The Consumption of Human Flesh in the Works of Neil Gaiman

Bodily consumption of one character by another appears in several places in Neil Gaiman’s work as a medium for a variety of purposes, most prominently the transfer of power and the fulfillment of an eternal and archetypal role. From Sandman and American Gods to Harlequin Valentine, beings of several different backgrounds consume humans or parts of humans and gain power as a result of that act.

The only example of someone eating human flesh in the works that we have read so far occurs at the end of Harlequin Valentine, when Missy, knowing whose heart she has, eats it and takes on the role of “Harlequin”. Since the general consensus is that eating a heart is not going to transform a person into the previous owner of said heart, it can be concluded that either this heart is special or the actions performed on the heart have elevated it to a higher spiritual state. When the Harlequin nailed his heart to her door and the subsequent scene where Missy eats it remembering that she is not eating the heart of a human is key. What she is actually eating is a significant portion of the soul of an archetypal stock character in the form of a human heart. Bearing that in mind makes the act seem less grisly and thus it can be more acceptable to the reader. Her subsequent transformation into the Harlequin lends a new meaning to the adage “you are what you eat.”

Early in American Gods Gaiman provides a vignette of a “Queen of Sheba” like figure, Bilquis. Bilquis, a prostitute in LA, traps one of her johns into worshiping her as a goddess allowing her to use his lust as a power source and ultimately she consumes him with her vulva. She requests that the man, a film producer, light a candle and “worship her with his body” (American Gods 29). During the act of lovemaking, as he calls out epithets and names of praise to her, he slowly gives up his soul in offering to her. As he offers up his soul, he sacrifices his body, slipping into her completely. She is revitalized by his energy and continues to exist as a result of the rite. As the act occurs vaginally as opposed to orally it is not ingestion, but it is a consumption of human flesh and therefore a valid example of the transfer of power that such an act can represent in Gaiman’s work.

In the world of American Gods, the power of the gods is derived from faith and belief, hence the central premise of the novel, a war between the old gods and the new ones. Bilquis needs the worship of her johns to survive. She needs to receive the devotion and adoration of her victims to continue to exist. Their self-sacrifice on the altar of lust generates energy that she as a nonhuman divine entity is able to feed on.

Another, less visceral example of flesh consumption in American Gods is Mr. Jaquel, Anubis, tasting the organs of the patrons of the funeral parlor he runs with Mr. Ibis, Thoth. This serves a purpose less familiar to our conception of survival, but essential to whom and what Jaquel is. It is not the flesh that Anubis feeds on and the act is not in fact a feeding, rather it is a fulfillment of the role that he plays in the universe. An abiding theme of Gaiman’s work, from Odd and the Frost Giants to American Gods is the eternal and unchanging nature of gods; it is an essential part of their role in the universe that they perform as they do. In Gaiman’s work the gods tend to represent the archetypal and unchanging forces that govern the universe. In that light it is not for energy that Jaquel eats the organs of his clients, rather a fulfillment of his role of god of embalming and attendant to the weighing of the heart in the Hall of Judgment. He is playing his role as a jackal, a scavenger, yet it seems to Shadow to be “respectful, not obscene” (American Gods 201).

In Sandman: Season of Mists the demon Azazel attempts to consume the power of Dream in the heart of his demesne. In the graphic novel he is depicted as a cloud of darkness like a tear in the fabric of the universe covered with sets of sharp and predatory teeth. While he does not succeed in his attempts to consume Dream, this example is significant in the way that he describes the act. Azazel makes it perfectly clear that what he desires more than the body is the soul that is attached to the body (Sandman # 27). The flesh is a vehicle for the spiritual energy that he desires, much the way food is a vehicle for the nutrients that we need. Here the intended consumption is not actually achieved. However, because this is the point where the significance of such an act is most explicitly described it therefore bears mentioning.

The uniting theme of these examples is not only that they involve the consumption of human flesh, but also that spiritual preparation went into the acts. Bilquis prepares her victim by having him worship her. He empties his soul into the act of lovemaking and she is able to take that piece of his soul and use it. Ultimately his body is a vessel for the spiritual energy that the victim has infused it with. He pours all of his energy into his lust for her and brings forth his soul as a result of that total outpouring of emotion; he willingly and joyfully sacrifices his soul to her. Harlequin plucks his heart and love for Missy out of his chest and that takes a good deal of his soul with it; as a stock character he is more spiritual than material and so consuming part of his soul has a much larger effect on Missy than the body and spiritual energy of the materialist film producer that Bilquis consumes and the small tastes that Jaquel makes in the funeral parlor. All of these examples are brought about by acts of love, extremely pleasurable experiences or holy and reverent acts. Love is what allows Harlequin to offer up his soul to Missy and love, or rather its more primal counterpart, allows Bilquis to feed. Jacquel eats as he does in reverence and love for those who have passed on. This is in fact the ultimate nature of sacrifice: it is a material offering infused with spiritual significance, much the way a gas may be trapped by bubbling it through water, the spiritual energy of a sacrifice could be fixed in the material being offered. 

While gruesome and unpleasant for the reader, the acts of consumption play a pivotal role in the lives of the characters involved, acts of transformation that lead them into a new role or preserve their existence. These scenes reflect cycles of predator and prey made more acceptable by the fact that the aspect that is useful to the predator lies not in the flesh, but in the spiritual energy that the flesh has been endowed with. The power that the predators have gained allows them a larger role in the cosmic scheme of things. It is the cycle of nature that moves beyond the material and into the esoteric.