Origin of the concept of Liches

[Nifft]

Odin

He spent some time dead to gain wisdom & power, and he even lost an eye (like the iconic lich, Vecna).

-- N

 

[The_Gneech]

Also does anyone remember the Sinbad movie in which the Evil Grand Vizier has hidden his heart in a tower and so can't be killed? Sinbad and crew have to find the tower and destroy the heart (which I remember was protected by a giant spiked gauntlet!)
That sounds like Lich and Phylactery to me...

That's the one I was thinking of, too, but I couldn't remember the title. I only saw it once, long ago.

-The Gneech

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

I put this up on the Ask Gary thread so maybe we'll have an official answer soon enough.

 

[heirodule]

Clark Ashton Smith might have used Lich in the sense D&D uses it. See Tales of Zothique

 

[Roman]

Alright, so the word was taken from the Old English for corpse, but the concept of a Lich seems to have been inspired by Russian myths perhaps through some other literature. Very intriguing!

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

Lich is indeed old english/german/nordic for a (primarily deceased) body. In modern swedish it's Lik, and in english it has seen more recent usage in Lichgate and Lykewake.

(I suppose that the pronounciation [leik] is older than the [litsh], but I could be wrong.)

I think that the origins of the monster in modern fantasy lies in stories by C.A. Smith, or R.E. Howard. I can't remember any undead spellcasters in Lovecraft, but I am not sure, i haven't read his books in some years. The theme seems to have been widely used in Weird Tales, anyhow.

Yep. To round it off, in Danish its called "lig" and pronounced [lii]. Which pronounciation is older is probably almost impossible to determine, but the roots are clear. North Germanic (of which Danish and Swedish are a part) branched out from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language tree at much the same time as the Western Germanic languages (who would eventually evolve into English, Dutch, German, and many, many more). Personally I believe the original word existed all the way back to before this branching happened (which could be confirmed if the lost East Germanic/Gothic branch has a similar word since it did not get the chance to import the word later, as the others could have). You'd have to ask a linguist about the original pronounciation at the time before the branching, however (if a such existed).

-Zarrock

 

[RichCsigs]

Also does anyone remember the Sinbad movie in which the Evil Grand Vizier has hidden his heart in a tower and so can't be killed? Sinbad and crew have to find the tower and destroy the heart (which I remember was protected by a giant spiked gauntlet!)

I think it was either Jingle All The Way or First Kid.

 

[Roman]

I put this up on the Ask Gary thread so maybe we'll have an official answer soon enough.

Thanks - if Gary Gygax does respond please let us know.

 

[Voadam]

The lich's appearance, burning eyes in a skull for an undead spellcaster, shows up in an R.E. Howard King Kull story where the evil spellcaster (thulsa doom? Theleb Karna? I forget his name.) attacks Kull in his chamber, Kull's pictish companion sticks a sword into the wizard's ribs and the wizard's illusion drops revealing his burning eyed skull visage and the pict is dumbstruck as the sword comes out of the wizard without harming him.

 

[Dr_Rictus]

Clark Ashton Smith might have used Lich in the sense D&D uses it. See Tales of Zothique

In particular, see the story "Empire of the Necromancers," where Smith uses the term in reference to animated undead multiple times. It's the earliest such usage I'm aware of, but what do I know.

These also they raised up from death; and Mmatmuor bestrode the withered charger; and the two magicians rode on in state, like errant emperors, with a lich and a skeleton to attend them.