Folklore in Army of Darkness Everyone Missed

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On my quest to analyze the best Arthurian legend films from each decade, I hit a bit of a snag in the 90s.

Then I remembered my boomstick.

I mean my childhood.

And all those hours spent  watching Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness.

Which, as we all know, is a loose adaptation of Mark Twain’s 1889 novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

We’ll get into it.

I’m I. E. Kneverday and at the end of this video I will be grading 1992’s Army of Darkness on its folklorical accuracy.

Along the way, we’ll learn about witches in ditches, heroes with high-tech replacement hands, Lilliputian doppelgangers, and we’ll crack open the Necronomicon and say the magic words altogether.

The Medieval Dead: How Army of Darkness (The Evil Dead 3) Succeeds as a Standalone Film

It’s the only threequel in my human flesh-bound book that succeeds both as a stakes-raising trilogy-capper and a standalone dark fantasy adventure.

Yes, 1992’s Army of Darkness is a follow-up to 1981’s The Evil Dead and 1987’s Evil Dead II, which get recapped in this film’s opener.

It is the time travel premise, of course, sending Bruce’s Campbell’s Ash to the Middle Ages, that allows Army of Darkness to thrive as a standalone film.

It’s your classic fish out of water story, with a very specific getting-sent-to-Camelot twist.

From Kandar to Camelot: How Army of Darkness Reimagines Arthurian Legend

Granted, in Army of Darkness, Marcus Gilbert’s Lord Arthur, not King Arthur, rules Castle Kandar, not Camelot.

Which reminds me of how Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian is redubbed Lord Kalidor in 1985’s Red Sonja.

But I digress.

In a similar vein, Arthur’s trusted, spinach-chinned advisor, Ian Abercrombie’s Wiseman, is never explicitly referred to as Merlin—in fact, his name is given as Wiseman John in the script.

But obviously he is playing a Merlin-esque character.

Of course, the biggest problem with viewing Army of Darkness through an Arthurian lens is that the years don’t line up.

Army of Darkness’s Biggest Deviation From Arthurian Legend

The movie is set around the year 1300.

Which is nearly a thousand years late since the earliest Arthurian legends, recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 1100s, begin with Uther Pendragon ruling in the 400s, and his son Arthur taking over in the 500s before dying in the Battle of Camlann in 542.

But as other medieval writers build upon and alter Arthurian lore, the culture depicted in those stories often evolves to match the times. 

For example, while Thomas Malory’s masterwork Le Morte D’Arthur or The Death of Arthur ostensibly sticks to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s original timeline, Malory’s depictions of chivalric knights in shining plate armor participating in jousting tournaments more closely resemble an era closer to his own—the 1400s.

So really, one could say screenwriters Sam Raimi and his brother Ivan Raimi were being more intellectually honest by setting their Arthurian adventure in 1300.

Then again, there’s zero indication that the Raimi bros. actually researched any of the old Arthurian legends. 

Instead, it’s much more likely that a Mark Twain novel served as the film’s primary inspiration.

What Is Army of Darkness Based On? (Mark Twain’s 1889 Novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court)

The protagonist of 1889’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is the mechanical engineer Hank Morgan.

Who works where?

At the boomstick factory.

Specifically the Colt Arms Factory.

After receiving a bop on the head, Hank wakes up in medieval England, is captured by a knight, is taken to a castle, and, after a brief interrogation, is sentenced to death.

Sound familiar?

But here’s where things differ:

Hank doesn’t go to the year 1300, he goes to the year 528.

Which is important because there was a solar eclipse that year, which Hank conveniently is aware of, and that knowledge helps him save his own life.

Meanwhile, in Army of Darkness, Ash uses a chainsaw to achieve the same result.

From there, the narratives naturally (supernaturally?) diverge, but in both stories, our modern American protagonist uses futuristic technology, including guns and explosives, to battle his enemies.

Damsels in Distress: Sandy in A Connecticut Yankee vs. Sheila in Army of Darkness

What’s more, both stories feature a distressed damsel who becomes a love interest for our protagonist. 

In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, that’s Demoiselle Alisande a la Carteloise, a.k.a. Sandy. 

Hank goes on an adventure to help Sandy rescue some mistresses held captive by ogres in a castle, only to discover that—spoiler alert—the mistresses are pigs, the ogres are swineherds, and the castle is a pigsty.

So, yeah, Sandy is under some sort of enchantment. 

Which Embeth Davidtz’s Sheila would certainly know a thing or two about.

And I’d be remiss not to mention that in the book, Hank and Sandy together encounter Morgan Le Fay, Arthur’s sister and one of Camelot’s most sinister and powerful opponents.

Still, it’s possible the juxtaposition of Sandy and Morgan, coupled with Sandy’s aforementioned enchanted state, led the Raimis to create the character of Sheila.

Who famously gets a Deadite makeover in the film’s third act, becoming one of Castle Kandar’s most sinister and powerful opponents.

What Is a Deadite in Evil Dead Lore?

For those unfamiliar with Evil Dead lore, a Deadite is a parasitic spirit that can possess the bodies and/or skeletons of the living and the dead.

Speaking of Deadites, the witch whom Ash squares off against in the pit is presumably a Deadite. 

But the concept and imagery behind this Pit Witch has roots in folklore and mythology.

The Origins of the Pit Witch in Army of Darkness

In Somerset, England, for example, a definitely witch-shaped stalagmite in the Wookey Hole Caves gave rise to a legend that a Glastonbury monk battled a witch here and turned her to stone.

There’s also the Germanic figure Frau Holle, of Grimm Brothers fame, who lives at the bottom of a well.

And her equivalent in Alpine folklore, Perchta, who—checks notes—will sometimes fill a person’s belly with stones so they’ll sink to the bottom of a well.

Uhhh.

But of course the grand-mommy of all of these subterranean witches is the so-called Witch of Endor.

No, not that one.

The Witch of Endor is a biblical necromancer who summons the soul of the dead prophet Samuel at the behest of King Saul.

Not such a great idea it turns out.

But the use of the term “witch” here to describe this necromantic character has long been debated, with “Mistress of the Spirits” being preferred by some scholars and, get this, “Lady of the Pit” being preferred by others.

The High-Tech Metal Hand in Mythology, History, and Pop Culture: From the Irish Nuada of the Silver Hand to Ash

As for Ash building himself a high-tech metal hand out of a plate armor gauntlet in Army of Darkness…

That doesn’t happen in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

However, Hank still makes a whole bunch of sophisticated stuff, including a telephone, a telegraph, a bicycle, electric fences, trains, steamboats…

So Ash making the cyborg hand isn’t all that far removed from the source material.

Nor is tricking out his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale, which becomes…the Death Coaster.

Perhaps the strangest coincidence, if we can call it that, is that in the earliest Arthurian legends, Arthur’s most loyal knight, Sir Bedevere, the diplomat, military strategist, and frontline warrior who helps Arthur defeat the Giant of Mont Saint-Michel and the Roman Emperor Lucius Tiberius…

…is one-handed.

So in a sense, the one-handed Ash is filling that Sir Bedevere role.

With a bit of a sci-fi flourish. 

Although, the argument could be made, and has been made, that this sci-fi flourish isn’t inherently anachronistic.

Because there is an Irish myth from the early Medieval period that features a hero losing a hand in battle and getting it replaced with a “silver hand that moved as well as any other hand.”

That character is Nuada of the Silver Hand, king of Ireland’s divine tribe, the Tuatha Dé Danann.

And if you’re wondering why this is even relevant, I mean it’s probably not.

I doubt the Raimi brothers were reading Irish mythology.

But Arthurian legend does have Celtic roots, and not just Brittonic or Brythonic Celtic roots, but some Gaelic/Goidelic roots as well.

It’s also possible that the historical Götz von Berlichingen a.k.a. Götz of the Iron Hand, who got his hand blown off by a cannonball in 1504, inspired Ash’s onscreen tinkering. 

As Götz famously built himself a mechanical prosthetic hand that allowed him to take the reins of a horse, hoist a shield, and write with a quill. 

Back in the realm of fiction, Luke Skywalker is another one-handed hero who receives a metal, mechanical replacement. That’s in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back.

Meanwhile, in 1991, the year before Army of Darkness’s release, Terminator 2 shocked audiences when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 revealed the cybernetic skeleton hand beneath his skin.

True, in that movie, the T-800’s entire skeleton is metallic, but the imagery of the hand and those articulating fingers could have provided some inspiration.

And in the comics, Cable, Misty Knight, Donald Pierce, Ulysses Klaue, and KGBeast, to name a few metal-handed heroes and villains, were all introduced early enough to have potentially influenced the Raimi brothers ahead of this movie as well.

So I think the bigger takeaway here is that the character-with-the-enhanced-hand-prosthetic trope is so widespread across media, there isn’t one example to which we can definitively point as having inspired the movie.

Unlike with this next scene. 

Attack of the Lilliputian Dopplegangers: How Gulliver’s Travels Inspired Army of Darkness

Know the scene in the windmill when Ash is attacked by miniature versions of himself?

That’s a direct nod to Gulliver’s Travels.

Jonathan Swift’s 1726 satire sees the titular protagonist Lemuel Gulliver shipwrecked and washed ashore on the mythical island of Lilliput, whose inhabitants are sub-six-inches tall.

The Lilliputians restrain the incapacitated traveler by binding him with strings staked into the ground.

The imagery in the equivalent Army of Darkness scene is unmistakable. 

With Ash Williams standing in (lying in?) for Lemuel Gulliver.

The Necronomicon Explained: The Origin of Fiction’s Most Popular Grimoire

Now, it is finally time we turn our attention to the film’s primary MacGuffin. And yes, I’m calling it a MacGuffin:

The Necronomicon. Also known as the Book of the Dead.

To quote the film’s opening recap:

“The Necronomicon. An ancient Sumarrian text, bound in human flesh and inked in human blood. It contained bizarre burial rites, prophesies…and instruction for demon resurrection. It was never meant for the world of the living.”

To clarify, no, the Necronomicon is not the same Book of the Dead we see in 1999’s The Mummy.

That one’s actually a loose adaptation of a historical Egyptian book, or collection of texts, which in Egyptian was originally called rw nw prt m hrw, or “Spells of Coming Forth by Day.”

In contrast, the Necronomicon was invented by the famed cosmic horror and eldritch author H. P. Lovecraft.

First appearing in his 1924 short story The Hound, Lovecraft’s fictional occult text doesn’t originate in ancient Sumeria.

Rather, it is composed in the 700s by Abdul Alhazred, a mentally unstable poet from Yemen who worships the cosmic entities Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu.

This according to Lovecraft’s 1927 “History of the Necronomicon,” which also gives the original Arabic name of the text as Al Azif:

“azif being the word used by Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) suppos’d to be the howling of daemons.”

Is that actually true?

(Shakes head.)

But what is true is that there were books sort of like The Necronomicon circulating in the late medieval and renaissance periods.

The most popular of these grimoires, or magic textbooks, include the 15th-century Greater Key of Solomon, fragments of which date back to the 14th century.

And more pertinently to the story at hand:

The Lesser Key of Solomon, which was compiled in the mid-17th century but pulled from earlier sources. 

Whereas the OG Key of Solomon (Clavicula Salomonis) provides instructions for a broad array of magical experiments—you’ve got your purifications, incantations, calendar-reading, talisman-making…

The Lesser Key of Solomon (Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis) is infamous for its focus on…

Summoning demons.

Specifically, there’s a section at the beginning known as the Ars Goetia (or Go-aysha), which has a demon glossary.

There are 72 demons or chief spirits in total, and it’s presented almost like a video game menu, where you choose your character based on their attributes.

Oh, look, the 59th spirit, Oriax, can “transformeth men.”

Kinda vague. 

While the 57th spirit, Voso, can “change a Man into any Shape that the Exorcist pleaseth, so that he that is so changed will not think any other thing than that he is in verity that Creature or Thing he is changed into.”

Very specific. 

Then there’s d’Artagnan.

Sorry, Dantalion, the 71st spirit. 

Who appears “in the Form of a Man with many Countenances, all Men’s and Women’s Faces; and he hath a Book in his right hand…

“[H]e knoweth the Thoughts of all Men and Women, and can change them at his Will. 

“He can cause Love, and show the Similitude of any person, and show the same by a Vision, let them be in what part of the World they Will.”

And no, I didn’t pick these spirits at random. 

I was searching for a link to Evil Ash. 

And I mean, a book-loving demon that can manipulate its appearance to look like anyone. 

And who can mess with a person’s reality?

Dantalion is a strong match for our film’s chief antagonist. 

Side note: I also explore The Lessery Key of Solomon—and demonology more generally—in my Nosferatu video if you want to learn more.

The Magic Words in Army of Darkness Explained: What Does Klaatu Barada Nikto Mean?

Right now, my question is:

Do the magic words the Wise Man implores Ash to memorize have a basis in a grimoire or some other form of occult literature, be it historical or Lovecraftian?

And the answer is:

No.

But “Clatoo, verata, Nicto,” does have a basis in…

Early 1950s Sci-Fi.

Yeah, turns out in the original, 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still, the non-Keanu Reeves one, the main alien dude guy tells leading lady Helen that if anything should happen to him, she must say this phrase to the robot Gort.

It’s essentially a failsafe password that stops the robot from destroying Earth.

Similarly, in Army of Darkness, the words are intended to disarm the Necronomicon.

If you don’t say them or say them incorrectly, the world gets overrun with demon skeletons.

The Skeleton Warriors in Army of Darkness Explained: The Spartoi—Jason and the Argonauts Connection

Speaking of which:

It’s long been understood that these stop-motion skeleton warriors are an homage to 1963’s Jason and the Argonauts.

In which the legendary animator Ray Harryhausen’s pioneering stop-motion skills were on full display in the form of a skeleton fight.

This also means that the undead skeleton army in Army of Darkness was indirectly inspired by Greek mythology. 

In the myths, the Spartoi are armed warriors who rise from the ground. 

Granted, they aren’t actually corpses—instead, they grow from the teeth of a dragon slayed by the Phoenician prince Cadmus. 

The goddess Athena gives Cadmus half of the dragon’s teeth and instructs him to sow them…

But it’s a trap!

Because a bunch of armed warriors spring up from the ground and attack him.

In one version, Cadmus turns the Spartoi (or “sown men”) against each other and then the remaining handful help him found the city of Thebes.

In another version, Zeus has to intervene and save Cadmus.

Regardless, Jason’s encounter with the Spartoi has become the more widely known story. 

In it, Jason, leader of the Argonauts, is questing for the Golden Fleece when King Aeëtes challenges him to sow dragon’s teeth provided by Athena.

You know what happens next:

Spooky scary skeletons.

And like Cadmus before him, Jason tricks the skeleton warriors into fighting each other by throwing a stone in the middle of them.

It’s the oldest trick in the demon-summoning book.

Final Thought: Why Army of Darkness Works (And What Could Have Made It Better)

And when we put all of these elements together:

the Mark Twain medieval time travel setup,

the King Arthur and Merlin stand-ins,

the battle with the pit witch,

the construction of a metal hand,

the quest for the Necronomicon,

the Lilliputian twerps,

the doppelganger demon,

the magic words… 

There are so many literary, folkloric, and sci-fi elements that fuse seamlessly into this deliberately unserious, slapstick-filled adventure…

It’s hard to be critical.

But if you were to force me, at chainsaw point, I’d say:

I don’t like that the Wise Man helps Ash.

I prefer the adversarial relationship between medieval wizard and time-traveler that develops in Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

A natural result of the kingdom’s formerly most knowledgeable man being confronted by a dude who knows about electricity and engine power.

Who can solve the problems the old man couldn’t. Thus, a clash of egos ensues. 

Folklorical Accuracy Grade for Army of Darkness (1992)

So, for its folklorical accuracy grade, I’m giving Army of Darkness…

…a B+.

And if you enjoyed this video please subscribe, leave a like, and comment:

“Well, hello, Mr. Fancypants!”

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Thanks for reading.

Fan of folk horror?

You might be interested in my short film Samhain, available over on the Irish Myths channel.

More the reading type?

Check out…

Neon Druid: An Anthology of Urban Celtic Fantasy

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Samhain in Your Pocket

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Irish Monsters in Your Pocket

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