Skeleton (undead)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Skeleton is a type of physically manifested undead often found in fantasy, gothic and horror fiction, and mythical art. Most are human skeletons, but they can also be from any creature or race found on Earth or in the fantasy world.
[edit] Myth and folklore
- Death personified: Animated human skeletons are known to have personified death in Western culture since the Middle Ages. The Grim Reaper is often depicted as a hooded skeleton holding a scythe (and occasionally an hourglass), which has been attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger (1538). Death as one of the biblical horsemen of the Apocalypse has been depicted as a skeleton riding a horse. The Triumph of Death is a 1562 painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder depicting an army of skeletons raiding a town and slaughtering everyone.
- Day of the Dead: Figurines and images of skeletons doing routine things are common in Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration where skulls symbolize life and their familiar circumstances invite levity.
- The Boy Who Wanted the Willies is Brothers Grimm (German) fairy tale in which a boy named Hans joins a circle of dancing skeletons.
- Mekurabe are the rolling skulls with eyeballs who menaced Taira no Kiyomori in Japanese folklore.
[edit] Modern fiction
The animated skeleton featured in some Gothic fiction. Probably its most terrifying appearance was in "Thurnley Abbey" (1908) by Perceval Landon, originally published in his short story collection Raw Edges. It is reprinted in many modern anthologies, such as The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories and The Penguin Book of Horror Stories.
Undead skeletons play a more active, and less symbolic, role in modern fantasy fiction. Skeletons might be given 'life' by a more powerful undead or necromancer. When raised by another, skeletons are a mindless set of animated bones, brutal and virtually immune to a piercing attack that would only harm the flesh they lack. In many stories, legions of undead skeletons are raised as perfectly obedient and expendable foot-soldiers or guards. Unlike zombies, skeletons are rarely portrayed as self-directing or independently mobile. Since most skeletons are controlled by another source, they cannot make their own intelligent decisions, and can easily be led into ambushes, traps, or hazardous terrain. Fairly weak individually, their strength lies in numbers, like zombies. Unlike zombies skeletons are often shown using melee weapons for combat and sometimes even shields.
In old cartoons and old dark rides, a running gag personifies the old saying 'skeletons in the closet' by actual skeletons in the closet.
