The monster known as a "lich" may be fairly modern, but undead magic-users appear throughout the world's mythology. Let's take a look at the folklore behind the lich of Dungeons and Dragons (and by extension characters like Vecna, Voldemort and the Lich King) including...
- Where the Word "Lich" Comes From
- The Lich in Dungeons and Dragons
- Koschei the Deathless - a Slavic Lich
- Mummies, Priests and the Tomb Curse
- Draugr and Other Revenants
- An Alchemical Alternative for Immortality
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| Immortality might be a good reason to smile... (Grianghraf) |
Where the Word "Lich" Comes From
"Lich" comes from the Middle English "lyche" for body. Many English churchyards feature a "lych-gate" (or small, simple shelter) at the entrance where a coffin would be rested during the start of a burial service. Going further back into Old English we have "lic" (body or corpse) alongside the Proto-Germanic "likow" meaning body, form or shape.
In essence, "lich" is just an archaic way of saying corpse or body, brought into Dungeons and Dragons as a name for undying spellcasters inspired by Conan and other sword and sorcery stories!
The Lich in Dungeons and Dragons
As noted above, the modern idea of a lich was popularized by Dungeons and Dragons. Unlike many depictions of the undead, they are not mindless - in fact, they were cunning, methodical and strong willed, often commanding hordes of lesser undead and orchestrating long-term plans.
The thing that really distinguished a Lich was their phylactery. The process of becoming a lich involved removing one's own soul and storing it in an object (phylacatry, soul jar, etc.) which allowed them to survive the death of their body. Should their undead form ever be destroyed, they would eventually return to unlife as long as their phylactery remained intact.
Koschei the Deathless - a Slavic Lich
One possible inspiration for the lich is the tale of Koschei the Deathless, a Slavic sorcerer with an obsessive fear of mortality. The legend goes that Koschei removed his own soul, placing it inside a needle. Like a Russian doll, this needle was put inside an egg, inside a duck, inside a rabbit inside a chest... then buried beneath an oak on an island.
Legend had it that to kill Koschei, one would have to find the egg and needle - which would involve chasing down the animals carrying it as they fled. Until the needle was destroyed, he would be effectively immortal.
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| Part of the Saqqara Necropolis... (Dmitrii Zhodzishskii) |
Mummies, Priests and the Tomb Curse
Did you know that the "Curse of the Pharaohs" was a fabrication to sell papers? No "curse" was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, and statisticians found little difference in the survival rates of those westerners exposed to the tomb and those that were not.
If the fictional curse was true, then the ancient mummies of Egypt would be an interesting parallel with the ide of a lich. Think about it - the ritually preserved body of a spiritually powerful ruler, with organs removed and placed in canopic jars for safe keeping, all guarded with magic... it sounds tantalizingly close to the idea of a lich, with the only fly in the ointment being that they didn't generally dabble in magic themselves.
There is another possibility though. Ancient Egypt had a wide variety of priests, some of who performed magic on behalf of the pharaoh... and some of whom left a curse on their own tombs to warn away grave robbers. For example, take a look at this inscription from the tomb of 6th dynasty vizier Ankhmahor in the Necropolis of Saqquara: "I am an excellent priest, knowledgeable in secret spells and all forms of magic, and as for anyone who enters my tomb impure or who do not purify themselves, I shall seize him like a goose and fill him with fear at seeing ghosts upon the earth..."
Doesn't an undead priest threatening personal, magical vengeance on those who disturb his resting place sound like suspiciously like a lich to you?
Draugr and Other Revenants
The draugr of Nordic folklore also have some similarities to the lich. These creatures were malevolent and intelligent undead, retaining their flesh and frequently displaying magical powers... while in some cases being very hard to destroy.
Thorolf Halt-Foot of the Eyrbyggja saga is an example of such a creature. The story goes that the vengeful Thorolf returned from death to haunt his former home, terrorizing humans and animals that crossed his path (and in some cases, killing them.)
What makes Thorolf particularly interesting is how hard it was to get rid of him. In the saga, his undecaying body is dragged away and reburied behind a tall wall on a headland by his son Arnkel. This seemed to keep him quiet for a time, but Halt-Foot re-emerged to haunt the land once more after the death of Arnkel. Even when Thorolf was exhumed a second time and burned, the saga implies that his essence has somehow possessed a bull!
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| Are you really an alchemist without bottles of weird green liquid? (Jan Ranft) |
An Alchemical Alternative for Immortality
This may stretch the idea of a lich to breaking point, but alchemists (half chemist, half magician) once searched for a mythical substance that would cure any ill... including the effects of aging. One such concoctions was known as the "elixir proprietatis."
One recipe (and many alchemists had their own version) attributed to Paracelsus by a 17th century alchemy pamphlet is pretty simple, if time consuming. It involved mixing equal quantities of myrrh, aloe and saffron, then sealing them in a pelican (a special glass flask) and gently heating them in a sand furnace for two months. The resulting substance should be distilled to produce the medicine.
The pamphlet says of Paracelsus and his medicine that "He saith that the virtues of all natural Balsams, are in this one Medicine contained, and that it doth above any other Medicine keep back old Age..."
With a recommendation like that, the alchemical alternative to traditional lichdom sounds pretty good, doesn't it?
Thanks for reading - for more morbid curiosities, try...