The Gargoyle is the carved stone monster of medieval European architecture and legend: a grotesque, often demonic or beast-like figure set high upon the cathedrals and churches, serving both as a waterspout to throw rainwater clear of the walls and as a guardian to ward off evil spirits — and, in legend, a creature (often a dragon) tamed by a saint and turned to stone. It is the stone guardian, the grotesque of the cathedral.
The Waterspout and the Grotesque
The Gargoyle (from the French gargouille, “throat,” related to “gargle,” for the water gurgling through it) is, strictly, a carved spout that projects from the roof or parapet of a building to carry rainwater clear of the walls, so that the runoff does not erode the masonry — and in medieval architecture these spouts were carved into fantastic and grotesque shapes: monstrous faces, demons, dragons, beasts, hybrid creatures, and chimeras, through whose open mouths the water poured. (The non-waterspout carvings — the purely decorative grotesques — are properly called “grotesques” or “chimeras,” but all are popularly called gargoyles.) They cluster, weird and wonderful and terrifying, upon the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe, above all Notre-Dame de Paris.
The Guardian Against Evil
Beyond their practical function, the gargoyles were widely understood to serve a protective and symbolic purpose. Set high on the house of God, these monstrous figures were held to ward off and frighten away evil spirits and demons — guardians scaring off greater horrors, fighting monstrousness with monstrousness — and to remind the faithful below of the terrors of sin, of Hell, and of the chaos held at bay by the Church. They are the watchful, grotesque guardians of the sacred buildings, frozen in stone at their posts.
The Legend of La Gargouille
The most famous gargoyle-legend is that of La Gargouille of Rouen: a fearsome dragon (or serpent) with a long neck, leathery wings, and a fiery, water-spewing throat that ravaged the countryside around Rouen, devouring people and flooding the land, until in the 7th century Saint Romanus (Romain) subdued it — making the sign of the cross to tame it, then leading it back to the city to be burned. But its head and neck would not burn (hardened by its own fiery breath), and so they were mounted upon the new church as a waterspout — the first gargoyle — to warn off evil and commemorate the saint’s victory. This tale (echoed in many local legends) gave the gargoyles their dragon-form and their lore as monsters tamed and turned to stone. In modern fantasy, gargoyles have become living stone-creatures that wake at night. In the Gargoyle, medieval Europe gave form to the stone guardian — the grotesque carved monster of the cathedral that spouts the rainwater and wards off evil, the dragon tamed by the saint and frozen upon the holy walls, the watchful grotesque of the Gothic world.