#MythicalCreatureMonday – Golem

Golems are featured in Playing with Fire, and come to us from Jewish folklore. The word golem means “raw material,” which is appropriate since a Golem is an animated artificial man made from, you guessed it, raw materials. Traditionally, the material used to create a Golem was clay, and they were magically animated by writing the word “emet” on the creature’s forehead. Should for any reason the golem would need to be deactivated, the first letter of the word could be erased leaving “met” which formed the word for death.

It seems for the contemporary golem, all bets are off when it comes to the material you can use to create one. In Minecraft, you can use iron or snow, and in Dungeons and Dragons you can use flesh, clay, stone or iron. I’m sure Mary Shelley had this very creature in mind when she wrote Frankenstein, her creature, of course, being of the flesh variety.

In some games, the magically animated creatures are considered elementals, made from earth, fire, wind or water. It was in this vein that the golems were used in my book, creatures created by whatever is closest and brought to life for a single purpose, to destroy the enemies of the Golem’s creator. It would surely be a handy skill to have, what do you think?