The Monstrefact: The Beast, from "Over the Garden Wall"

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the enigmatic Beast from Cartoon Network’s 2014 animated series “Over the Garden Wall.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, my name is Robert Lamb And This is the
Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.
Autumn is the perfect time to gather around the old
electric hearth we call a television set and watch the

(00:30):
twenty fourteen Cartoon Network animated series Over the Garden Wall.
In this much beloved show, we follow brothers Wort and
Greg through a woodland world of folkloric intrigue, vintage Halloween vibes,
old New England charm, and heartwarming whimsy. Created by animator
Patrick McHale, it features the voice talents of Elijah Wood,

(00:52):
Melanie Lynsky, Christopher Lloyd, Tim Curry, and Moore. Over the
Garden Wall is loaded with silliness in but it's not
without its spookier moments and its chief antagonist, an entity
known only as the Beast, really stands out as an
avatar of pure darkness. He appears throughout the series as

(01:13):
a shadowy, antlered figure with glowing eyes. And I'm not
going to spoil everything here, but we eventually learn that
this entity feeds on the despair and sorrow of children
and other individuals lost in the woods. The Beast is
an entity fittingly shrouded in mystery, but we can identify
various points of possible inspiration and connections to related traditions.

(01:36):
As is often the case in Western animation, we of
course must acknowledge the devil as part of the antagonist DNA,
but there are other more obscure notes as well. Now
some might point to modern depictions of the wind to Go,
a spirit from the traditions of the Algonquin people, but
is my understanding that these depictions of the wind to
Go as an antlered being are largely an invention of

(01:58):
non indigenous media depictions. Windigo traditions, however, and related Indigenous
ideas do touch on themes of wildness, wilderness and survival cannibalism.
A much clearer point of reference for the Beast, however,
can likely be found in Herna the Hunter, a spirit

(02:18):
important of doom from English tradition, tied to the woods
surrounding windsor castle covered in furs and bearing the skull
and antlers of a great stag. The entity might well
be tied to pagan worship of the Celtic fertility god Kurnunos.
We previously discussed Hernaw the Hunter in Our Stuff to
Blow Your Mind episode Ghosts of the Wind and Rain.

(02:42):
The basic iconography of an antlered or horned woodland spirit
may also connect to a variety of ancient gods of
the hunt. The beast may also have an analog in
Germanic tradition, the Earl King or Elf King, Alder King
or Oak King. The entity was said to haunt the
Black Forest of Germany, luring travelers and children to death

(03:05):
in the lonely wilderness. In seventeen eighty two, German poet
Johann Wolfgang van Gotha wrote of the entity in his
poem The Earl King. I'm gonna read from the Edgar
Alfred Bowering translation. Who rides there so late, through the night,
dark and drear the father? It is with his infant,

(03:25):
so dear. He holdeth the boy tightly clasped in his arm.
He holdeth him safely, He keepeth him warm, my son.
Wherefore seekest thou thy face thus to hide look, Father,
the Earl King is close by our side. Dost see
not the Earl King with crown and with train, my son.
Tis the mist rising over the plain. Oh come now,

(03:49):
dear infant, Oh come thou with me, for many a
game I will play there, with thee on my strand
lovely flowers their blossoms on folk. My mother shall grace
thee with garments of gold. My father, my father, And
dost thou not hear the words that the Earl King

(04:09):
now breathes in mine ear be calm, dearest child. Tis
thy fancy deceives. Tis the sad wind that sighs through
the withering leaves. Wilt go, then, dear infant, wilt go
with me there. My daughters shall tend thee with sisterly care.
My daughters by night their glad festival keep. They'll dance

(04:31):
thee and rock thee, and sing thee to sleep. My father,
my father, and dost thou not see how the Earl
King his daughters has brought here for me, my darling,
My darling, I see it all right. Tis the aged
gray willows, deceiving thy sight. I love thee. I'm charmed
by thy beauty, dear boy. And if thou art unwilling,

(04:52):
then force all employ my father. My father, he seizes
me fast for sorely. The Earl King has hurt me
at last. The father now gallops with terror. Half wild,
he grasps in his arms the poor shuddering child. He
reaches his courtyard with toil and with dread. The child

(05:13):
in his arms finds he motionless dead. Quite a dark ending,
I think you'll agree. But for word in greg and
over the garden Wall, things don't go quite as badly.
But it is a near thing. The Beast, like the
Earl King, would seem to command great power in those
places where long forgotten stories are revealed to those who

(05:35):
travel through the wood. Tune in for additional episodes of
the Monster, Fact, the Artifact or Animaliustupendium each week. As always,
you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
your Mind dot com.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
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