ABSTRACT

The word 'Golem' appears for the first time in Psalm 139, 16. However, the Golem is never actually described it remains an abstract entity. The myth began its literary history at a relatively late date the beginning of the nineteenth century while it came to prominence in relatively important works particularly during the Romantic period and around 1900, with the new Romanticism and Expressionism. The Romantics used the Polish version of the myth, but treated it so freely that their account of the Golem ceased to bear much relationship to the original story. The Golem is an automaton, and its inside is described in detail. Lion picks up this theme and enlarges on it, contrasting Lea, the primordial woman, the spiritual principle, with the Golem, the primordial man, the material principle. Written at the cross-roads between neo-Romanticism and Expressionism Der Golem, 1915, by Gustav Meyrink deserves special attention.