The ogre is originally an Italian and French folklore giant who eats people. A large head, bulging belly, often abundant hair, and tremendous strength bring to mind trolls and giants, and ogres have even been speculated to be hybrids of humans and trolls. However, there are various views on the appearance, intellectual gifts, and origin of ogres. The worst thing about ogres is their preference for the taste of human flesh and their ability to control magical powers.
The monster is mentioned in Chrétien de Troyes’ poem “Perceval” (1181–1190), where it is described as a “bloodthirsty pagan.” Since around 1300, the word has had its current meaning in French: “a giant of fairy tales who is depicted as eating human flesh.”
The Aarne–Thompson classification system, which lists folklore motifs, widely recognizes the plot pattern known as the “blinded ogre” (number 1137), which is prevalent worldwide. The earliest known version of this is in Homer’s Odyssey, where the hero Odysseus blinds the Cyclops Polyphemus.
Today, the ogre character also appears in many role-playing and video games as well as movies.
Origin of the word “ogre”
The origin of the word “ogre” is uncertain. It may possibly be derived from the name of the Roman mythological god of the underworld, Orcus. According to another explanation, “ogre” means Hungarian, stemming from the devastation caused by Hungarians in the Middle Ages.
The oldest known occurrence of the word in literature is in Chrétien de Troyes’ work “Perceval, the Story of the Grail” (French: Perceval ou le Conte du Graal). It mentions a prophecy that the kingdom of Loegria, which was once the land of ogres, will be defeated by a spear.
The legendary kingdom of Loegria is a variation of the names Lloegr or Lloyer, which are Bretonic and Welsh names used in the Arthurian legend for England. The name is not etymologically related to the word “ogre,” but Chrétien de Troyes juxtaposes the words, exploiting their mutual rhyming. The poem likely contains a reference to two earlier literary works: Bishop Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “Historia Regum Britanniae” and the Norman poet Wace’s “Roman de Brut.” The latter presents, in Anglo-Norman, the mythical history of England, stating that before the arrival of Brutus, the Trojan ancestor of the Britons, the land was inhabited by giants. However, Armel Diverres has pointed out that Wace used the term “gaians” (“giants”) to refer to the inhabitants of this ancient kingdom, never the word “ogre.”
In French, the word became more widely known through Charles Perrault’s fairy tale collection “Tales of Mother Goose,” published in 1697. The author himself defined the word in a note related to one of the tales as follows: “A wild man who eats little children.” The following year, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy used the word in her poem “The Orange Tree and the Bee.”
The corresponding term in Italian is “orco.” The earliest known occurrence of the word in literature is in Jacomo Tolomei’s work “orco… mangia li garzone” (“ogre… who eats the boy”) from 1290. In Ludovico Ariosto’s epic “Orlando Furioso” (1516), in the 17th song, the “orco” is depicted as a predatory and blind monster, possibly influenced by the story of Polyphemus the Cyclops from the Odyssey.
The word “orco” also appears in the name of an Etruscan ancient tomb in the Montterossi necropolis. Giambattista Basile (1575–1632) used the Neapolitan form of the word, “uerco,” in his work “Pentamerone” (in tale no. I-1).
Ogres in folklore, fairy tales, and mythology
Ogres are described as beastly, coarse, and often dim-witted giants. In Breton folklore, ogres are considered builders of megaliths and dolmens, but the character became more widely known through Charles Perrault’s fairy tale collection “Tales of Mother Goose”:
- One of the most famous ogres appears in the tale “Tom Thumb” (French: Le Petit Poucet).
- Perrault also used the word “ogre” for the character in “Puss in Boots” (French: Le chat botté), although there is no direct reference in the tale to the character eating humans. This giant, like the Greek mythological figure Proteus, had the ability to transform into any form. Puss in Boots ate him after he transformed into a mouse.
Other ogre characters include:
- Ogres appear in Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy’s poem “The Orange Tree and the Bee” (French: l’Oranger et l’Abeille) from 1698.
- The original version of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale collection included a tale called “Der Okerlo,” which featured a couple of ogre characters (German: Okerlo). This tale was omitted from the second edition of the collection in 1819 because it too closely resembled Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy’s poem “The Orange Tree and the Bee,” of which it was a folk and simplified version.
- In Thomas Malory’s work “Le Morte d’Arthur,” there is an ogre who kidnaps the Countess of Brittany. The ogre also forces the women he kidnaps to work as cooks when roasting small children over a fire.
The inspiration for ogre characters can be traced back to Greek mythology’s Cronus or his Roman counterpart Saturn, who ate his own children. This portrayal is also seen in Francisco de Goya’s “Black Paintings.”
Female Characters
In French, the feminine form of the word “ogre” is “ogresse,” which refers to a similar female character. The Finnish equivalent of the word is “syöjätär” (literally “eater lady”).
Sleeping Beauty
Ogresse appears in Perrault’s version of the tale “Sleeping Beauty” (French: La Belle au Bois Dormant), in its lesser-known ending, which is not included in the Grimm Brothers’ version of the tale or in Disney’s animated film. In Perrault’s tale, the ogresse is the queen and the prince’s mother who wakes Sleeping Beauty from her hundred-year slumber. Initially, she seems almost normal in the story but arouses suspicion and even scares the prince, although he loves her. This is because she is “related to giants,” and rumors at court suggest that whenever she sees small children, she finds it “difficult to restrain herself from attacking them.” Therefore, it was tried for as long as possible to keep it hidden from her that her son and his new spouse, Sleeping Beauty, had had two children, a daughter named Aurora and a son named Day.
Eventually, the existence of these children is revealed to the wicked queen, their grandmother, when Aurora is 4 and Day is 3 years old. Then the suspicions prove true, as she indeed wants to eat her own grandchildren. She orders her butler to slaughter them, first Aurora and a week later, Day, and also gives instructions on how they should be prepared as food. However, the butler refuses to obey either of these cruel orders, so he takes the children to a hiding place and instead slaughters a lamb and a goat and prepares them as food for the queen. The queen believes she has eaten her grandchildren and thanks the servant, praising the delicious meals.
But later, she asks the servant to slaughter Sleeping Beauty herself. When the servant mourns her children, thinking them dead, she even agrees to it. Then the servant confesses to the wicked queen what he has done. When the queen learns she has been deceived, she becomes furious and orders a pot brought to the palace, filled with snakes and other dangerous little animals. In the absence of the prince, she plans to throw Sleeping Beauty with both her children and the servant into it. However, when the prince returns home earlier than expected, he asks in horror what is happening. The frightened queen jumps into the pot herself and meets her death. Sleeping Beauty and her children are saved.
Hansel and Gretel
In Grimm’s fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel,” after getting lost in the woods, Hansel and Gretel discover a house made of bread and gingerbread, inhabited by a woman referred to as a witch in the tale. She wanted to fatten Hansel up to eat him and use Gretel as a servant. However, in the end, Gretel pushes her into the oven, where she had lit a fire to bake Hansel. Afterward, they return home by a different route, crossing the lake on the back of a duck, and they also carry with them pearls and jewels they found in the witch’s house.
Thumbelina
In Perrault’s tale of Thumbelina, the ogre’s daughters are referred to as “petites Ogresses” (“little ogresses”) in its original version. They were not as cruel as their father yet but were on their way to becoming so, already biting other children to suck their blood.
The ogre’s wife is also referred to as an ogresse in the tale, but only because of her marriage. She had no intention of eating children; on the contrary, she tried to offer them a hiding place where her husband wouldn’t find them.
Characteristics of Ogre Characters
In Perrault’s tales, only three ogres appear—two male and one female. In all cases, they are wealthy and hold high social positions:
- The ogre in Thumbelina owns a large amount of gold and silver, which Thumbelina and her brothers eventually acquire;
- The ogre in Puss in Boots is a luxurious lord living in opulence and owning extensive land;
- The ogresse in Sleeping Beauty is a queen.
In addition to being fattened by eating people and growing into giants, they are also very wealthy, and in the first two cases, they have exceptional abilities: the ogre in Thumbelina can suddenly move from one place to another with his seven-league boots, while the ogre in Puss in Boots can change shape.
They have only one obsession: to eat fresh meat. They prefer small children the most. Unlike the wolves in fairy tales, who eat their victims raw, ogres prefer to eat meat prepared and cooked with sauce, similar to how veal or lamb is prepared for consumption.
Despite their cruelty, ogres also have good friends. In the tale of Thumbelina, he prepares to offer fresh meat to his friends as well. He is also mentioned as being a “good husband” and a father of seven daughters, whom he raised like princesses. However, he eventually loses his powers when his seven-league boots are taken away from him while he sleeps.
Although ogres are frightening due to their size, appetite, wealth, and high social status, they are also easy to trick. Thus, Puss in Boots easily persuades the ogre to transform into a mouse, while Thumbelina swaps her and her brothers’ nightcaps with the ogre’s daughters’ crowns, leading the ogre to mistakenly kill his own offspring. In Perrault’s version of Sleeping Beauty, the ogre queen mistakenly believes she has eaten her own grandchildren, although the steward had taken them to safety and offered her lamb and goat meat instead.
Symbolic Meaning
There have also been psychoanalytic interpretations of ogre characters. Drawing on Freudian theories, it has been interpreted as a nightmarish father figure, reflecting children’s worst fears, especially fear of family violence. On the other hand, the same psychologists have interpreted the character as also symbolizing a return to the mother’s womb.
Bruno Bettelheim explained in his book “The Uses of Enchantment” that the ogre represents a child’s fears at their earliest age, which Freud called the oral stage. During this stage and later, children often have an irresistible desire to put any objects into their mouths, which is perceived as destructive, so this desire must be overcome. According to him, the ogre specifically symbolizes this desire, and the victory over the ogre metaphorically represents overcoming this desire.
The character makes a great impression on young children and reflects their imagination of adults’ omnipotence and fear of becoming victims of violence. In this regard, it resembles the evil wolf often found in many fairy tales; these archetypes form a cultural figure that children, especially at the age of 3 or 4, encounter when going to sleep.
Modern Adaptations
Role-Playing Games
Gary Gygax, one of the creators of the first role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, published in 1973, noted that the word “ogre” resembles the word “orc” found in Tolkien’s works, among others. According to him, both derive from the same Latin word, Orcus. However, in his role-playing game, these are clearly distinguished as two distinct types of characters. From the first version of the game (D&D) onwards, ogres appeared as monsters, briefly described as large and frightening. In the more advanced version of the game, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D), they appear as playable characters belonging to the giant class in the first monster manual (1978), distant relatives of trolls and fools who voraciously fund their martial abilities. Later editions of the game and its expansions feature other types of ogres, especially the blue-skinned “ogre mages,” who are more intelligent and possess magical abilities.
In the tabletop game Warhammer Battle and its namesake role-playing game, ogres are depicted as imposing humanoid creatures with violent tendencies and a huge appetite. In an expansion released in 2004, they can, with the help of mercenaries who can align themselves with either human or ogre forces, form an entire army. These always-hungry giants form a people with their own ancient history, barbaric social organization, and rapacious cosmogony.
In the world of Glorantha, ogres are humans corrupted by Chaos. They live among humans, from whom they are only distinguished by their large size and slightly greater strength. They consider themselves natural predators of humans, just as Chaos preys on the world. They can even deceive gods into participating in religious ceremonies.
In Harmondess, the world of the Agone role-playing game, ogres are people born from the personification of summer. Proud and arrogant gamblers, they often choose a military or bourgeois career, engaging in harsh commercial competition in the latter case.
Video Games
- In the Warcraft game series, the ogre is humanoid but immensely large, monstrous, and occasionally two-headed. Ogres are both witches and can harness magical powers. They are grouped into clans and are sometimes allies of the Horde faction.
- In the game EverQuest, ogres include Belluaire, Berserker, Chaman, Fléau d’ombre, and Guerrier. They are born in Oggok and are even larger and more powerful than trolls. They constitute the most powerful race and are therefore particularly adept warriors.
- In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, ogres are humanoid, large but small-headed creatures that live in cold and damp places like northern regions and guard towers.
- In the game Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, the ogre represents the dark side of humanity. The character is portrayed as normal but power-hungry.
- In the Tekken game series, Ogre’s true form is True Ogre, depicted according to a well-known story among Native Americans.
- In the RuneScape game, the ogre is a large white wild man wearing a loincloth like Tarzan.
- In the OGRE Computer Game from 1986, the ogre is a monstrous robot capable of single-handedly destroying an entire army. Originally, OGRE was a board game, with the game board representing a map of a fictional area.
- In the imaginative world of the Warhammer Battle game, ogres are a race of giant-sized humanoid beings created to resist Chaos. Ogres are large and powerful, but their intellectual abilities are weak, and they have been driven to the Mountains of Tears, from where they often go on trade missions elsewhere.
- In the Cube game and its sequel Sauerbraten, ogres are somewhat small but fat characters.
- In the game Dragon Age: Origins, ogres are over three meters tall with horns the length of their arms. Ogre is one of the characters who kills King Cailan.
Cartoons
- In the television series Winx Club, an ogre appears as an enemy in the first season and as the janitor of Alfea Fairy School from the end of the same season onwards, named Knut.
- In the cartoon series Garulfo, in the fourth episode “Crystal-eyed Ogre,” an ogre is portrayed as a shy and kind-hearted character whom the princess befriends, but this cannot prevent foolish knights from killing him.
- In Hajime Isayama’s manga “Attack on Titan” (“Shingeki no Kyojin”), humanity’s enemies are giant creatures called “titans,” which can be compared to ogres. Their size can vary from three meters to several tens of meters, and their only purpose seems to be to eat humans alive, purely for pleasure rather than sustenance. With a few exceptions, they do not appear very intelligent or lively. They are naked, and their abnormal mouths are always twisted into a grin. The theme of the first part of this manga is the primitive fear of being eaten alive.
Movies
The titular character of the Shrek film series is a special case. He resembles typical ogres in appearance, but he does not have their character or habits. He lives alone in isolation in a cottage in the middle of the forest and does not eat children (although in DreamWorks’ video, he says that babies are like muffins to ogres). However, people fear him, but only because of his appearance: he resembles an ogre, leading to the belief that he is like them in every respect.
The message of the Shrek story is not to pay too much attention to appearances. This message holds value in modern society: the character is actually kind-hearted and suffers from his isolation. The princess in the series has a public and private side: she is beautiful during the day but hideously ugly at night, and her dream prince is actually vain, selfish, and unbearable. The king is in his position only through his wife’s love and kiss, as he himself is just a frog, and so on.
Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk
Ogre is also one of the characters in the story “Donjon de Naheulbeuk” written by John Lang. The others are the Ranger, Barbarian, Elf, Dwarf, Magician, Thief, Wandering Minstrel, Paladin, Gnome of the Northern Woods, and Gluby. Ogre is a large and always hungry creature with a booming speech that no one understands, and he eats everything he finds, acting solely on instinct and somewhat resembling the Barbarian. Despite his beastly appearance, the ogre occasionally demonstrates intellectual abilities and affection (especially towards the Magician) and is a good companion to the Dwarf and Barbarian. They, in turn, see the Ogre as both a comrade and a “monster” at the same time.
Other Uses of the Term
For political reasons, the word “ogre” has been used metaphorically for some historical figures. For example, Napoleon’s opponents used the term for him.
The word has also been used for certain serial killers who murdered children. For example, Michel Fourniret has been called the “Ardennes Ogre.”
