A ghoul is a demon or monster originating in pre-Islamic Arabian religion associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh. In modern fiction, the term has often been used for a certain kind of undead monster.
By extension, the word ghoul is also used in a derogatory sense to refer to a person who delights in the macabre, or whose profession is linked directly to death, such as a gravedigger or graverobber.
Original Mythology[]
Ghoul is from the Arabic غُول ghūl, from غَالَ ghāla, "to seize". In Arabic, the term is also sometimes used to describe a greedy or gluttonous individual.
The term was first used in English literature in 1786, in William Beckford's Orientalist novel Vathek, which describes the ghūl of Arabic folklore. This definition of the ghoul has persisted until modern times, with ghouls appearing in popular culture.
In the Arabic folklore, the ghūl is said to dwell in cemeteries and other uninhabited places. A male ghoul is referred to as ghūl while the female is called ghulah. A source identified the Arabic ghoul as a female creature who is sometimes called Mother Ghoul (umm ghūla) or a relational term such as Aunt Ghoul. She is portrayed in many tales luring hapless characters, who are usually men, into her home where she can eat them.
Some state that a ghoul is a desert-dwelling, shapeshifting demon that can assume the guise of an animal, especially a hyena. It lures unwary people into the desert wastes or abandoned places to slay and devour them. The creature also preys on young children, drinks blood, steals coins, and eats the dead, then taking the form of the person most recently eaten. One of the narratives identified a ghoul named Ghul-I-Beaban, a particularly monstrous character believed to be inhabiting the wilderness of Afghanistan and Iran.
It was not until Antoine Galland translated One Thousand and One Nights into French that the western idea of ghoul was introduced into European society. Galland depicted the ghoul as a monstrous creature that dwelled in cemeteries, feasting upon corpses.
Modern Mythologies[]
Ghouls are a race of monsters that feed mainly on the flesh of the dead and assume the form of their victims.
Ghouls are scavenger creatures that live in graveyards and traditionally feed on the flesh and blood of the dead. At times ghouls will change their diet and will feed on living humans instead of the dead. Ghouls can also take the form of any person they have eaten, whether the person is still alive or already dead.
The only thing that can kill a ghoul is decapitation or complete destruction of the head. Bashing their brains in works as well.
Ghouls are capable of leaving behind identifiable fingerprints that can be matched to them at the very least while they are using a single form. It is unknown if their fingerprints change as well as their form. In one case, the police were able to match the fingerprints a ghoul left at a bank robbery to that he left at a murder scene. However, he never changed forms in between so it is unclear if his fingerprints would have been different if he'd used a different form.
A ghoul can resume a previous form they have taken as long as they still possess a piece of that person to feed off of. They may also have the favored form of a victim that they use as their regular shape. In one case, the ghoul who had a favored form went so far as to name himself after the man.