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Ogres In Mythology And Folklore: Puss In Boots
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Published: December 5, 2006
Most audiences in the world recognize the fictitious race of ogres. A creature of mythology, the ogre has made its way into the homes and minds of almost anyone who has access to books, movies, television or any other popular media form.
Although they have no static proportions or character traits, they tend to be giant and ugly. Ogres often change, depending on how an author or artist sees them. Some ogres may be eight feet tall with green skin, while others could be 20 with gray skin. One may be shy or timid and another fierce and aggressive. Sometimes ogres are known to have shape-changing abilities and their levels of intelligence can vary. They often are depicted to be lacking intelligence, which evens out their size and strength, allowing normal men to easily defeat them.
Northern European folklore refers to ogres as large humanoid beings; fierce and cruel, ogres are known to feed on human flesh. These monsters tend to show up a lot in both children's fairy tales as well as modern fantasy novels and movies. Ogres usually will play a smaller role in a story. They are meant to be scary monsters that hinder the protagonist, but usually do not carry the entire weight of the plot.
The first appearance of the word ogre was in Charles Perrault's Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère l'Oye, which translates in English to Tales from Times Past or Tales of Mother Goose. When Perrault created these stories, he had no idea the great effect they would have on children, or for how long these stories would be retold.
This short collection of children's stories contained titles like “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella” or “Puss in Boots.” In this children's tale, a cat wearing boots is working to help its master. One of its feats is that it outsmarts one of the shape shifting ogres of the land by convincing it to turn into a mouse. As soon as the ogre complies, the cat pounces and eats it.
Another form of the ogre is Oni, a representation that exists in Japanese fairy tales. In these stories, Oni is an evil humanoid form, often portrayed with horns on its head, half naked with animal skin around its waist, red skin or hair and drinks blood-red wine. The Oni is meant to symbolize otherness, or an outsider that must be stopped in order to keep the Japanese safe.
While most stories supply ogres as evil, human-hungry villains, the movie Shrek twists the legendary monster into a hero. As an amalgamated satire of more than a dozen fairy tales, Shrek was created to make kids laugh instead of shiver in fear or suspense.
The ogre is a creature that will always be recognized. It was born of children's fairy tales and has evolved into both a furious monster as well as the occasional hero. Ogres make good villains because they have few attributes compared to other mythological creatures, so it can easily be fitted for many stories.
Sources:
Charles Perrault's Mother Goose Tales. 22 August 2006. 2006. D. L. Ashliman. 4 December 2006. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault.html
Ogre Named Oni. 9 July 1997. SCILS, Rutger, The State University of New Jersey. 4 December 2006. http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/Culture/oni. html
Shrek. 2006. Yahoo! Inc. 4 December 2006. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1804383585/detailsOgre. 23 November 2006. Wikipedia. 4 December 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogre
Although they have no static proportions or character traits, they tend to be giant and ugly. Ogres often change, depending on how an author or artist sees them. Some ogres may be eight feet tall with green skin, while others could be 20 with gray skin. One may be shy or timid and another fierce and aggressive. Sometimes ogres are known to have shape-changing abilities and their levels of intelligence can vary. They often are depicted to be lacking intelligence, which evens out their size and strength, allowing normal men to easily defeat them.
Northern European folklore refers to ogres as large humanoid beings; fierce and cruel, ogres are known to feed on human flesh. These monsters tend to show up a lot in both children's fairy tales as well as modern fantasy novels and movies. Ogres usually will play a smaller role in a story. They are meant to be scary monsters that hinder the protagonist, but usually do not carry the entire weight of the plot.
The first appearance of the word ogre was in Charles Perrault's Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère l'Oye, which translates in English to Tales from Times Past or Tales of Mother Goose. When Perrault created these stories, he had no idea the great effect they would have on children, or for how long these stories would be retold.
This short collection of children's stories contained titles like “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella” or “Puss in Boots.” In this children's tale, a cat wearing boots is working to help its master. One of its feats is that it outsmarts one of the shape shifting ogres of the land by convincing it to turn into a mouse. As soon as the ogre complies, the cat pounces and eats it.
Another form of the ogre is Oni, a representation that exists in Japanese fairy tales. In these stories, Oni is an evil humanoid form, often portrayed with horns on its head, half naked with animal skin around its waist, red skin or hair and drinks blood-red wine. The Oni is meant to symbolize otherness, or an outsider that must be stopped in order to keep the Japanese safe.
While most stories supply ogres as evil, human-hungry villains, the movie Shrek twists the legendary monster into a hero. As an amalgamated satire of more than a dozen fairy tales, Shrek was created to make kids laugh instead of shiver in fear or suspense.
The ogre is a creature that will always be recognized. It was born of children's fairy tales and has evolved into both a furious monster as well as the occasional hero. Ogres make good villains because they have few attributes compared to other mythological creatures, so it can easily be fitted for many stories.
Sources:
Charles Perrault's Mother Goose Tales. 22 August 2006. 2006. D. L. Ashliman. 4 December 2006. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault.html
Ogre Named Oni. 9 July 1997. SCILS, Rutger, The State University of New Jersey. 4 December 2006. http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/Culture/oni. html
Shrek. 2006. Yahoo! Inc. 4 December 2006. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1804383585/detailsOgre. 23 November 2006. Wikipedia. 4 December 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogre
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