Monday, June 21, 2010

C.H.U.D.

Now for a much awaited post - what exactly is C.H.U.D.?
I'll leave aside the obvious Wikipedia description of the 1984 American horror flick and its resulting internet meme, though I'll leave you the link to it at the bottom (In true Wikipedia 'External Links' style). (1) Suffice to say the film's name stood for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller, and it came to mean any ugly annoying person.
The alternate meaning (ironically) refers to the primarily Estonian Finno-Ugric peoples, originating perhaps from Slavic chuzoi (foreign) or tshudnyi (attractive), described as exalted and beautiful; the pronunciation is different though. (2)
But then I noticed some interesting similarities:
An attribute of the Chuds or Tšuudi is 'white eyed' referring to their fair-coloured eyes. Here is a C.H.U.D. from a movie poster - white-eyed and beautiful (in it's mother's eyes, at least).

C.H.U.D. (1984) British VHS movie cover.
Copyright by respective movie studios.
Not enough? Well, the Chuds are supposed to have 'departed under the Earth', 'unwilling to remain subject to the White Tzar' (3), probably referring to the Christian Russian settlers encountered by these people; they literally went underground, and closed the passage with stones. I don't need to remind you that the "U.D." in C.H.U.D. stands for 'Underground Dweller' - getting interested? No? Okay, how's this:

From Forest Myths by Pavel F. Limerov (2005)
"The pagan Chudes, who had been the ally of the Eastern Slavs in the North from time immemorial and took very actively part in the ethnogenesis of Russians, was suddenly attributed demonic features. A medieval Russian author comments on the contact of these two cultures as follows: 'The most ancient inhabitants of this region – the barbaric and foul raw meat eaters and white-eyed Chudes, who, having come to the shores of White Lake (Beloye Ozero) plundered the region: burned down the settlements, devoured adolescents and babies, killed the adult and the old in many ways' (Krinichnaia 1987: 83)" (4)
Well, that seems like a perfect Cannibalistic Humanoid, the "C.H." factor. Sadly, their fabled beauty was written off in a fell swoop of the pen, and no libel laws in place at the time, even! There are even worse descriptions, but let's show these guys some compassion huh?

I have two explanations for all these links between the two Chuds
  1. Story writer Steph Abbott already knew about this folklore when he came up with the name at a party with C.H.U.D. actors John Heard and Daniel Stern - a perfect historic reference for white, Christian Americans battling demonic (and thus non-Christian) creatures who live underground just like the unfortunate pagan Chuds.
  2. I have stumbled upon something new which could be a contribution to the field of Ethnology? Sociolinguistics? Rhinoplasty? You tell me.
Meanwhile, I'll try and submit this little abstract to the Finno-Ugric Media Centre and see if they can correct/accept/ add to it.

(1) C.H.U.D. - Internet article, accessed 21 June, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.H.U.D.
(2) Chud - Internet article, accessed 21 June, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chud
(4) Limerov, Pavel F. (2005) Forest Myths: A Brief Overview of Ideologies before St. Stefan. http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol30/limerov.pdf

By the way, don't say rhinoplasty - that's corrective nose surgery.
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