After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal - Myth of the Golem of Prague

Episode Date: October 19, 2026

In the sixteenth-century, down the winding cobbled streets of Prague, there once lived a towering supernatural being: the Golem. Legend has it that it was conjured to life through mystic rituals, and acted as the protector of the city’s Jewish inhabitants. But what are the origins of this myth? And how has its legend shaped Prague in the centuries since?To help take us through this story is History Hit's very own Eleanor Janega! Listeners can catch her along with co-host Matt Lewis on our sister podcast, Gone Medieval.Edited by Hannah Feodorov. Produced by Tomos Delargy. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark is a History Hit podcast.History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click to place your vote on the Spotify mobile app: https://open.spotify.com/s/xhg6PJa Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, After Darkers. Now, brace yourselves for a public service announcement. History Hit, the production company behind After Dark, also makes documentaries. And I'm talking beautifully shot, fantastically told, immersive histories on screen. There's hundreds and hundreds available to watch right now online at HistoryHit.com with a new release each week. There's a lot to digest there. But guys, take a deep breath because there is more. Anthony and I have made two new history hit TV documentaries. I have recently made one about London's most notorious haunting, the Coch Lane Ghost, based on my new book hoax,

that is releasing for Halloween. And I've got one following that about the Great Irish Famine, which is coming soon. To see what's on offer and to subscribe, visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe to start exploring the past. It's 1590, and we're winding our way through the narrow, cobbled streets of Prague. Night has fallen, but the sea. city is alive with activity. A melting pot of cultures and ideas. Prague sits at the heart of Renaissance Europe's fascination with all things mysterious. Alchemists, astrologers and occultists

walk its streets, searching for secrets hidden beyond the natural world. In the city's Jewish quarter, a legend is taking shape, quite literally, actually. And it will one day become famous worldwide. According to an ancient tale, a guardian brought to life through a powerful ritual, walks the dark streets to protect the innocent and defend the Jewish community from its enemies. This is the legend of the Gollum of Prague. Welcome to After Dark. Hello and welcome to After Dark. I'm Maddie. And I'm Anthony. And today we're venturing into the winding narrow, cobbled streets of 16th century Prague to discuss the legendary tale of the Golem, the mystical protector of the city's Jewish inhabitants.

This is the city I went to on my honeymoon. Do you know, I've never been to Prague. I'm embarrassed to admit that in the company we currently have. Well, well, okay, good segue. Because joining us on this is the one and the only, the iconic Elmer Yonaga. Sorry, no drum roll. Absolutely. Just powered through that.

You know who she is. She's on HistoryHids sister podcast Gone Medieval with Matt Lewis. Ellenor your bye. Hooray! It takes a whole lot to keep me out of the studio. She's constantly here when we're recording. Leave us alone. Even when she's not contributing, she's here.

In many ways, ooh, foreshadowing, I'm like your own personal goal? Oh, see what she did that. You think she's useful until she won't stop coming back. But you do need to go to Prague. And can I suggest going January to March? It was so cold our phones would work. I love a January holiday. I always go to the Cornish coast in January.

Like, I love it. Nobody speak to me. I don't want to see anybody. I want that to be storms and stuff. I will do a city break in January, but it needs to be the right vibes. January, like, Zooming in and Lepshire, like, it's snow. It's goulash. It's amazing.

A little bit of a fan, myself, of Praski Portsim, as we say. So, a Prague autumn is like a thing. Also, don't tell anyone, she says, into a podcast by a yes. Don't tell the people. August it's fine. You'll have so much fun. But I was having this with, okay, we will get to the topic. I was having this, saying this to Madia as we were on our going on our lunch break today.

I was like, you know where is so not chic now? And it used to be, Cotswolds. Do you know where is chic? And I know I'm biased saying this, Yorkshire. But don't tell people. It's always been chic. Thank you very much. It's true.

But yeah, you're not supposed to. People aren't supposed to know. It's like Northumberland. I've been going to Northumberland since the 90s. It's my place. It's my place. It's my place. I go every year.

here, why are there other people on Bamber Beach? If you've been on Bamber Beach this summer, you're not welcome then. Get off. It's my beach. What are you doing? I had to go to 5am every day to have it to myself. 5 a.m. doesn't exist. 5 a.m. exists to me because the baby was not sleeping.

So it was either that or lying in bed feeling sorry about my life. So we chose beach. It's the two genders, a beach or despair. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right, come on. All right. Right. You're all, okay, as well as being.

being Irish, as well as being from the same field, your ancestors and my ancestors are from the same field, as we know in County Kilkenny. That's not, I'm not making that up. That's literally true. True. You didn't check. That's right. I can't be stopped from accumulating passports and nationalities. And indeed, one might wonder where the surname Yonaga comes from and Kilkenny in the answer is he does not. So, yes, indeed, I am a proud Czech person and, you know, went to uni there for a while, did my PhD on Czech subjects. Oh, did you? Yeah, yeah. Oh, God. Yeah, my PhD is all about the Emperor Charles IV and his use of popular preachers as a form of propaganda. He's the bridge, right? Yeah, he's the bridge. Everything that you see in Prague that is called Charles, that's your man there.

Right. You need to go to that bridge. Oh, my God. Okay. I love it. I like a good historic bridge. Talk to me, Eleanor, about the Golem. Gollum. I say Golem, but I think both are kind of. Okay. It's because fundamentally it is... I'm open to being swayed. either way. It is a word from Hebrew and I'm sure that there is a better way to pronounce it and I simply cannot. And so it's sort of come out to us in, you know, various accents, I suppose. And so, yeah, I tend to say Gallum just because, I don't know, I suppose it's a check inflection

could be. I would have said Gollum, but I mean, you know, I'm not going to insult any of our Jewish listeners by attempting any other accent on that. So whatever works for each other. Pick you're a player. Also, the most Jewish ancestry of us all. So, you know. Yes, but not to the extent where I could claim to know how to pronounce this.

But talk to me about the Jewish origins of this, though, because this is a uniquely Jewish thing in the folklore. Where is it come from? What is the history? How old is it? Okay. So it's quite old, interestingly. But we do seem to see a bit of a bursting out of the scene for it in the 16th century in particular. And it has traditions in the cabalistic background.

And it also makes perfect sense. If you think about the golem, like a golem means shapeless mass or incomplete thing or embryo, something like that, you know, in Hebrew. I didn't know that. Yeah, it's quite fun, isn't it? And so in particular, what we tend to mean when we say gollum is that it's a thing that is made out of clay or mud. And, you know, anyone who is ever sent to any form of, like, Christian religious school is going to be like, huh, immediately. Right? Because it's taking on from the story of Genesis, right, which obviously also exists within Jewish culture. And this idea that God made Adam out of clay, right?

And so there is a legend that particular rabbis who have studied very hard are able to, by a means of putting the correct Hebrew symbols onto the forehead of a man made. out of clay, bring it to life, right? It's very fun. It's like very, it's like very magic girl. I can't say this is so 16th century as well. Isn't it? Isn't it? This is just so obvious moment.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And we do tend to think that it's got this knock-on effects in culture. So, for example, like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, shout out to, you know, a perfect novel. In very many ways, it's drawing on these. Have you done an episode on that? I know I should. I feel like we should do a Frankenstein.

Have we not done Frankenstein? I feel like we should do an L. no Frankenstein want. Oh, I see. I'd be like, Who amongst us hasn't kind of like avoided the orgy by writing a completely

world-changing horror novel, right? So, you know, it's very relatable. But yeah, so it, but it does call up for us. It's got these very particular strains about whether or not

man can play this role of God, the issues that are going to come up if you try to create things, the way that God does and what ultimately power means and how it can be wielded. How does this then intersect with late 16th century Prague? If you can give us a feeling of what the city is like at this time, I mean, I know now it's just the most beautiful place. Don't go.

Don't ever go. But it is, honestly, it's so magic. What's the era that's most visible now? Because we were talking about this with Paris, weren't we? I would say arguably, it is medieval. So it's basically the landscape of Prague that everyone really reacts to

what makes you want to eat it because it looks like a delicious ice cream cone is the reign of Charles IV in the 14th century and then this particular era under the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire, Rudolf II. In the 16th century. In the 16th century.

And so that's when you get all of these delightful little Baroque palaces. And, you know, it's a... So in the 14th century, Charles Bridge is built. In the 16th and 17th century, all the lovely Baroque statues are put on it. Oh, my God, I didn't even know. Yeah, so you have this kind of extra icing on the cake, which is what broke people like to do, right? Format pitch.

Eleanor is an estate agent in Prague through different historical time periods selling us property. Can I just say, I filmed something in Prague? Are you bastard? And no, like a drama. not a documentary. And it was, I think I gained more weight during that time. Listen. Nice.

Like, the costume wasn't fitting me by the end of it. Don't go. Don't go. Don't go. If you ever learn what Smajani series, it will destroy your life. This is the trouble. This is the trouble. And not overly expensive.

Sorry, I don't work for the Czech tors board. If you do want to work for the Czech tors board. And she's open to that point. If you guys want to sponsor an episode, we will come. Listen, pitch me. But give us that late 16th century, what are we experiencing? What is Prague? What's it doing?

What's the vibe? Okay. So we got your man there on the throne, Rudolph the second. And he is Hobbsburg, which, you know, not my favorite of the Holy Roman emperors. But he is one of my favorite Holy Roman emperors because he likes Prague. And any time a Holy Roman emperor likes Prague, I'm like, this little guy. This is the guy. This is a little guy.

And so he has decided that he is going to live in Prague. Which you can do when you're the Holy Roman Emperor. They don't have like a specific locus of where one specific imperial capital is going to be. It's more particularly tied with whatever court is there. So, for example, when Charles IV was building everything and that's why everything is called Charles, he was like, hey, why don't we have Prague forever be the center of the Holy Roman Empire? And it was like, no, because your sons are garbage and stupid and it's all going to fall apart. The Habsbergs more particularly favor Vienna.

But not this one, not Rudolph. Rudolph really likes Prague. And he's like, guess what? He's posting up, right? And as a result, anytime an imperial court shows up, there's a huge influx of money. And so Prague is always an incredibly important center of trade and culture. But this is a boom. It's a building boom, right?

So more people are coming in. And there are always a number of cultures present in Prague as well. So in the first place, obviously, you have Czech. Duh. You see how that happened. But you often have a really large population of German speakers as well, who are sometimes referred to as burgers. And these are people who have often come and settled during what we call the Ostseidlung, which is in the kind of high to late medieval period. A lot of Germans kind of move east.

And in particular, they settle in towns. And they are people who are often facilitating particular traits. So what's going on there? Why are they going east? Because they are trying to set up trade outposts in different places. and also a lot of the time they are also really big miners. So you'll find huge German populations, for example, all over Slovakia, like we're all Slovakia, because they're out there mining.

And so this is something that is really, really common at the time. And also, it makes sense because they're all under the auspices of the Holy Roman Empire. So it's just like, yeah, it's another imperial land. You can do that. But also in particular in Prague, there's a huge Jewish population. And there always has been. Now, quite famously, Jewish people have always been the... center for what they call it, the lacrimose history of the Jews is a way that it has been

described by historians. So, you know, they are periodically pogromed, you know. They periodically have massacres or expulsions, especially linked, for example, to the Crusades and things like this. But we definitely know that there has been a significant Jewish presence in Prague from at least the 10th century. And that makes perfect sense because if you have, a thriving trade center. Jewish people, especially in the medieval period, have to live there because there are all these rules in medieval Europe about lending money at interest. So in the medieval period, that is considered to be a sin. It is called usury. And so Christians are not supposed to be lending money at interest to other Christians. Jewish people are able, however,

to lend money outside of their religion. And as a result of this, it's Like, it's not a good story. It's an anti-Semitic story. They will often be forced to do that. So kings will bring Jewish populations in and say, You're the money-landers. Guess what? You can come here, but only if you do this specifically.

So that's, for example, the story of how the Jewish population came to be in medieval England, right? So they are absolutely necessary to have any big business going, but also it is, it's, the vibes are subterranean. Let's just say this. Like, no one is being nice to the Jewish people during this. This diversity in this city has come from a place of tolerance and acceptance. This is perfunctory. It's about business and it's not necessarily. The Jews who are there aren't necessarily there because they love doing what they're doing

and they're happy to do it. That's the option open to them. Exactly. And I would say the one nice thing about the Prague ghetto, as it's called, is that it is the largest in Europe and it is usually the largest in Europe very specifically because actually, checks are pretty nice to Jewish people in comparison. to everybody else. So when there's a polygram, when something really terrible happens in other parts of the Holy Roman Empire, a lot of Jewish people are like, yeah, I'm moving to Prague.

We spoke at the very start about the Gollum, Eleanor. How is this belief system, this folkloric belief system, starting to intersect, overlap, whatever way we want to put it with that history that you've just grounded us in? What are the moving parts that are leading us to this story? Okay, I'm making a pitch for everyone to get really obsessed with Rudolf the second. because you should because he was a spooky little bitch. Okay. The floor is open. Yeah.

He loves mysticism. Right. He loves concepts of magic. He's like number one alchemy guy. Okay. He's really, really into, you know, in theory, like unlocking the secrets of the universe. It's very, very 16th century. You know, it's like, is it science?

Is it magic? Do we have a way of differentiating? Do we care? No, I don't, I don't care at all. He's also the guy. Do you know, have you ever seen? seen those portraits and it'll be like the dude is made out of fruit. That's, yeah, that's your Rudolph the second.

Yeah. I kind of always thought that was glad the impaler. Oh, come on. We absolutely have to pause it. Why is he made of fruit? Okay, because he's just like he was really into fruit. Well, because he'll be made. And the other ones are where he's made out of a shellfish.

There's one where he's made out of various kinds of armaments as well. So it's like a gun one. I think I've seen this. Yeah. Did this start in his day or is it like 20th century? It's like it's his day. It's his thing. Yeah.

And it's, because basically what it's showing is like all the fruits of the empire. All of the, all the wonders, the wonders of the Holy Roman Empire. And he's not wrong. And I suppose it's well that I do have mysticism of like the whole universe being contained within you, right? And sort of like,

I am the sum of everything around me. We're going to take a break now. But when we come back, we're going to talk about how the story of the Gullum starts to intersect with this historical presence. Rabbi Luev. Love. Not Lueveve. Love.

Who I know more about. Yeah. Yeah. The fashion house. Yeah. So this is, he is the guy. Okay. That is very particularly tied to the idea of the column.

Okay. And this is a real dude. And you said earlier that there's this idea that if you study really hard and you're a really good rabbi, that you could bring a clay man to life essentially. Oh, exactly. And there is, you know, obviously this really strong strain of intellectualism within a Jewish culture and in rabbinical communities. You know, like, literally I had a medievalist friend convert to Judaism lately because she was like, I just really like arguing about religion.

And I was a little like, all right, queen. Good for you. I'm surprised that you have it. And I was like, look, I'm doing it pro bono. Yeah, I'm arguing about religion. I just off my own bat. It's fine. But yeah, so there is then within it this mystical strain of Kabbalism, which is particularly

gaining strength in this period, like in the 16th century. You know, it's very much the style at the time, as we say, like, there's a lot of mysticism around the shop, right? And so, Rabbi Love is a real guy. That's a man that's a historical person who lived and died in the Prague Jewish community, right? And so we think that he was actually probably originally from Poland in Posenam, but, you know, he ends up in Prague because it's the place to be, right? It's like the center of kind of central and eastern European jewelry at the time. So, like, you know, anyone who's anyone, you feel like... And intellectual life.

Oh, completely. It's like, it's bright lights, big city, baby. You know how it is. It's just, it's got that kind of magnetic pole for anyone who is anyone. And he is an incredibly accomplished scholar. So he is very, very accomplished at astronomy. He does a lot of, like, mystic, capitalistic practice. he is just an incredible, incredible scholar,

and we still have a ton of his work today. Complicated side question. Are there women in this period who are also doing this kind of scholarly work where they're mystics, where they're astronomers, or are they just making the dinner room and mopping the floors? Well, so they're usually doing it, but you don't get to hear about it. Okay.

It's like the mystics, sister, mother, daughter is assisting them. Yeah, yeah, okay. And they'll be like, oh, she just sat there. Because they need you to write a novel set in Prague in this period with a woman mystic. Thank you very much. That would be awesome. And, yeah, I mean, 100% they are around. Obviously, things get a little bit more difficult for women in the early modern period than they had been in the medieval period.

They had a few more freedoms. But we definitely know that they are around the shop. And there is a pretty thriving community. And actually, especially, we have a strong tradition of the Jewish women mystics from Prague at the time. So, yes. Oh, okay. That's a separate episode. Yeah, that is a, you know, a separate thing.

We will return to this topic. We do know that they're around, but, you know, 16th century is just like, it's, it's like on the charts, I think, for possibly the worst century. 17th century, I think, pips it. It's pretty bad. But, you know, the things are kind of depressing on the lady front around this. The lady front. Things are depressing on the ladyfront for you to present. The lady front with Dr. Ellen Arionaga.

That's right. That's very good. Somebody make that. Somebody make it. Now, how does Rabbi Love bring? as the Golem? Why is the intersection happening? Okay. So essentially

you, as we say, if you are a Jewish person, you probably want to be living in Prague. But that doesn't mean that things are always chill. Right? And so basically, there's

like a lot of different tellings of the Golem story. So for example, you'll have a golem that is a little bit more child friendly, where it's all like, where things will be like, oh, you know, it's just like, oh, it's a fun storybook. And then you'll have somewhere you're like, Jesus. Don't tell the so, you know, we don't really exactly know. But so the, I guess, a kind of classic homogenized narrative of it is that rabbi love wants to protect the Jewish people, right? And so the

Prague ghetto had big ornate gates at each end and they would kind of get locked every night. This was because Jewish people were like, please stay the hell out of here. Listen, they're like, yeah. So it's like it's very important to note who has control over them. Yes, yes, yes. The Jewish people do. And they're like, you people are not trustworthy. You stay it out there.

And they were making some points, as I can say. Right. So the idea here is that rabbi love wants to protect the Jewish community. And so he's like, you know what I'm going to do? I am going to make this golem that's essentially going to be able to patrol, right? And so at night, when we're all sleeping in bed, then the golem can kind of of like the out. It's like a goddog night watchman situation. Exactly. And it's like it's a good reminder to just like stay the hell out of here like to the goy. We love it. Right. And so what he does

is he makes this big guy out of a clay or mud. It depends on what you want. And in order to animate it, he writes the name of God in Hebrew on its forehead, which brings it back to life. Okay. And now there are different ways of doing this. Some people say that He writes it on a slip of paper. This is something called a Shem, and he puts it inside the head. Some people say that he's just got it on his forehead, right? And so this is kind of the protector guy. And what is incredibly useful about the Shem, right, is that what Rabbi Love is able to do is sort of turn the Ghalem off and on.

And so this is the animating for. Right? The name of God is the animating force. If only Frankenstein had done this. Right. And so basically he could say, okay, like, that's enough gallum for now. And you can just wipe it, you can wipe it off the head or you can take the paper out depending on, sometimes it's kind of like on a little metal disc and you can kind of like do that. It depends on who you're asking. Okay. So it's basically like turning your alarm system off, right?

And that is incredibly important in terms of the understanding of the guy. is this kill switch essentially. Interesting. Now, we've got an image here and I've jumped in really fast so that. I don't have to describe it. So I'm passing it over to you to describe it. I don't know. You do that quite a lot.

So we have an image. You are the art historian. Of course I'm going to get you to do images as much as possible. And it's essentially the process that Eleanor has just been describing. But just give us the visual there. Okay. So this is a print. based on a drawing by a Czech painter from 1899.

So we are a little bit later than our story is said. Do you want me to pronounce that for you? Yes, please. Mikolash, alish. There we go. Thank you very much. Or Mike Ayles. Mike Ayles.

Or Mikey Ayles over there. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Okay, so in this image, we have the rabbi. He has his back to us, and he has one hand quite sassily on his head. Yes. And the other raised with his sort of forefinger and thumb stretched out in prayer. And around him are a kind of assortment of all the accoutremon of his magical practice, his mystical practice. He's got candles lit.

He's got different potions in bottles on the floor. There's some kind of religious book on the floor. Open a page. Now, is it electricity? I'm thinking of Frankenstein. Well, electricity, lightning, debatable what it is in that novel. Is it sort of candlelight?

Is it smoke? Some kind of magical... It's magic. It's just magic. It's just the vibe. Okay, the vibe is vibing around him. And then out of this kind of smoke cloud of vibe comes the golem.

And he is much bigger in scale than the rabbi. And he has the Hebrew writing on his head. And he he's looking quite benignly down at the rabbi, who's obviously in the process of bringing him to life. And he

I think there's something I think it's a depiction of him that's sort of quite kindly, quite, he doesn't feel very threatening. This isn't a sort of, oh shit, I brought this being to life and now he's going to stomp through the city Godzilla-like and murder everybody. Is this

a fair representation, Eleanor, or are we going to get slightly scarier versions? Listen, much like what we end up seeing in Frankenstein, what we're going to end up seeing with this, is that things are going to get scary, but it's not the Golem's fault. It's not the Golem's fault of Frankenstein. Yeah, I mean, the real monster is Dr. Frankenstein. Am I right? Am I right? Am I right? Am I right? Am I right. Am I right? I never said that before. No one has ever. Also, Victor Frankenstein doesn't have a medical degree. He's not actually a doctor. Neither do we and we are all doctors.

Listen. He's not how PhD. Don't call that man doctor. Yeah, thank you. We are doctors. He is not a PhD either. No. He's just some guy.

Oh my God. We all know about some guys. Now, we are going to take a break here and then we're going to come back and talk about where this goes a little bit wrong. Okay, we're back in. Eleanor, we have the Gollum. he, it, she, they, we don't know. We're going with, we're gendering him as a man.

We are, okay, that's important. His name is Joseph. Oh, we have a name, yeah. Or Yosella. Okay. And so we're relating to him as a dude. And also he's doing very doodly things. Okay.

So, because he not only does he sort of patrol, but he does, like, the things for the inhabitants of the ghetto. Because he's very, very large. Yeah. And physically very, very, very strong. strong. So he can do all the grunt work that you don't want to do. Like, he's the one you sent to the well. He is going to chop your wood for you. He's doing these things. But he doesn't speak and think independently, right? He doesn't have autonomy or sort of

consciousness. So, like, that's the thing is that it's kind of perfect because you've got this big, strong dude. And ethically, you can make him do anything. And you can make him do anything. Because that's just, that's just like a guy you made out of Plato. It would be like making your Gumbie doll do something. I do not know what that is. Do you don't know what a Gumbie doll is? Is this Americanism, Gumby? All right, listen. I don't know, he's a little green guy with a wedge head, you know?

Wow. Okay, look, some of us... This is the wrong crowd. I don't know, there's a little plasticine show. Oh, okay, it's one of those. That's Gumby, yeah. Have you never seen a Gumby? I think I've seen that image before, but I wouldn't have known what it was.

I brought about because it's a very claymation sort of thing. Sure, sure, sure, right? Like morph. Yeah, yes, like morph. There you go. But, okay. I get the... It's a maid thing.

Okay. Yes, yeah, yeah. We could be here before a while. For a lot of time till I know. Some clay animation. Like onum animations. Get us. I have that one, yes.

Okay. Okay. So, but, you know, importantly, we've got him out here. He's chopping the wood. He's guarding the streets. He's doing all sorts of things that you want him to do. And this is specifically for the Jewish community. He's not working outside of his gates.

And he's not going on the boundaries of the gates, right? He's within this. No, he is hanging out in the neighborhood. He is your friendly neighborhood, big clay man. And he is going to do whatever it is you don't want to do. But basically, one of the big things that is also happening, because he is brought to life by the sham, right? One of the big things that Rabbi Love does is that on Friday, you know, for the Sabbath, he turns the golem off. Right.

He will take the sham out and it's like, it's, it's, listen, it's not a sexy time. No, no, no, it's not. It's like, it's the way we're thinking about God, right? And so the crux of the legend is usually that he gets a bit caught up in business and his learning and whatever one Friday. And he's hurrying, hurrying to get to synagogue and he forgets. This is the rabbi. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, sorry. Rabbi Lowe. He forgets to turn the golem off. And so everyone. Oh, my God. That's like the ultimate thing when you're on the plane going on holiday and you're like, Oh, I forgot. to turn the gullum off.

So he's like running up to the alt-knowing synagogue, the old new synagogue, where we know that he used to to work. And he's like running and running and he's like, ooh, okay, like this is bad. And then as a result of no one kind of being around, the golem then goes on this rampage. And he's just kind of like destroying everything in his path. exactly why he's mad about it we don't know but it's just sort of there's no one around to like drive and also like fundamentally do who wants to be an automaton right he's like I should have been turned off today yeah he's like it's my one day oh that's my charge day come on he's like when my baby hasn't had his nap and he's overtired and then he becomes a monster and you're like

oh you should have just been switched off at some point yeah previous to this exactly we're in chaos in an ideal world in an ideal world basically he needs a nap basically he needs a nap We've got a couple of alternative versions of the story. One of them is that the golem fell in love. Of course. And then... A real lady? With a real lady.

And the real lady was like, my good friend. You're a giant man medically. Yeah. And like, well, so I'm pretty open-minded. I don't know how the community would take it. This is a stretch even for me. But then again, he isn't then shut down. And so, again, rampage.

The child-friendly version of this, which is a very sweet, story. It's like very big for like Prague bedtime stories for little check kids. Is a little check kid wants porridge and mum is like, no, like go like go back to school or whatever. And so he figures out how to do the shem, turns the golem on and the gallum begins making porridge and keeps making porridge and keeps making porridge until it spills out and it's like flooding the entire ghetto and Rabbi Love has to interview. That has just unlocked something him, I think I've heard that version of this story at some point in my life. Interesting.

That's something I haven't touched for a good 35 years. But yeah. Yeah, it's a real sweet one. And it helps to reinforce that you that it's like it's porch time is at one time. Yeah. That's cute. Right. Okay.

So like basically what we know then is that one way or another, it doesn't matter what the story is. Here is the rabbi and he is at the synagogue. And someone is like, Rabbi Love the column is making too much porridge slash slash tear it up the streets slash kind of horny for a chick

Oh yeah all of the things Yeah it's like it depends it depends And rabbi love is like Oh oh no And so he basically he runs out During singing the 90 second psalm In particular you know a banger We all know it and love it

Truly Truly That's a really specific detail It's 100% like very important. It always comes up, right? Okay. So you're like, I'm mentioning it, right? And so basically what he has to do is go get in front of the column, right?

Because he's the only one that the column listens to because he's the one who can bring it to life, you know? And so he's able very bravely to face it down and then either take the piece of paper out, erase the name of God. It depends on what you want. take the piece of clay out of its mouth. Depends on, you know, how we're animating him. And then it just goes flump into a pile of clay. And then he's like, well, my work here is done. He goes back into the Altnoy Synagogue, and he finishes singing Psalm 92.

That's a long song. And now what is important about this is at the Altnoy, which is still there and very, very beautiful and really, really worth a visit. if you go to Prague, they will always sing Saul 92 twice. Oh. Like in references, which is really cute. Like in reference to the story, I really like it. Yeah, yeah. Interesting.

And then there's like a fun spooky legend. Oh, go on. Which is that they went and picked up the varying pieces of the golem and then they put it in the attic at the Altloi. Uh-huh. And then you're not supposed to go in there because, and like literally, people have been vibing on this story for so hard that there have been many forays into the attic to try to find the pieces of the golem.

Any takers? You know, nothing's ever really been found. Although people have like said that they did, but like also be so for real. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Now, come here. This is a thing I have to ask about this. The gollum's not particularly scary.

No. Not particularly protective. I mean, yeah, there is a potential protective. element to it, but like, we're not really... He's not like stopping a pogrom or something or like halting people at the gates to the ghetto. He's just sort of doing some tasks, doing a bit like housework. Why do we have him? I think that he is functioning in exactly the same way as Frankenstein's monster, we've already established as not the monster. It does, right? So basically what it is

is a story about how you're not thinking all the way through about what it's, would mean in order to create life. And in many ways, I think also that is at the key of Abrahamic religion generally, you know, because the classic thing is like, why would a loving God do this to us? It kind of like sucks down here, right? And so, you know, we have all these stories about, you know, like, oh, I don't know, the Garden of Bean, we were kind of naughty. That's why, you know, and also it just sort of explains how, well, you know, sometimes

you create things and you don't have ultimate control over them, right? And so, like, God can't control your jerk neighbor who is, like, up at 4 a.m. for some reason, hammering the wall, right? And so when you're like, why has God made people like this? What the story of the golem does is it's like, look, you know, you bring things into the world and you don't necessarily control them. There's going to be knock on effects. There are going to be things that you don't realize. And it's also kind of warning in the same way that Frankenstein is in that, you know, if we take the story where the golem sort of falls in love, it's like, well, what? you want to do with things like this?

It's like, are they human, are they not? Are they allowed to participate in human things? Ultimately, anything like this is going to, even though if you feel it is not insouled, you don't get to tell that to whatever it is you've created. So it's essentially a warning for those who will be warned, right? And about the hubris of man and how one ought not to play God, right? I feel like he's a bad parent to this thing that he creates. This is a classic dad situation where he's like, yeah, I just left the kid at home and everything was fine.

It's like, no, you have to be with them all the time. You have to not take your eyes off of the child. Yeah, yeah. This is very much the-ha. 100%. And that's the thing is it's like, you think that this is just a nice shortcut for you and you're not going to have to chop wood anymore. But what are you doing while it's chopping wood? Yeah.

And have you done the checklist? Have you turned the up and off, right? you know, the check list. A. Hey. That must be somebody else's pocket. We've come up with so many podcast ideas. There you go.

That must exist. Just got to. Yeah. What was the other one? Ladyfront. Lady front. Yeah. That is.

Lady front. Lady front. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. So it is an interesting take on this idea of life giving, as you're saying, of what happened, of the morality around what it means to be, part of mankind responsibilities

we have. Part of that community in Prague, right, in the Jewish ghetto of like this is how they're different. They have used mysticism and intellectualism and religious devotion

to make their life easier in that bubble, not in the rest of the wider community. Like this is something for the Jews of that city specifically. Yeah, and I think that one of the reasons why it still holds such an incredibly important place

in terms of, you know, Jewish culture, not just within Prague, is that it is underlying the stressors of being Jewish in these situations. They're like, yeah, I think maybe we need a giant guy made out of clay to just kind of like, oh, walk the grounds and make sure that nobody's in here, right? So it's about how there is this desire to create a mechanism of self-defense. And I think that that's completely understandable. And then also why, well, we probably can't do it through magic, right? Like, how are we going to kind of keep ourselves safe within these circumstances? And, you know, it's, it is a sad fact of the matter that we have this story from the 16th century. I mean, it really takes off in popularity in the 19th century in the way that things do. You know, you know how people are in the 19th century. They're like, let's collect all stories. And they start spreading around.

So there is a little bit of that. But, you know, the sad fact of the matter is that the hardest and most persecutory time for Jewish people in. in the city of Prague was the 20th century. And we can talk all we want about opogroms and golem and all of these things. But ultimately, the Nazis were the worst thing that ever happened to the Jewish population in the city. So there are real life horrors. And, you know, it's cute to go and look back at early modern stories like this. But, you know, the real monster is man, et cetera. And it's just, you know, it was really the 20th century that.

was the worst time. I would be interested to know how the Gollum folk tale was treated in the 30s and 40s in Prague. And if it is present in the Jewish imagination, in, you know, on the ground in terms of what's happening, if it's in people's minds as a sort of hopeful idea or something to kind of like a sort of protection against what's happening. Well, disgusting Nazi announcement. They're all bad, right? That's not a podcast to do. But, you know, one of the big things that they do, I've got a lot to say about the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia and how the Czechoslovak delegation was locked in the hallway while the country was given to the Nazis. Fun fact, the French and English were like,

I don't know why they need to be involved in this. Sure, sure they could have the only tank factory in Western Europe. I don't see any problems with this. There are literal films of like the Czechoslovak's pacing. in the hallway where they're locked out while Hitler was just given this because I'm sure he'll stop there. I wouldn't worry. Anyway, so one of the big things that the Nazis decide to do, you know, as, you know,

a part of the Holocaust in general is they decide that, you know, they're going to get rid of all the Jewish people, but they're going to have a big Jewish museum in Prague. And they're going to like keep the ghetto as a museum of the Jewish people. Yeah. And they're like, it is going to be a museum of the Jewish people who we have now thankfully exterminated. So they were very particularly cataloging it. It's a very, very good novel

that you could go read about this is called Mendelssohn on the roof. And it is... It's very, very good. Classic piece of Czech literature and it's about this process and people who were kind of like trying to survive through...

But fiction... It's a fictionalized version of it. But yeah. So you don't hear about it because it happened in the Czech Republic and people don't want... People don't want to learn Czech because everybody's lazy, unlike me, who's adorable. Can I ask you a question?

And this is showing my ignorance. And I know you have to go because you're booked and blessed. But what is, there's been a change recently in the naming of the country, right? Just very briefly talk us through this. Okay. So it's controversial is the answer. So officially there has been a change from calling it the Czech Republic to Czechia. There are many people, myself included, who do.

not like this because so there is a linguistic reason for this and it is because in Czech the word for, there's two states in Czech. There's Bohemia and there is Moravia. And Moravia is kind of like southeastern. That's where Bernou and Olomots are. And Prague is the capital of Bohemia. The word for Bohemia in Czech is Chehi. And the word for Moravia is Moravia.

So if you say Chequia, it kind of sounds like you're like, Bohemia. And I'm like, cool, what about Moravia? And like, Moravians also are not being. into it. Moravians are constantly being overlooked. Maribia is actually really banging and you should go there. Really, really wonderful part of the world. Moravian people, I'm telling you, are a party. Incredible, incredible place to go. So I am not a fan of it, although it is official. And what I do say to English speakers is if you want to get in good with checks, and this is what we will usually say, just call it check. Say, I'm going to check.

Oh, just went on holiday to check. I've just been. back from Czech and check people will go way because it sounds like, it sounds like you know. Okay. It sounds like you know. And that makes you cool. Well, listeners, it makes you cool and sexy. Now you know and you're cool and sexy too. This has been very, very interesting and very new information to me.

I will be booking my January holiday to Prague now. Nobody else will please. I don't want to see anyone else there. I don't want to see anybody. I want the city to be completely empty. Apart from the Gollum, obviously. like he can be walking around. There are lots of nice statues

of the little gallum around too, so it's really fun. Okay, that's cool. If you want to hear more Czech history and I would like to actually now. I absolutely would. If you want to have Eleanor back and you all do, I know,

then you can email us at afterdarkhistoryhit.com. Don't forget to leave us a five-star review wherever you go to podcast. And it is spooky season. We are at the height of our powers at the moment. Your homework, dear listener,

is to tap someone next to you on the shoulder and tell them about After Dark or one of our sister podcasts. You know, Eleanor, she's got a little, a little podcast because gone medieval. I just got a book coming out. I've got, yeah, listen, next year, next spooky season,

it's going to be like, I will be ruling. This is going to be the season of the Eleanor. We're all going to be very booked and busy because I'll be dragging you two into this mess with me. Perfect. Perfect. Enjoy that next year. Get in touch to the meantime.

Enjoy the other episodes. See you soon. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. Thank you.