Animated skeletons in a woodcut from La Danse Macabre by Hans Holbein the Younger (1538).

An animated skeleton is a type of physically manifested undead often found in fantasy, gothic and horror fiction, and mythical art. Most are human skeletons, but they can also be from any creature or race found on Earth or in the fantasy world. Image File history File links From the Dance of Death by Hans Holbein the Younger (1491). ... Image File history File links From the Dance of Death by Hans Holbein the Younger (1491). ... Four horsemen of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Dürer Ukiyo-e woodcut, Ishiyama Moon by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1889) Woodcut is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface... From The Dance of Death by Hans Holbein La Danse Macabre, also called Dance of death, La Danza Macabra, or Totentanz, is a late-medieval allegory on the universality of death: no matter ones station in life, the dance of death united all. ... A 1543 portrait miniature of Hans Holbein the Younger by Lucas Horenbout Holbeins 1533 painting The Ambassadors Hans Holbein the Younger (c. ... Events Treaty of Nagyvarad. ... Undead is a collective name for mythological beings that are deceased yet behave as if alive. ... For other uses, see Fantasy (disambiguation). ... Strawberry Hill, an English villa in the Gothic revival style, built by seminal Gothic writer Horace Walpole Gothic fiction is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. ... “Horror story” redirects here. ... The word mythology (from the Greek μυολογία mythología, from mythologein to relate myths, from mythos, meaning a narrative, and logos, meaning speech or argument) literally means the (oral) retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use the supernatural to interpret natural events and... This article is about the philosophical concept of Art. ... A human skeleton The human skeleton consists of both fused and individual bones supported and supplemented by ligaments, tendons, muscles and cartilage. ... Many fantasy stories and worlds call their main sapient humanoid species races rather than species. ... This article is about Earth as a planet. ... A fantasy world is a type of fictional universe in which magic or other similar powers work. ...

Myth and folklore

• Death personified: Animated human skeletons are known to have personified death in Western culture since the Middle Ages. The Grim Reaper is often depicted as a hooded skeleton holding a scythe (and occasionally an hourglass), which has been attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger (1538). Death as one of the biblical horsemen of the Apocalypse has been depicted as a skeleton riding a horse. The Triumph of Death is a 1562 painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder depicting an army of skeletons raiding a town and slaughtering everyone.
• Day of the Dead: Figurines and images of skeletons doing routine things are common in Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration where skulls symbolize life and their familiar circumstances invite levity.
• The Boy Who Wanted the Willies is Brothers Grimm (German) fairy tale in which a boy named Hans joins a circle of dancing skeletons.
• Mekurabe are the rolling skulls with eyeballs who menaced Taira no Kiyomori in Japanese folklore.
• In Scottish folklore, the island of Eilean Mor of the Flannan Isles, is the island of the dead. On December 15, 1990, crew members of a ship saw skeletons rowing a ghost ship, so they claim.[1]

A Western depiction of Death as a skeleton carrying a scythe. ... For this articles equivalent regarding the East, see Eastern culture. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Death, personified is an anthropomorphic figure or a fictional character who has existed in mythology and popular culture since the earliest days of storytelling. ... A traditional wooden scythe A scythe (IPA: , most likely from Old English siðe, sigði) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing and reaping grass or crops. ... For other uses, see Hourglass (disambiguation). ... A 1543 portrait miniature of Hans Holbein the Younger by Lucas Horenbout Holbeins 1533 painting The Ambassadors Hans Holbein the Younger (c. ... Events Treaty of Nagyvarad. ... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ... Four horsemen redirects here. ... The Triumph of Death The Triumph of Death is an oil on panel, approximately 117 by 162 centimeters, painted c. ... Bruegels The Painter and The Connoisseur drawn c. ... “Dia De Los Muertos” redirects here. ... It has been suggested that temporal fenestra be merged into this article or section. ... For information about the other uses of the name, see Brothers Grimm (disambiguation). ... Statue of Taira no Kiyomori, Miyajima, Hiroshima Prefecture Taira no Kiyomori (平 清盛 1118 - 1181) was a general of the late Heian period of Japan. ... The Flannan Isles (Scottish Gaelic: na h-Eileanan Flannach) are an island group in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, lying several miles west of Lewis. ...

Modern fiction

Hanging skeletons liven up the ceiling of one of the side corridors of the main hall of the Natural History Museum of London.

The animated skeleton featured in some Gothic fiction. Probably its most terrifying appearance was in "Thurnley Abbey" (1908) by Perceval Landon, originally published in his short story collection Raw Edges. It is reprinted in many modern anthologies, such as The 2nd Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories and The Penguin Book of Horror Stories. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2112 × 2816 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2112 × 2816 pixel, file size: 2. ... Hanging is the suspension of a person by a ligature, usually a cord wrapped around the neck, causing death. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other similarly-named museums see Museum of Natural History. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Perceval Landon was an English writer and journalist, now best remembered for his classic and much reprinted ghost story Thurnley Abbey. ...

Undead skeletons play a more active, and less symbolic, role in modern fantasy fiction. Skeletons might be given 'life' by a more powerful undead or necromancer. When raised by another, skeletons are a mindless set of animated bones, brutal and virtually immune to a piercing attack that would only harm the flesh they lack. In many stories, legions of undead skeletons are raised as perfectly obedient and expendable foot-soldiers or guards. Unlike zombies, skeletons are rarely portrayed as self-directing or independently mobile. Since most skeletons are controlled by another source, they cannot make their own intelligent decisions, and can easily be led into ambushes, traps, or hazardous terrain. Fairly weak individually, their strength lies in numbers, like zombies. For other definitions of fantasy see fantasy (psychology). ... Necromancy is divination by raising the spirits of the dead. ... Body piercing is a form of body modification. ... A group of actors portraying zombies in a film A zombie or zombi is an animated human body devoid of a soul. ...

In old cartoons and old dark rides, a running gag personifies the old saying 'skeletons in the closet' by actual skeletons in the closet. Meeting Tigger at the Dark ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. ...

• In Lilith, the 1895 fantasy novel by George MacDonald: "Vane's father refused to sleep there and is, instead, forced to do battle with skeletons in a haunted wood."
• Skeletons dance and play musical instruments in the 1929 Walt Disney cartoon The Skeleton Dance.
• In the climax of the 1959 film House on Haunted Hill, a man falls into a vat of acid and emerges as a walking skeleton.
• The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) features a fight between Sinbad and an animated skeleton.
• Skeleton pirates feature in the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom water rides The Pirates of the Caribbean. They would later reappear in Disney's The Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
• In the Legend of Zelda gaming series there are many enemies who take the form of animated skeletons, the most well known being Stalfos.
• In the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts, whose stop motion animation techniques were accomplished by Ray Harryhausen, a number of skeletons are animated against the Argonauts. These skeletons are capable of reassembling themselves when their bones are scattered, and are only defeated when they are led off of a cliff into the ocean.
• In Dungeons & Dragons (and games it inspired), animated skeletons are undead similar to zombies, but skeletons are completely devoid of flesh. Edged and piercing weapons, such as swords and arrows, are mostly ineffective against skeletons; only blunt weapons, such as war hammers, are effective at knocking the bones apart. Liches, which are typically intelligent and powerful spellcasters, might be mistaken for a simple animated skeleton. Clerics often have the ability to repel or destroy undead creatures, of which animated skeletons are usually the weakest such adversaries. Animated skeletons are not coerced by mind affecting spells; they cannot be rendered unconscious and cannot tire.
• They are often used in fictional undead armies as standard troops, for example in the Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings armies of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
• The arcade game Dragon's Lair contains a swarm of animated biting skulls.
• Skeletor is the skeleton villain in The Masters of the Universe cartoon series and movie.
• In the 1985 movie Return of the Living Dead, the zombie at the end is an animated skeleton who, despite his other organs and tissues having rotted away, still has eyes.
• In the 1987 movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Freddy's zombie is an animated skeleton.
• An army of Skeleton pirates plays a crucial role in the computer game Curse of Monkey Island.
• In the computer game Serious Sam and its sequels, Kleer Skeletons are one of the most frequently encountered and one of the most dangerous enemies of all.
• The cartoon TV shows Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs featured Mr. Skullhead, an animated skeleton.
• The 1993 movie Army of Darkness features an army of deadites who, unlike those in the rest of the series, are animated skeletons.
• In the 1993 Tim Burton film The Nightmare Before Christmas, the main character, Jack Skellington, is a walking skeleton. In Burton's later film Corpse Bride, many skeletons were depicted dancing or playing jazz instruments, similar to Disney's The Skeleton Dance.
• The Hercules TV series, starring Kevin Sorbo, featured an episode in which Hercules fights computer animated skeletons.
• The 1994 animated series Skeleton Warriors was about animated skeletons.
• The 1998 computer game Grim Fandango was about animated skeletons.
• In the 1999 movie The Mummy, Imhotep controls skeletons for this purpose. With no free will or fear of death, they cannot disobey commands.
• Spy Kids 2 features animated skeletons very similar to those in Jason and the Argonauts.
• Ace Lightning features an undead skeleton villain, Lord Fear.
• In the final volume of Megan Lerseth's Sadie Sequence, King Richard III re-enters his own exhumed remains, briefly becoming an animated skeleton.
• The Revenant from Doom are skeletons that shoot rockets at the player.
• In the Sega Saturn game Mr. Bones, the main character is an undead blues musician trying to save the world from destruction at the hands of the evil Da Goulian.
• Killer Instinct is a fighting game that spawned a sequel, Killer Instinct 2. Both games contained Spinal, an animated skeleton that fights with a sword and shield.
• In the Xbox game Grabbed by the Ghoulies, skeletons are among the various "ghoulie" enemies that the player encounters.
• The Super Mario Bros. Nintendo games feature creatures called Dry Bones who are the reanimated skeletons of koopas.
• The hero of the MediEvil series of Playstation games, Sir Daniel Fortesque, is a skeleton that was accidentally animated when the evil sorcerer Zarok conquered the game world with armies of zombies.
• The game Puzzle Pirates features skeletons (referred to as "skellies" in the game), which roam random islands and fight swordfights with the players.
• The show The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is a cartoon that features the Grim Reaper as a skeleton, the Reaper named "Grim" in the show has been forced to be Billy and Mandy's best friend forever because he lost a game of limbo on the first episode of the series.
• The manga and anime One Piece features a skeleton named Brook.
• 2006 saw the release of a new genre of screensaver, with the release of Skeleton Adventures by Anasoft Consulting. Telling the story of Sly Slim from Shale County, using fully rendered 3D animation and Dolby Digital sound, Sly is seen in various scenes spending his nights sleeping, dancing or scaring children.
• The character Skulduggery Pleasent, from the book of the same name written by Derek Landy, is a re-animated skeleton.
• In the MMORPG Runescape, there are various levels of dangerous skeletons roaming around different regions.
• In the Alexandria levels of the game Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, the player will repeatedly encounter undead skeletons.