Gog and Magog

"Having seen the west, Sekandar turned his attention to the east, choosing to continue his wanderings in the world. He came to a town that seemed as if wind and dust had never blown against it, and when the trumpets were sounded from his elephants’ backs and the town’s nobility came out to welcome him, the procession stretched for two miles. The world wanderer greeted them warmly and asked, “What is the most astonishing thing about this place?” They began to weep and wail about the revolutions of fate, saying, “We face a difficult task, which we will tell to the victorious king. That mountain, whose summit is in the clouds, has made our hearts grieve and mourn: we cannot sleep because of Yajuj and Majuj, who live there and whom we have not the strength to resist. When a mob of them comes against our city, we know only pain and sorrow. They have faces like animals, with black tongues and bloodshot eyes; they have black skin and teeth like a boar’s. How can anyone stand up to them? Their bodies including the chest are covered with dark hair, and they have huge ears like an elephant’s; when they sleep they can fold an ear under them as a pillow, or spread it over them as a coverlet. All their females give birth to thousands of little brats, so that no one herds of these monsters come to feed on them. They eat them year after year till their chests and shoulders grow big and strong. After that they eat plants, which they collect from everywhere.When it’s cold they get very thin, and then their voices are like a dove’s, but if you see them in the spring they’re like wolves, and they roar like trumpeting elephants. If the king can find some remedy against them, so that our hearts can be freed from this sorrow, all of us will praise him, and our praise will resound in the world for a long time. We ask that you be magnanimous and rid us of our grief, for you too need God’s blessings.”

     Gog and Magog(also known as Yajuj and Majuj) is a monster that appears in the Shahnameh along with many other texts throughout time. Its depictions are not always clear in what form it takes; some say they are a king and land; some say they are a set of brothers. We will look at these interpretations and how they relate to one of their most famous appearances in the Shahnameh: The Book of Persian Kings. The artifact we are looking at is the page where the story of Gog and Magog appears in the Shahnameh: The Book of Persian Kings(Ferdowsi). Sekander the legendary king is seen building an Iron wall to seal them away. Who was Sekander the man behind the legend and the symbolic meaning behind all of this if any? Finally exhibit will take a look at some of Gog and Magog’s other appearances in other texts and interpretations.

     Gog and Magog appearance in the Shahnameh in the story ‘Sekander constructs a wall to defeat Yajuj and Majuj’. In the passage Sekander comes riding on his elephant and the people of the village come out to him and beg him to help them for they are being terrorized by these monstrous beings. These people covered with dark hair and teeth like boars with giant ears and come out in the night and spread their destruction and ravage everything in sight. Sekander showing that he is a kind and compassionate ruler listens to their stories and descriptions of these wild people. When he has finished listening he makes the decision to help them by building the Iron Wall and freeing the people of the village from the terror of these monstrous brats. The artifact in this exhibit is the page form the Shahnameh which is an image depicting the construction of the wall. In this picture, you see these pale people with dark hair, the people of Gog and Magog watching Sekander’s men build the wall.  

     The Shahnameh and all its pages were constructed between the years 977-1010CE By the poet Ferdowsi. It was a book about kings for kings. There are many stories about Sekander the tale of Gog and Magog are only a small but this is not the only time in persian literature. “The Syriac legend account of Alexander’s Iron Gate appears to be the oldest narrative to the Immuring of Gog and Magog within an apocalyptic setting”(Donzel-Schmidt, 21). There are many images in Persian books of depictions of Gog and Magog but the reason I am choosing this one is for the land. In the Davis translation of the Shahnameh the passage does not name Gog and Magog as specific people just people of the land. Like stated in Ezekiel 32 “set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog.”

     More modern interpretations Gog and Magog to be a set of two giant brothers. I believe this interpretation comes from Genesis 10 where Gomer and Magog are named to be sons Japheth who is the son of Noah. Geoffrey of Monmouth is one of the people who writes about the giants Gogmagog  and his brother Cornelius. Also in season 13 of Supernatural they appeared as a set of cannibal giant brothers. 

     Whether Gog and Magog are one person is unclear to me but I think that this page from the Shahnameh represents both because you see the people in the hills in their land watching the wall being built, and their king nowhere to be seen. I feel this is a way to say Gog is a monster that when his people need him he is nowhere to be seen, or it be seen as Gog is the people and Magog is the land. The Shahenmeh has an artistic way of telling us all but nothing at the same time.  

     In the real world outside of these stories, Gog and Magog have appeared in a few places. We do not know how true any of this is but whatever that maybe we do know that there really is a wall it is the Caspian Wall of Derbent, also known as the Gates of Alexander located in Caucasus. Having a physical wall tells us there is more to this than just a story.  

     Alexander the Great was a real person and like all great people there are great stories told about them, these stories may not all be true. There are many variations of the stories about him too. But one thing that the story of Gog and Magog has in common with the rest of the Shahnameh and its tales of Sekander is: He is a compassionate conqueror who is here to defend the people. He doesn’t want to hurt anybody and he does not kill Gog and Magog; he lets them live their lives in their kingdom on the other side of the wall not being able to harm the outsiders. In parallel to the history books of Alexander, he never killed the Kings of the lands he conquered. He let them continue to rule but under his orders. But as we see in the story of Gog and Magog he couldn’t kill them but they couldn’t be integrated into with the rest of the world so instead of killing them all he has let them live in peace but in their own world. Alexander from the history books he was not about conquering and destroying he was about conquering and combining. He wished to share the knowledge of the world with the entire world and let us live as one.     

    How much is myth and how much is the truth is unknown The Shahnameh is only one of many tellings and interpretations of this story and that its roots go back further into many cultures that it is hard to pin down where this began. These cannibalistic monsters were terrors and thanks to Sekander the terrors of Gog and Magog are locked behind a wall where they cannot hurt us until the end of days. Depictions of these monsters still exist in a way to remind us of the dangers in this world, but is it just as important we know there are monsters. We need to know there are heroes, someone who will save us when all things are taken.  

By Kay Hawkins 2019