Changes: Grim Reaper (folklore)

Revision as of 18:01, 2 June 2020

The Grim Reaper, also known as "The Reaper", is one of the many personified versions of Death, the being was heavily used during the medieval period and came to symbolize death as well as a fear of the unknown. Today the Grim Reaper remains the most recognized omnineutral death-deity of all time, although the entity is not a true deity. Rather, it is a symbolic creature.

History

The concept of Death as a personified being is timeless, being as old as time itself but the grim figure of a hooded skeleton carrying a scythe was not very evident until the medieval period. During a time where morality was seen as pivotal to society and fear of the unknown was high it was perhaps unsurprising that life's greatest mystery (death) would come to be vied in the medieval mind as frightening and ever-present, the ghostly phantom of Death became known in time as the Grim Reaper and although a neutral force was as feared in the past as it is today, but today the Grim Reaper is viewed a needed being, just as death is necessary to keep humanity from overpopulation.

The Grim Reaper was seen as a collector of souls, the messenger of the dead and most important of every guide that came to all mortals. It was not the Grim Reaper's place to judge souls, nor was it the entity's role to aid or hinder mortal affairs. Put simply, the Grim Reaper's task was to appear to the dying and guide them to their final destination where they would be judged accordingly by higher powers.

Although the Grim Reaper normally comes to those already dying, it has been noted that on rare occasions the Grim Reaper has the power to kill someone, though the entity occasionally does this out of malice. Due to the Grim Reaper appearing in a vaguely human form, there are many tales in which the entity can be tricked or bribed into freeing a person (which is where the phrase "cheating death" likely came from). However, for the most part, the Grim Reaper was seen as unable to be reasoned with and an inevitable part of being human.

In Biblical terms, the Grim Reaper is one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, under the name "Death".

Danse Macabre

The "Dance Of Death" or "Danse Macabre" in French, was a medieval allegory on how death unites all people, regardless of age or social status. It was shown as a gruesome spectacle in which the Grim Reaper summons a host of dead spirits to dance along their graves: popular figures in this dance were a pope, an emperor, a king, a youngster and a laborer, chosen to remind the audience of the time that death was a truly universal concept and no man or woman was safe from its embrace, it was also used by the religious medieval people to highlight the foolishness of people who valued earthly possessions.

The "Danse Macabre" was represented on countless forms of arts first as theatre plays and poems, then numerous wall-paintings and drawings, mostly since the 15th century. In these times, the sheer number of death due to wars, famine and plagues, associated with three of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, made a strong impact on people's minds, causing many reflexion on the true value of life.

This medieval scene was also paralleled in a French superstition that stated that the Grim Reaper would rise every Halloween at a cemetery on the witching hour (midnight). Once there, the entity would play a fiddle and summon the skeletons or ghosts of all the dead to dance until the rising sun forced them to retreat back to the grave. This legend was the inspiration for a poem by Henri Casalis also known as the "Danse Macabre", which was made into a musical piece by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns in 1874. Saint-Saëns' friend Franz List later adapted it for piano alone.

The "Danse Macabre" music is now extremely famous worldwide and used in many death-themed works, being now used as a theme tune of some sort to the Grim Reaper and ghosts gatherings.

In Popular Culture

The Grim Reaper is a stock character in popular culture, appearing in countless media ranging from television and radio to comic books and novels. He is sometimes shown with an axe rather than a scythe. The Grim Reaper is also the main antagonist of the horror film series Final Destination and is he named Death instead. He is portrayed to be a malovent force with a sinister plan to end the lives of a specific group of people who have survived a disaster that one of the group members predicts via a premonition rather than being portrayed as a neutral force that takes lives when it is necessary.

Gallery

Images

Videos

Camille Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre

Navigation

Theology Legends (Demonology, Gods & Spirits)
Main: Theology Villains

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Villain Infobox
 |image = The Grim Reaper.jpg
-|size = 200
+|size = 300
-|fullname = Unknown
+|fullname = Death
-|alias = Grim Reaper<br>
+|alias = The Grim Reaper<br>
 The Reaper<br>
-Death<br>
 Skeleton<br>
 Angel of Death
 |origin = Folklore
 |occupation = Personification of death<br>
+Angel <small>(in some folkloric cases)</small>
-Angel
 |skills = Immortality<br>
 Omnipresence<br>
@@ Line 16: / Line 15: @@
 Invisibility<br>
 Invulnerability<br>
-Soul collection
+Soul absorption
 |hobby = Overseeing the bonds of life and death.
 |goals = Cause death.<br>
@@ Line 23: / Line 22: @@
 |crimes = Mass murders by proxy<br>
 Mongering<br>
+Conspiracy<br>
-Conspiration
+Grand theft animarum
 |type of villain = Deathly Force of Nature}}
-The '''Grim Reaper''', also known as "'''The Reaper'''", is one of the many personified versions of '''Death''', the being was heavily used during the medieval period and came to symbolize death as well as a fear of the unknown. Today the Grim Reaper remains the most recognized omnineutral death-deity of all time, although the entity is not a true deity - rather it is a symbolic creature.
+The '''Grim Reaper''', also known as "'''The Reaper'''", is one of the many personified versions of '''Death''', the being was heavily used during the medieval period and came to symbolize death as well as a fear of the unknown. Today the Grim Reaper remains the most recognized omnineutral death-deity of all time, although the entity is not a true deity. Rather, it is a symbolic creature.
 ==History==
+[[File:TheGrimReaper.jpg|thumb|left|200px|left|The Grim Reaper]]The concept of Death as a personified being is timeless, being as old as time itself but the grim figure of a hooded skeleton carrying a scythe was not very evident until the medieval period. During a time where morality was seen as pivotal to society and fear of the unknown was high it was perhaps unsurprising that life's greatest mystery (death) would come to be vied in the medieval mind as frightening and ever-present, the ghostly phantom of Death became known in time as the Grim Reaper and although a neutral force was as feared in the past as it is today, but today the Grim Reaper is viewed a needed being, just as death is necessary to keep humanity from overpopulation.
-[[File:TheGrimReaper.jpg|thumb|left|200px|left|The Grim Reaper]]
-The concept of Death as a personified being is timeless, being as old as time itself but the grim figure of a hooded skeleton carrying a scythe was not very evident until the medieval period - during a time where morality was seen as pivotal to society and fear of the unknown was high it was perhaps unsurprising that life's greatest mystery (death) would come to be vied in the medieval mind as frightening and ever-present: the ghostly phantom of Death became known in time as the Grim Reaper and although a neutral force was as feared in the past as it is today. But today the Grim Reaper is viewed a needed being, just as death is necessary to keep humanity from overpopulation.
-The Grim Reaper was seen as a collector of souls, the messenger of the dead and most important of every guide that came to all mortals - it was not the Grim Reaper's place to judge souls, nor was it the entity's role to aid or hinder mortal affairs: put simply the Grim Reaper's task was to appear to the dying and guide them to their final destination where they would be judged accordingly by higher powers.
+The Grim Reaper was seen as a collector of souls, the messenger of the dead and most important of every guide that came to all mortals. It was not the Grim Reaper's place to judge souls, nor was it the entity's role to aid or hinder mortal affairs. Put simply, the Grim Reaper's task was to appear to the dying and guide them to their final destination where they would be judged accordingly by higher powers.
 [[File:Grim-reaper.png|thumb|right|200px|An early modern rendition of the Grim Reaper as a skeleton with a scythe.]]
-Although the Grim Reaper normally comes to those already dying it has been noted that on rare occasions the Grim Reaper has the power to kill someone, though the entity occasionally does this out of malice - due to the Grim Reaper appearing in a vaguely human form there are many tales in which the entity can be tricked or bribed into freeing a person (which is where the phrase "cheating death" likely came from). However, for the most part, the Grim Reaper was seen as unable to be reasoned with and an inevitable part of being human.
+Although the Grim Reaper normally comes to those already dying, it has been noted that on rare occasions the Grim Reaper has the power to kill someone, though the entity occasionally does this out of malice. Due to the Grim Reaper appearing in a vaguely human form, there are many tales in which the entity can be tricked or bribed into freeing a person (which is where the phrase "cheating death" likely came from). However, for the most part, the Grim Reaper was seen as unable to be reasoned with and an inevitable part of being human.
-In Biblical terms, the Grim Reaper is one of the four [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse (religion)|Horsemen of the Apocalypse]], under the name "Death".
+In Biblical terms, the Grim Reaper is one of the four [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse (theology)|Horsemen of the Apocalypse]], under the name "Death".
 ==Danse Macabre==
-The "Dance Of Death" or "Danse Macabre" in french, was a medieval allegory on how death unites all people, regardless of age or social status - it was shown as a gruesome spectacle in which the Grim Reaper summons a host of dead spirits to dance along their graves: popular figures in this dance were a pope, an emperor, a king, a youngster and a laborer - chosen to remind the audience of the time that death was a truly universal concept and no man or woman was safe from its embrace, it was also used by the religious medieval people to highlight the foolishness of people who valued earthly possessions.
+The "Dance Of Death" or "Danse Macabre" in French, was a medieval allegory on how death unites all people, regardless of age or social status. It was shown as a gruesome spectacle in which the Grim Reaper summons a host of dead spirits to dance along their graves: popular figures in this dance were a pope, an emperor, a king, a youngster and a laborer, chosen to remind the audience of the time that death was a truly universal concept and no man or woman was safe from its embrace, it was also used by the religious medieval people to highlight the foolishness of people who valued earthly possessions.
 The "Danse Macabre" was represented on countless forms of arts first as theatre plays and poems, then numerous wall-paintings and drawings, mostly since the 15th century. In these times, the sheer number of death due to wars, famine and plagues, associated with three of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, made a strong impact on people's minds, causing many reflexion on the true value of life.
-This medieval scene was also paralleled in a French superstition that stated that the Grim Reaper would rise every Halloween at a cemetery on the witching hour (midnight) - once there the entity would play a fiddle and summon the skeletons or ghosts of all the dead to dance until the rising sun forced them to retreat back to the grave: this legend was the inspiration for a poem by Henri Casalis also known as the "Danse Macabre", which was made into a musical piece by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns in 1874. Saint-Saëns' friend Franz List later adapted it for piano alone.
+This medieval scene was also paralleled in a French superstition that stated that the Grim Reaper would rise every Halloween at a cemetery on the witching hour (midnight). Once there, the entity would play a fiddle and summon the skeletons or ghosts of all the dead to dance until the rising sun forced them to retreat back to the grave. This legend was the inspiration for a poem by Henri Casalis also known as the "Danse Macabre", which was made into a musical piece by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns in 1874. Saint-Saëns' friend Franz List later adapted it for piano alone.
 The "Danse Macabre" music is now extremely famous worldwide and used in many death-themed works, being now used as a theme tune of some sort to the Grim Reaper and ghosts gatherings.
 ==In Popular Culture==
-The Grim Reaper is a stock character in popular culture - appearing in countless media ranging from television and radio to comic books and novels. He is sometimes shown with an axe rather than a scythe. The Grim Reaper is also the main antagonist of the horror film series ''Final Destination'' and is he named [[Death (Final Destination)|Death]] instead. He is portrayed to be a malovent force with a sinister plan to end the lives of a specific group of people who have survived a disaster that one of the group members predicts via a premonition rather than being portrayed as a neutral force that takes lives when it is necessary.
+The Grim Reaper is a stock character in popular culture, appearing in countless media ranging from television and radio to comic books and novels. He is sometimes shown with an axe rather than a scythe. The Grim Reaper is also the main antagonist of the horror film series ''Final Destination'' and is he named [[Death (Final Destination)|Death]] instead. He is portrayed to be a malovent force with a sinister plan to end the lives of a specific group of people who have survived a disaster that one of the group members predicts via a premonition rather than being portrayed as a neutral force that takes lives when it is necessary.
 ==Gallery==
 ===Images===
-<gallery widths="300" bordercolor="gray" captiontextcolor="white" position="center">
+<gallery widths="300" bordercolor="gray" captiontextcolor="ghostwhite" position="center">
-GrimReaper.jpg
+GrimReaper.jpg|The Reaper
 Death the Reaper.jpg|An artwork of Death as shown on Comedy Central's ''Chocolate News'' with the question "Death, have you lost your damn mind?!".
 Angel Reaper.jpg|The Angel of Death
 heaven reaper.jpg|The Angel of Death with a green scythe.
-Cemetery-man-grim-reaper.jpg
+Cemetery-man-grim-reaper.jpg|Fear the Reaper...
+Death Supernatural.jpg|Death from the TV series ''Supernatural''.
-Grim Reaper by Zerahoc.jpg
+Grim Reaper by Zerahoc.jpg|The Grin Reaper
 Grimbillyandmandy.png|Grim from ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy''.
 Death the Grim Reaper.jpg|The Grim Reaper as he appears in ''Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey''.
-Beware of the Grim Reaper.jpg
+Beware of the Grim Reaper.jpg|Beware of the Grim Reaper...
 Grim Reaper (AHS).png|The wraith-like Grim Reaper from an American Home Shield commercial.
+TTWNN Grim Reaper.PNG|Grim Reaper from ''The Town With No Name''.
 </gallery>
 ===Videos===
-<gallery widths="300" bordercolor="gray" captiontextcolor="white" position="center">
+<gallery widths="300" bordercolor="gray" captiontextcolor="ghostwhite" position="center">
 Camille Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre|The legendary Danse Macabre.
 </gallery>
+==Navigation==
 {{Legends}}
 [[Category:Symbolic]]
@@ Line 75: / Line 77: @@
 [[Category:Collector of Souls]]
 [[Category:Stock Characters]]
-[[Category:Villains Of Folklore]]
+[[Category:Villains of Folklore]]
 [[Category:Mythology Villains]]
-[[Category:Horror Villains]]
-[[Category:Fantasy Villains]]
 [[Category:Death Gods]]
 [[Category:Harbingers]]
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 [[Category:Skeletons]]
 [[Category:Immortals]]
-[[Category:Amoral]]
 [[Category:Necessary Evil]]
 [[Category:Force of Nature]]
 [[Category:Anti-Villain]]
 [[Category:Villains by Proxy]]
-[[Category:Elderly]]
-[[Category:Movie Villains]]
 [[Category:Dark Forms]]
-[[Category:Reality-Warpers]]
 [[Category:Omniscient]]
-[[Category:Evil from the past]]
+[[Category:Evil from the Past]]
 [[Category:Honorable]]
 [[Category:Deities]]
-[[Category:Monsters]]
-[[Category:Demon]]
-[[Category:Elementals]]
 [[Category:Zombies]]
 [[Category:Theology Villains]]
 [[Category:Urban Legends]]
-[[Category:Type dependent on Version]]
+[[Category:Type Dependent on Version]]
-[[Category:Status dependent on Version]]
+[[Category:Status Dependent on Version]]
 [[Category:Lawful Neutral]]
 [[Category:Non-Action]]
@@ Line 116: / Line 109: @@
 [[Category:Nameless]]
 [[Category:Karma Houdini]]
-[[Category:Cosmic Entity]]
 [[Category:Mongers]]
 [[Category:Contradictory]]
 [[Category:Destroyer of Innocence]]
 [[Category:Dark Knights]]
+[[Category:Evil Vs. Evil]]
+[[Category:Homicidal]]
+[[Category:Titular]]
+[[Category:Related to Hero]]
+[[Category:Humanoid]]

Villains Wiki

Changes: Grim Reaper (folklore)

Revision as of 18:01, 2 June 2020

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