Golem (disambiguation)

A golem is an artificial animated being in medieval and Jewish folklore.

Golem or The Golem may also refer to:

In literature

In music

The Golem (Gustav Meyrink novel)

The Golem is a novel written by Gustav Meyrink in 1914.

First published in serial form as Der Golem in 1913-14 in the periodical Die weissen Blätter, The Golem was published in book form in 1915 by Kurt Wolff, Leipzig. The Golem was Meyrink's first novel. It became his most popular and successful literary work, and is generally described as the most "accessible" of his full-length novels.

Plot

The novel centers on the life of Athanasius Pernath, a jeweler and art restorer who lives in the ghetto of Prague. But his story is experienced by an anonymous narrator, who, during a visionary dream, assumes Pernath's identity thirty years before. This dream was perhaps induced because he inadvertently swapped his hat with the real (old) Pernath's. While the novel is generally focused on Pernath's own musings and adventures, it also chronicles the lives, the characters, and the interactions of his friends and neighbors. The Golem, though rarely seen, is central to the novel as a representative of the ghetto's own spirit and consciousness, brought to life by the suffering and misery that its inhabitants have endured over the centuries.

The Golem: How He Came into the World

The Golem: How He Came into the World (original German title: Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam) is a 1920 silent horror film co-directed by and starring Paul Wegener. The picture was directed by Carl Boese and Wegener, written by Wegener and Henrik Galeen, and stars Wegener as the golem. The script was adapted from the 1915 novel The Golem by Gustav Meyrink. The film was the third of three films that Wegener made featuring the golem, the other two being The Golem (1915) and the short comedy The Golem and the Dancing Girl (1917), in which Wegener dons the Golem make-up in order to frighten a young lady he is infatuated with. It is a prequel to The Golem and is the best known of the series, largely because it is the only one of the three films that has not been lost. One of the early horror films, the film was sensational upon its release and has left a lasting legacy within the movie industry, alongside another early German expressionist horror film, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, also released in 1920.

Golem

In Jewish folklore, a golem (/ˈɡoʊləm/ GOH-ləm; Hebrew: גולם‎) is an animated anthropomorphic being, magically created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material (usually out of stone and clay) in Psalms and medieval writing.

The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late-16th-century rabbi of Prague. There are many tales differing on how the golem was brought to life and afterwards controlled.

History

Etymology

The word golem occurs once in the Bible in Psalm 139:16, which uses the word גלמי (galmi; my golem), meaning "my unshaped form", "raw" material, connoting the unfinished human being before God's eyes. The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person: "Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one," (שבעה דברים בגולם) (Pirkei Avot 5:6 in the Hebrew text; English translations vary). In Modern Hebrew, golem is used to mean "dumb" or "helpless". Similarly, it is often used today as a metaphor for a brainless lunk or entity who serves man under controlled conditions but is hostile to him under others. "Golem" passed into Yiddish as goylem to mean someone who is clumsy or slow.

Golem (klezmer band)

Golem is a rock-klezmer band from New York City. They mix traditional Eastern European Jewish music with original material sung in Yiddish, English, Russian, as well as Ukrainian, French, Serbian-Croatian, Romany.

Golem was created in November, 2000 by Annette Ezekiel Kogan, bandleader, vocalist and accordionist. The group describes itself as "Eastern European Jewish folk-rock". The group performs internationally: throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, as well as France, Germany, the U.K, Poland and Sweden.

Biography

Annette Ezekiel Kogan formed Golem in 2000. Before even putting the band together she contacted David Krakauer, who was then curating the weekly "Klezmer Brunch" at the downtown venue, Tonic, and asked him for a gig. Krakauer agreed, and Ezekiel Kogan put together the first lineup for Golem’s debut.

Golem recorded its first EP Golem in 2001, followed by the self-produced full-length albums Libeshmertzn (Love Hurts) (2002) and Homesick Songs (2004).

In June, 2005, Golem recreated a "mock wedding", based on an old Catskills’ tradition, at the Knitting Factory in New York. An entire Jewish wedding ceremony took place before 200 "guests", complete with rabbi, chuppah, wedding party, and bride and groom in drag. The event was featured on the front page of the NY Times Arts section.

Golem (David Wisniewski book)

Golem is a 1996 picture book written and illustrated by David Wisniewski. With illustrations made of cut-paper collages, it is Wisniewski's retelling of the Jewish folktale of the Golem, with real people, real places, and a one-page background at the end.

The story is set in year 1580 in Prague, and the Jews are being persecuted. Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the town rabbi, can think of nothing more than creating a being out of mud and bringing it to life, using the holy name of God, to protect them. Once the Golem stops the persecution, Rabbi Loew erases the letters on the Golem's head, making the Golem "sleep the dreamless sleep of clay". The ending is ambiguous, ending with the words: "But many say he could awaken. Perhaps when the desperate need for justice is united with holy purpose, Golem will come to life once more."

This retelling is one of the few retellings in which the Golem has a name—it is Joseph.

The book won the Caldecott Medal in 1997.

References

Solar deity

A solar deity (also sun god or sun goddess) is a sky deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it, usually by its perceived power and strength. Solar deities and sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms.

Overview

The Neolithic concept of a "solar barge" (also "solar bark", "solar barque", "solar boat" and "sun boat", a mythological representation of the sun riding in a boat) is found in the later myths of ancient Egypt, with Ra and Horus. Predynasty Egyptian beliefs attribute Atum as the sun-god and Horus as a god of the sky and sun. As the Old Kingdom theocracy gained power, early beliefs were incorporated with the expanding popularity of Ra and the Osiris-Horus mythology. Atum became Ra-Atum, the rays of the setting sun. Osiris became the divine heir to Atum's power on Earth and passes his divine authority to his son Horus. Early Egyptian myths imply the sun is within the lioness, Sekhmet, at night and is reflected in her eyes; or that it is within the cow, Hathor, during the night, being reborn each morning as her son (bull).