Holy HorrorSummer 2025I have spent a significant amount of time this year working on a large linocut of Samson.If you are unfamiliar with Samson’s story, or just haven’t read it for a while, you can find it in Judges 13-16 in the Old Testament of the Bible. Reading it should take about half an hour, if that. It isn’t a boring one, I promise.There are two modern stories that both remind me of Samson and I think help us moderns better grasp what this story is and what it is for.These tales are the story of Túrin from JRR Tolkien’s published Silmarillion, and the 2024 remake of the vampire story Nosferatu, directed by Robert Eggers.Túrin is the main character in multiple versions of a story Tolkien tells as an integral part of the mythical First Age of his legendarium.Túrin’s father is a great captain of men who is taken prisoner by the Dark Lord Morgoth, bound to a seat high above the earth and forced, like we the reader, to watch the lives of his children tragically unfold.As we journey through Túrin’s life, we witness someone dealt an incredibly difficult hand by circumstance, who also continually makes really terrible decisions. Chances are, you may know someone in real life like this.Both tales force readers to confront whether they can root for a protagonist that displays remarkable bravery and resilience whilst also committing appalling acts of mass murder (in Samson’s case) or accidental incest and amicide in Turin’s.As with Samson, readers are often drawn into interpreting the story of Túrin as a morality tale; primarily a lesson about how or how not to live our lives.These same readers are often divided on whether Túrin is a mere victim of his circumstances and of the malice of Morgoth, or whether he is an antihero or even a villain who damns his friends and family and causes the collapse of an Elven kingdom through his arrogance and stubbornness.Samson is often presented as a cautionary tale about what happens if you don’t respect your parents and don’t obey God, or sometimes more maliciously as a warning against trusting women.I believe both tales actively resist being read so simply and are much deeper stories that engage with (but don’t necessarily resolve) some of the most essential and troubling parts of being human.