The Real Story Of Gargamel From The Smurfs

During our childhood, we watched hundreds of cartoons that touched us and one of them undoubtedly had to be The Smurfs, the story of those little blue beings constantly chased by the grumpy Gargamel and his cat Azrael. He would always devise any plan in order to destroy them.

Even though, we used to think that Gargamel was an evil sorcerer in the cartoon,  you might be surprised to know that in reality this was different. There’s an obvious reason as to why he used to insist on ending with the Smurfs and this is because, beyond being good and friendly, our little blue beings are linked with the Devil and all his evilness.

The true story of Gargamel dates since the 12th or 13th century. He was a well-known priest who became part of the Dominican order and got in charge of carrying out the inquisition in ancient Europe.

Gargamel was born in a small town in Spain and came from a very poor family. He was abandoned at the age of four by his own mother, since she didn’t have the financial solvency to take care of him. She laid him on a basket at the entrance of a convent and when he was found by the religious men, he got adopted by.

Time passed by and when he grew up, he became a priest of the convent and swore to protect his sacred home from any entity or being that tried to do evil to them while helping those most in need.

Over the years, all the men who took care of Gargamel from his childhood started to pass away until he finally ended up alone in that huge and almost ruined place.

The sadness caused by being alone, made him being on the verge of becoming insane. However, he started to feel better when he met the one who would be his new companion for life, a small cat that was wandering around the place looking for food. Gargamel adopted and called him Azrael. He and his little feline ended up being inseparable until the end of their days.

He managed to get ahead and all his daily experiences were narrated in his book. At the end, this great and noble character was the inspiration for different comics, and of course, cartoons like The Smurfs.

The curious thing is that in this cartoon, Gargamel is still a priest but introduced as a grumpy old man who lives inside a church along his faithful cat Azrael to hunt the little bluish-creatures.

Azrael comes from the name Israel, which means ‘God’s chosen people’.  Although some others associate the name with ‘The Angel of Death’ and his mission is to help Gargamel destroy any evildoing and among those, the Smurfs who are the 7 deadly sins and it’s very clear which one represents each: Grouchy Smurf (Wrath), Greedy Smurf (Gluttony), Vanity Smurf (Pride), Hefty Smurf (Envy), Brainy Smurf (Greed), Lazy Smurf (Sloth) and Smurfette (Lust).

An interesting fact is that the family leader, Papa Smurf, is the only member in red attire, which is why he is considered as the Devil.

Despite the friendly image of the Smurfs, there’s a dark background behind, as they supposedly are malignous spirits from the forest that will bring evil to humanity and so Gargamel’s duty is to protect the world from these demonic entities and thus throughout the chapters, he persists on catching them.

On full moon days, the Smurfs used to performed rituals and spells to create a new being like themselves and only through that moon phase they could be able to steal children’s souls.

So next time you watch one of the chapters, remember to not hate Gargamel, as he only tries to defend the world from the evilness.

Did you know Gargamel wasn’t that bad of a person?

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