This is a fascinating piece from the always-wonderful Folklore Thursday on the history and significance of gargoyles. It begins and ends with the presence of these ambivalent creatures in popular culture, from a childhood memory of the animated series Gargoyles to their brooding presence on the roofs of Batman’s Gotham City.
Yet one source has been overlooked. At OGOM, we love paranormal romance, and embrace with enthusiasm romances between humans and all kinds of demon lover. There are love affairs with glamorous vampires and fairies, lusty weres and shapeshifters, hard-to-get angels; lately, even the unlikely zombie and the untouchable ghost. And mermen. But one monstrous coupling uncovered in my research has even me a bit startled: in a strange inversion of the Pygmalion myth, there are dozens of steamy novels about mating with gargoyles. They have titles like Stone Cold Lover, Tempted by the Gargoyle, and Underneath the Gargoyle.
I have to say I find these a bit silly, yet the wonderful YA novelist Holly Black, in her superb variation on ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’, Valiant: A Modern Faerie Tale effectively casts a gargoyle-like troll as the demon lover.
