Tradition: French Mythology
Alternative Names: –
Category: Dwarf, Vampire,
The Myth
Scarbo is a vampiric dwarf who haunts the rooms of poets, artists, and writers during the night. He enters their chambers to torment them, creeping through the darkness with razor-sharp fangs. He bites his victim’s neck and then cauterizes the wound with one of his metal fingers, heated until it glows red. Throughout the night he clambers around the room, scratching at bedposts and rafters while whispering threats directly into his victim’s ears.
Scarbo delights in describing the fate he has prepared for those he torments. He speaks in detail of their burial shroud, the funeral he will arrange, and the grieving children who will weep after their death. As the moon rises, the dwarf becomes increasingly enormous, filling the room with his growing presence. He remains there throughout the night, terrorizing his victim until dawn approaches.
When morning nears, Scarbo begins to fade. His monstrous form flickers, turns blue and translucent, and finally disappears like a candle that has been snuffed out. His strange nocturnal presence became immortalized through the Gothic prose poem Gaspard de la Nuit and, later, Maurice Ravel’s famous piano composition of the same name, whose extraordinary difficulty mirrors the fiendish nature of the creature.
Sources
“Scarbo.” A Book of Creatures. March 25, 2015. https://abookofcreatures.com/2015/03/25/scarbo/