouille in Paris. 

Recorded for the first time in 1394, it was said that a serpent-like creature referred to as a Gargouille, preyed on people around the Seine, the river that runs through Paris. When Romanus heard of this creature he decided to hunt it down, even though the only person he could find to help him out was a man who was condemned to death and therefore didn’t have much to lose. When they arrived at the Seine, he drew the sign of the cross on the beast, and it became docile and allowed Romanus to put a leash on it. Some say that they drowned the creature in the river, and others say that Romanus led it to the front of the city cathedral to be burned to death.

Victor Hugo & Notre Dame

In the 1800s, Paris wasn’t too big of a fan of the cathedral. It was crumbling, and the people were tired of the Medieval, Gothic style, instead of leaning towards Baroque architecture. That’s when famous writer Victor Hugo stepped in. Thankfully, Victor was a preservationist and sought to help save the cathedral. In 1833 he wrote the book The Hunchback of Notre Dame and when the book became a success, the King had called for the renovation of the cathedral by 1834. It was a twenty-five-year restoration and one of the restorers, Eugene Emmanual Voillet Le Duc, even added in a carving of himself as one of the gargoyles, along with a variety of new creatures that would be featured in the Gallery of Chimeras. While I’m not sure of what is left after the 2019 fire, this gallery could be found at the top of a 387 step journey up two spiral staircases. 

Modern Sightings

One last question I wanted to answer in this episode is: If these creatures are simply just stone, captured and tamed by Saint Romanus, why have there been modern reports of them springing to life? While it's not a common occurrence, and only happens in a few select places decades apart, there have been reports of gargoyle-like creatures stalking their prey at night, haunting random people, and generally just making the public afraid. Which sounds a lot like the original purpose of gargoyles in the first place, doesn’t it?

The most logical reason these stories have been told may be due to the fact that the public has had a bit of a fascination with gargoyles. And when people don't know how to describe something they've never seen before, they will often describe it as looking like something that everyone has seen before. This in part could be due to Hollywood’s interest in Gargoyles. In 1932 the movie Maker of Gargoyles was released. It was a relatively scary film for the 1930s, as it depicted two gargoyles who came to life to ransack a town and later kill their creator.

The fascination was reborn again in 1972 when they were shown as a race of demons made by the Devil to torture humans in a film, which was aptly titled Gargoyles. In fantasy and horror stories, gargoyles can be brought to life by carving them out of magic stone. And in other stories, they are imbued with the hate or lust of their creators, causing them to kill for no reason. 

After a bit of digging into the history of gargoyles, I found that the creepiest thing about them isn’t their origin, but in what terror they’ve been causing in the modern age. I know that with my experiences at least, you don’t often hear of Gargoyles unless you’re traveling across Europe and visiting every old castle or cathedral you can find. But for some strange reason, stories of sightings of these creatures kept popping up in the United States in the late 20th century, in places far from the birthplace or culture that inspired the winged creatures. 

In Texas, there was a strange amount of news reports in the 1970s of large winged creatures that were seen flying through the night sky. There also were strange reports of monsters described as dogs with wings who would tap at windows and fly onto the roofs of houses. One of the most interesting stories I found, though, was of a creature referred to as the NASA Gargoyle. And it’s not what you think, this gargoyle didn’t board a spacecraft, (though that would be pretty interesting.)

According to the stories I could find about this experience, it was 1986 when a NASA employee left work at the Huston Texas Johnson Space Center. When he was walking towards his car when he saw a creature that looked like a gargoyle perched on the side of one of the buildings, just looking at him. He described it to be jet black and looked as though it had a cape draped around its shoulders, which honestly, sounds more like Batman than a gargoyle to me. When the creature took flight, making a lot of noise as it did so, the man ran to his car and raced home. According to this man’s daughter, who told this story in 2004, talk of this man’s experience found it’s way to the top of NASA’s chain of command. After that, men from Arizona were flown in to inform the man that it would be in his best interest if he never spoke of the incident again. 

While this story sounds more like an episode of Stranger Things than an actual experience to me, I’ll leave it up to you to believe what you will. But I will say that with Gargoyles, I believe it’s easy to take that name and apply it to any strange, winged creature that scares people. They were, in part, made to be frightening in the first place, so I’m not sure that I believe that real, flesh and blood gargoyles are a thing. But I do think that the carved creatures that terrorize churchgoers had to have been based on something from real life. It seems strange to think that they are completely fictitious creatures. 

It seems weird that the original gargoyles, the ones that were featured on the Temple of Zeus and took the form of lions, could transform from something that is based in reality to something so out of left-field. 

All I know for a fact is that gargoyles are really, really cool. If you want to see more interesting versions of gargoyles, be sure to check out the squat, dwarf-looking man who sticks his tongue out on the exterior of the St. Vitus Cathedral, in Prague. Or look up one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen, which is The Il Baccalone. He is situated on the Santa Maria Del Fiore, Cathedral in Florence, which I will feature on my Instagram page.

Or, if you’re not into anything too spooky, look up the Darth Vader Grotesque, which is prominently featured on the Washington National Cathedral, or the Astronaut Grotesque, which is carved into New Cathedral, in Salamanca, Spain. Or if you’re not that into old stuff, you can always visit the modern, stainless steel gargoyles of the 20th century, which are featured on the Chrysler Building in New York City. 

Outro

Now as I come to the end of this episode I want to thank anyone that took the time to listen, and also to thank my sponsor, Anchor.fm, for allowing me to get this podcast out for you all to hear. For anyone that has a story they would like to share, I would absolutely love to be able to hear from you, wherever you are, or whoever you are. It would be great to know what about this week’s topic interested you, if you have your own experiences with it, or if you have suggestions as to what would make this podcast better. I would also love to be able to read your stories aloud on the podcast so that listeners know that they aren’t alone in their experiences. 

I am working on building an Instagram page for Strange Origins, so if you like what you hear, or you like spooky memes, go give me a follow! Also, if you would like to support this podcast and help it to grow into something bigger please visit my Patreon page, which is listed in the description of this episode, and where I offer great gifts to those supporting my dream job.

And as always guys, remember to Keep it Strange.