Gog and Magog: The Clans of Chaos in World Literature

"Gog and Magog originate in the Bible and Quran, where they feature as savage tribes, threatening a settled people. They are held back by an iron wall built to protect the civilized lands by a figure who has been identified in the Islamic tradition as Alexander the Great. The story has been elaborated in the traditions of diverse cultures from Indonesia to Europe, in genres ranging from exegesis to apocalypse, folk stories and in folk religion, not excluding the contemporary folk religion of the Internet. The figures are constantly reinterpreted as the figures of the enemies of order change: for the Persians of Ferdowsi's time, they are Turks; for contemporary Israelis, they are Arabs; while Arabs may identify any figure of power who presages the end of the world with Gog and Magog." "The articles deal with Gog and Magog in Indonesia, the Persian-speaking and Arabic-speaking worlds, and in the West, in both classical and contemporary cultures. Naturally, they are part of the required caste in the Alexander romances, where they contrast with the power and virtue of the hero. In Indonesia, they figure as "Juja-Makjuja" in a Javanese apocalypse, in which the side of evil is associated with the Dutch colonial presence. In medieval Western Europe, they are an evil people contained somewhere in the East that will break loose and wreak havoc over the civilized world. In the Byzantine tradition, Gog and Magog are represented as creatures with dogs' heads and snakes' tongues, while on the covers of contemporary Arab apocalyptic literature, they may be giants or half-humans and are sometimes associated with flying saucers and the Bermuda Triangle."