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Encyclopedia > Dungeons
For other uses, see Dungeon (disambiguation).
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The dungeon of the Château de Loches in France

A dungeon (or donjon) is Old French, sourced from the Latin "dominus", a lord. In its original Medieval usage the donjon is the keep, the main tower of a castle which formed the final defensive position the garrison could retreat to when outer fortifications were overcome. It was the strongest, or only, tower in the Castle. There were no windows in the lower part of the tower in order to strengthen the walls. The donjon was a safe, if not uncomfortable, place to keep prisoners and was used mainly for this purpose, once more luxurious housing for the lord of the castle was constructured. An example is found at Bothwell Castle.


It has evolved to also mean an underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle. Although many real-life dungeons are simply a single plain room with a heavy door or with access only from a hatchway or trapdoor in the floor of the room above, the use of dungeons for torture, along with their association to common human fears of being trapped underground, have made dungeons a powerful metaphor in a variety of contexts.


See also


  Results from FactBites:
 
Dungeon Keeper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (1902 words)
The game puts the player into the role of the "dungeon keeper": instead of valiantly storming a dungeon like a hero, killing monsters and taking the treasures, the player builds the dungeons, recruits the monsters, sets the traps, and fends off the (computer-controlled) heroes that regularly attempt to come in.
The Deeper Dungeons is an expansion pack that was released in November 1997.
Dungeon Keeper 2 is a sequel released in June 1999.
Dungeon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (223 words)
A dungeon (derived from the Old French donjon, from the Latin dominus, "lord"), in its original medieval usage, was the keep, the main tower of a castle which formed the final defensive position the garrison could retreat to when outer fortifications were overcome.
The dungeon was a safe, if not comfortable, place to keep prisoners and was used mainly for this purpose, once more luxurious housing for the lord of the castle was constructured.
In 1613 Anton Praetorius described the terrible situation of the prisoners in the dungeons in his book Gründlicher Bericht über Zauberei und Zauberer (Thorough Report about Witchcraft and Witches).
  More results at FactBites »


 

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